listening to some of the 90s material, particularly some of the NPGMC stuff, it seems that P. mistakenly thought that a few sprinkled expletives, and well placed (but poorly executed) raps would keep him relevant during the booming era of "gangsta rap" Guess that's why he also employed Tony M, tried to launch TC Ellis and even had the male backup dancers. Good era minus these major missteps. After all that, he finally has a decent rap collab with Q-Tip. (Live 4 Love wasn't that bad either)

datdude said:

Prince didn't care about gangsta rap and being relevant with THAT. Gangsta rap was about guns and killing people and raping women and violence. Prince never covered those topics in a negative way, or at all. The 90's became a time when Prince started to follow trends rather than create them. Remember, Prince never paid much attention to rap, and dismissed it as not-real-music through the 80's. It was when Tony Mosley came around that he started to change his tune. It wasn't because Tony was some great rap minister.

dude is a reble

nyse said:

What's a reble?

datdude said:

Where is "gangsta rap" today?

ernestsewell said:

Prince

Ummm.. Prince was cursing long before the 90's.

nyse said:

BigDaddyHQ said:

he wasn't attempting to rap though.

BigDaddyHQ said:

For Real! Cursing was like Disney material compared to what he was doing prior to the 90's.

InsatiableCream said:

Yeah he was.

He was rapping in Irresistible Bitch. That came in what, '82 or '83???

Then there was It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night in '87.

Then Alphabet Street, Dead On it.

Prince was experimenting with Rap music way before the '90's.

It's just the songs with rap in the '90's became hit songs.

Paris9748430 said:

That's not totally correct. "Alphabet St." was certainly a hit. "Bitch" was more of a talking thing he did later on a lot. A lot of artists did a similar thing, but it wasn't really "rap" as we know it, even rap of the 80's. I think songs like "Now" and "Dead On It" was more of Prince trying to actually rap, opposed to "lyrically speak", as he once said.

And Sheila reciting that poem on "IGBABN" was....well that was all Sheila. Pretty funny though.

apparantly Prince thought he invented rap.

swanny said:

Prince thinks he invented Music and is out to destroy Time.

Theres some pretty good cursing tracks on Crystal ball, Days of Wind I think actually works, Hide the bone, 18 and Over, Love sign, P Control are all brilliant
[Edited 4/18/09 2:41am]

nothing wrong with cursing

people should say EXACTLY what they want

Maybe

But Prince was using the word motherfucker during the 1992-1995 period with gay abandon and just to prop up shonky lyrics.
example "Boys and motherfuckin girls", "You need a motherfucker that respects your name, and I'm that nigger, at least I wanna b"
To me thats Prince batting 40 points below his I.Q. level. Prince trying to sound Warren G?

i wasn't implying Prince was trying to be relevant WITH gangsta rap (and i'm aware of what gangsta rap IS), i believe he was trying to be "relevant", hip, have street cred amongst it's FANS, (supporters, record buyers). I know P has cursed long before there was such as thing as gangsta rap, but it was a few sprinkled words here and there, (Irrestbl Btch was the only one i can recall with profanity in the hook). Some of the 90s stuff with NPG had cursing that was more prevalent than his previous output. Whether P, "outlived" gangsta rap wasn't the point either, I knew he would (its still around too btw, see 50 Cent, etc.) but i think it's "explosion" in the 90s, may have caused him to feel like he had to have a harder edge. Alan Leeds, said as much too during an interview posted on here

BigDaddyHQ said:

Thank you very much!!! Uh Dirty Mind had plenty cussing for you.

Prince did change his sound to match with what was happening at the time... it really changed with Graffitti Bridge... the rapping... the new-jack-swing sounds...

coolcat said:

Just like he switched his sound from the light funk/disco sound of For You and Prince ('78&'79) to the New Wave Punk/Funk sound in 1980.

BigDaddyHQ said:

He helped to set the cussing trends.

skywalker said:

Exactly. As an artist, there's nothing wrong with using the 'sound of the day'. People forget that the 'sound of the day' (be it 90s rap, early 80s new-wave, 90s grunge, or whatever) was actually popular at the time - which meant people actually liked it regardless of how 'dated' it might seem now. There's no rule to say that artists aren't allowed to enjoy and explore pop culture as much as anyone else. I'm sure Prince enjoyed some elements of 90s rap just as much as almost everyone did back then. He probably got a kick out of it and wanted to put his own spin on it (ie. "Gangsta Glam"). Whether or not it was success is a whole other debate... But I don't think he felt he had to incorporate it to remain 'relevant'.

Even today Prince still enjoys experimenting and 'using' the sounds of the day - the 'Missy Elliot-esque' breakdowns in "Life O The Party" and "Incense And Candles", the autotune in "Chocolate Box", the '80s revival' sound of MPLSound... to name just a few examples.
[Edited 4/18/09 20:36pm]

'Fuck it' Sexy MF was a rap song with some fantastic musical qualities and look how memorable that is in amongst us fams

Llanishenlad said:

this is a great example. Sexy MF was the most brazen indiv. song i think he'd ever done up to that point, might still be. Done in the 90s with a wack rap that gets in the way.

datdude said:

that's one of the few songs I loved from the cringeworthy 90's.

^I agree that the rap in "Sexy MF" does sound kind of stupid today, but don't forget the song was a hit - other than the US, it charted in the top 10 in just about every other English-speaking country, and the album itself was a no.1 in the UK and a no.5 in the US. Now I'm not one to measure succes on chart success, but it does show that that 'sound' was popular at the time.

Huggiebear said:

I mean I quite like P.Control, and the 93-95 era, but this kind of stuff was blatant, and below his ability like you say.

wonder505 said:

Really I find that era so cringeworthy, Prince was trying to sound like one of those misogynistic cretins. At least now his music has maturity. I thought Sexy MF was an unremarkable song, that only got attention for that word. The lyrics are as doggerel laden as they come

"Its not ur body, its your mind you fool"
Come here baby, u sexy mfxxxa

I bet you throw that ass into the air it will turn into sunshine"
Thats not lyrics its crap

Huggiebear said:

tony m was worse. His rapping was HORRIBLE.