Do you think he would be more popular today? Or do you think he would just be the same?

Oh man, I hate to say it, but I found a lot of Prince's hip hop/rap stuff from the 90's to be a little cheesy. I guess it was hard to take him seriously when he was dressed in those high, waist cinching pants, short tops, and the heels! Not to mention WAY too much makeup! Maybe if he would have worn his NPG jersey with the some baggy pants, and some Doc Martin boots, he would have looked more badass. Then it wouldn't have been so strange! Who knows, maybe he'll give it another go...

UCantHavaDaMango said:

I'll definitely co-sign to that! I mean for example. don't you think the reason why Diamonds & Pearls seemed to be a commercial comback and a slight return to his urban audience was because of the some over-the-top and weak hip-hop material that was on that album? That was a crazy time and I wasn't feeling it that much, so he should stick with his normal formula...
[Edited 8/6/06 19:55pm]

His status would turn to shit quicker than you can say Anx....

I don't like hip-hop at all,so I'll say no, he wouldn't have been better off. Of course, I'd buy any type of music that he does,tho!

He would be less popular. Hip-Hop isn't his specialty.

He still does shit hop. Look at the embarassment of a song..."Incense and Candles". To answer your question, most people that like shit hop do not like artists with an individual sound or an individual look. They just like more of the same generic and "cheap" package (both musical and visual imagewise). Prince would definately not fit in with those dead asses because, if nothing else, he doesn't look ignorant enough to please that audience. Not only would he bomb out in their world, he would lose more of his fans...at least the cool ones anyway.

It's bad enough he makes a shit hop song every now and then. Don't encourage him to do it exclusively.

Hip Hop and Rap are not the same. What Prince does (usually badly) is rap. Prince is just attracted to that style of music because it is one of the few things he cannot master. Plus, he loves the girls and the girls are sometimes attracted to the bad boys-so he attempts to fufill that. Prince is best being himself, which it didn't feel like he was doing with the rap thing.

Every genre has its garbage, Hip Hop just gets more attention because it is hot now. It does not translate well on record. If you think it is s--t hop, go see Jean Grae do her thing.

ive said it many times before here and at HQ but...imo, prince was on the brink of mastering rap then he gave up. on days of wild and to a (much) lesser extent, pussy control, he was forging his very own, very unique, very prince-ly style which was even technically impressive while maintaining his nursery-school-ass flow. i mean, no rapper has ever came off like prince on days of wild; on that record, he's just prince...he could be noone else. contrast that with the stuff on the first two prince & npg records where just sounded like a very bad imitator of people like big daddy kane etc.

unfortunately, going by incense & candles, he seems to have forgotten everything he learned in the first half of the 90s. shame.

pfunkpilot said:

The Big City boy remix was the bomb.....Prince rapping at his BEST.

itgurl16 said:

Rap is beneath him!
That's like asking DaVinvi to draw stick figures...