I don't hear a southern accent when he talks. And his father didn't really have a very pronounced southern accent. I never heard his mother talk. Only when he's fooling around and deliberately trying to talk that way do I hear any "country-ness."



*except when he says "bills" It does sound like "beels" but that might on purpose. cuz when he says "will" it sounds like "will" UNLESS he's goofing around then he goes "weel." - ("yes I weel")*

Wow, although hes had alot of fun knowing people are hanging on his every word its not nearly as contrived and methodical as yall think. I dont believe anyway. Listen to Jimmy Jam, Jerome, Pepe, Jellybean, Andre, Terry, Morris, Sheila, even Monte Moir speak. Same click, same flow. Please stop, and take off that tin foil hat you messing up my dsl

Considering where Minneapolis is in the United states its always seemed strange 2 me that P talks like he's from Alabama or some other place in the deep south




Is he putting on the accent 2 sound more cool...I remember his Dad being interviewed on radio and he didn't have a trace of that southern accent...so where'd he get it from...did P watch Gone with the Wind 1 2 many times or something?

I heard in a documentary that Michael Jackson puts on his infamous high voice ...what next...Madonna's real accent is bomberclart Jamaican?

Excellent topic that most people don't even think about.

On bootlegs during rehearsals, you can clearly hear the Minnosota accent on Prince. I remember listening to a bootleg in the car, and my friend heard this nerdy accented voice speak about something technical about the playing, and he cracked up. He was like "that's Prince?" laughing. From his persepctive Prince was always this super-reclusive, trying-to-be-uber-cool, mysterious guy... so hearing that voice was like a joke in a comedy movie to him, where when an iconic character speaks, it's a ridiculous voice.

You can barely hear his Minnasota voice at the beginning of Irristible bitch "turn down (or is it up?) the vocals" and his vocal styling on "Dead On It" is very much like his "natural" voice.

It seems to me that normally when Prince speaks and he knows he's being heard, he alters his tone and accent to sound more cool and hip, It used to be this kind of pseudo deep romantic euro tone, these days it's a very urban "with it" tone with tons of slang or euphamisms.

He's a performer. "Life ain't no fun without fantasy" - prince

I've been around indians

No Prince doesn't fake his accent. Many Black people who live in the northern part of the United States have southern accents that are past on from their parents and generations before them, Our roots from the south, that's where slavery originated when we were brought from Africa originally. Read your history books. Older Blacks mainly have maintained some of the south, So does Sheila E who is from Louisiana where Prince's parents are from.
[Edited 1/22/07 4:55am]

Well it can be true as far as I know, and actors go to great lengths with speech and language coaching to get rid of their original accents as do DJ's and others. Prince also knows street language but he's been a multimillionaire not living in the streets, where do you think that comes from?
[Edited 1/22/07 5:08am]

mozfonky said:

U mean Native Americans...right?

wlcm2thdwn said:

Nope, i dont buy that. Just cos your ancestors are from a certain part of the world doesnt mean Ur gonna talk with their accent otherwise Lucy Liu would speak with an Oriental accent and Michael Douglas would speak witha Jewish accent.. An accent is nurture not nature and so again...I ask, why the rassclart does P talk with a deep south accent?


Truth be known, Minneopolis is so close 2 Canada I expect him 2 sound more Celine Dionne than Selena Williams

different kinds of people(like hillbillies

sexyAuntyFuka said:

I mean indians, I'm indian, I don't call us by the phony pc Native American crap, but if other indians do that's their business.

mozfonky said:

Yeah but dont U feel its insulting that the only reason Ur called Indian is because Christopher 'Oh shit Im lost but don't tell the crew' Columbus thought he was on the coast of india when he 1st set foot on Hispaniola in 1492... U sound like y'all wouldn't care if u were called American Zulu's if he thought he'd reached South Africa..

hell, my folks are from Cuba and i prefer 2 be called Caribbean cos 'Carib' is an indigenous word from where I am from...no such thing as a West Indian or American Indian 4 that point...

If we started re-naming places after all the men who can't read a map and think their somewhere their not...well, we'd be right royally fucked.

Giovanni777 said:

So true. I do the same thing myself depending on who I'm speaking to and what I'm trying to express. P has a great ear for linguistics and a vivid imagination for characters. I've heard him do everything from hillbilly to wise guy and he cracks me up because he's really good at it. Like handclap said, having roots in Louisiana, southern speech probably comes easily to him.

If you wanna hear Minnesota, ask him to say "water" and there it is.

VenusBlingBling said:

Have you heard many boots? Go listen to the one where he's teaching the band Another Lonely Christmas and he's like "Didja warm your voice up before you came? 'Course ya did. Trust me I'm a musician! *nerdy laugh*" <<< NERD!

Or the Lovesexy rehersals where he's telling the band about Weird Al's "I'm Fat" video, "OMG and he was wearing this giant fatsuit LOLZ!" <<< NERD!
[Edited 1/21/07 10:14am]

to bad we can't just post an mp3 in a response, I could post some clips where he talks "for real".

ufoclub said:

Probably the easiest one for folks to lay ears on is the beginning of Calhoun Square, where he says, "Listen to the drummer...but you still wanna have fun. I shouldn't be work."

The hard "R" in "work" is pure Upper Midwest. (I live in Wisconsin -- heard that all my life, took lots of voice lessons to lose it. )

Genesia said:

He's still using his "rock n roll cool" voice there.... what I'm talking about does not sound so smooth... I think in Lovesexy rehearsals, you can really hear it.

I always thought that his current slick street vernacular was a bit fake--kind of like when Justin Timberlake talks--Justin, give it up! You're an Orlando kid!

God I would love to hear David Bowie talk street. It would be a life long dream.

sexyAuntyFuka said:

not surprising, as you gotta take into account that both of his parents were originally from louisiana. i can definitely hear that in his voice sometimes.

Genesia said:

He's still using his "rock n roll cool" voice there.... what I'm talking about does not sound so smooth... I think in Lovesexy rehearsals, you can really hear it.