i think the truth is too much for you to handle, as it obviously must be on Lotus, but, i'll first wait to hear what others have to say

best get used 2 the deepness, coz he's only gonna get deeper from this point on

oops, i said i'd wait 4 others

It's the last project which really let you know where his mind was ... It took me a while to get into TRC as you mentioned the Darth Vader voice was used to mask the messages he wanted to say ( theory only not factual)

There are some really good songs on there ... I have to say the only song aAI think makes some uncomfortable is Avalanche ! it was really evident during the celebrations, I felt so bad for the Caucasian people who stared blankly at the stage --->

Yes ... the past is filled with unforgettable things however to try and crack a case or audit what Abraham Lincoln did ages ago,defeats the purpose of bringing the human race together through music.

Muse to the Pharaoh ...if one wanted to dissect/analyze the lyric would ask is he being dismissive of the Holocaust? (I try to listen with an open mind )


Holocaust aside, many lived and died
But when all truth is told/Would u rather b dead or b sold?
Sold 2 the one who can now mate the displaced bloodline with the white
jailbait.

It's the last project which really let you know where his mind was ... It took me a while to get into TRC as you mentioned the Darth Vader voice was used to mask the messages he wanted to say ( theory only not factual)

There are some really good songs on there ... I have to say the only song aAI think makes some uncomfortable is Avalanche ! it was really evident during the celebrations, I felt so bad for the Caucasian people who stared blankly at the stage --->

Yes ... the past is filled with unforgettable things however to try and crack a case or audit what Abraham Lincoln did ages ago,defeats the purpose of bringing the human race together through music.

Muse to the Pharaoh ...if one wanted to dissect/analyze the lyric would ask is he being dismissive of the Holocaust? (I try to listen with an open mind )


Holocaust aside, many lived and died
But when all truth is told/Would u rather b dead or b sold?
Sold 2 the one who can now mate the displaced bloodline with the white
jailbait.

It's the last project which really let you know where his mind was ... It took me a while to get into TRC as you mentioned the Darth Vader voice was used to mask the messages he wanted to say ( theory only not factual)

There are some really good songs on there ... I have to say the only song aAI think makes some uncomfortable is Avalanche ! it was really evident during the celebrations, I felt so bad for the Caucasian people who stared blankly at the stage --->

Yes ... the past is filled with unforgettable things however to try and crack a case or audit what Abraham Lincoln did ages ago,defeats the purpose of bringing the human race together through music.

Muse to the Pharaoh ...if one wanted to dissect/analyze the lyric would ask is he being dismissive of the Holocaust? (I try to listen with an open mind )


Holocaust aside, many lived and died
But when all truth is told/Would u rather b dead or b sold?
Sold 2 the one who can now mate the displaced bloodline with the white
jailbait.

utopia7 said:

In relationship to the lyrics you pointed out above, the relationship between Jews and African-Americans is a sensitive one, and Prince has spoken to it via his lyrics. Some of the main slave-holders during the colonial period of the early Americas were Jews, but this discussion is kept out of the public domain. So, to me, Prince is reminding us of what happened, as we are always reminded of the henious (sp?) acts against victims of the holocaust.

Does Prince address any of his bi-curious side in this album. It seems like he threw everything bu the kitchen sink into it.

Imago said:

I suppose in years gone by, 1+1+1=3 would be that song if, you know, it wasn't about a threesome with God.

MyLawd said:

I agree completely ... I still can understand why TRC might come of as separatism (religious wise) and without getting too...too deep every race
Africans as well were/are slave owners ...no we shouldn't forget the very underlying damage 400 years set generations back, but right now we can take steps to go forward not hold on to a victim mentality which could be more harmful.There are immigrants who have managed to thrive in spite of hardship.

One thing is for certain race will never go away

To compare immigrants who came to America of their own will to Africans who came as slaves is a flawed and perpetually dangerous analogy. Immigrants were never sub-human, which means that they never suffered certain legal and psychological damages that are still perpetuated in the African American community, such as self hate as manifest in good and bad hair debates as well as the continued schism between light and dark members of the race. However, it is true that African tribes did work with white slavers to capture other African tribes, but we don't have time to discuss how Africa is the largest continent with more diversity in cultures and languages than any other continent so we should not view African people as a monolith and we don't have time to discuss how the second wave of European conquest set into motion African tribal warfare. (I find it interesting that it is "tribal warfare" when Fox News is discussing turmoil in Africa, but it is never "tribal warfare" when Fox News is discussing war between whites in Europe. This use of language is more psychological warfare.) Also, I always find it interesting that when African people discuss history or seek to get at the truth of history it is called embracing a victim's mentality or trying to divide people. There is no way that humanity can build a better future if we ignore history. As for Lincoln, which has been debated hundreds of times on this site and Housequake, he did not free the slaves because he wanted Africans to be first-class citizens; he freed the slaves as a military strategy because the South was winning the war due to the free "slave" labor. Remember, Lincoln did not free slaves in states that did not secede so in truth Lincoln did not end or abolish slavery. It was the Thirteenth Amendment that abolished slavery, but the Thirteenth Amendment only ended slavery; it did not make African Americans citizens--and so on and so forth with the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Thus, the point of "Avalanche" seems to be that one must look critically at history to know from where one has come, what battles one has fought, and to learn what solutions worked and did not work so that one can craft a better strategy for the future rather than allow someone to control you with lies.

Of course the constant refrain of needing an accurate understanding of knowledge throughout TRC has a double meaning for both Jehovah's Witnesses as well as Black Nationalists. For Jehovah's Witnesses, the goal is to witness the truth of God's message to the world so to prepare the world for God's Kingdom, which will destroy all of man's flawed kingdoms. This is their primary and exclusive mission, which is why they don't vote. For Black Nationalists, the goal is to retrain African people from what they see as a people taught to hate themselves, which makes them better slaves or servants. As Carter G. Woodson, who was not a Black Nationalist, asserts in his book, The Miseducation of the Negro, "black people are taught to hate themselves by the eleventh grade" because by then they are taught the accomplishments of all other races but themselves. Now, to some it may seem contradictory for Prince to weave JW and BN beliefs, but liberation theology (using religion to address socio-political issues), which is not exclusive to African people (David does this in "Psalm 23" and it is found throughout the Old Testament) has been a major part of the Civil Rights Movement, dating to the Abolitionist Movement with Frederick Douglass. And since Prince was mixing sex and religion as early as Dirty Mind, I always find it strange that more fans didn't see his embracing of some traditional religion coming for years. We tend to forget that the song, "The Second Coming," was played just before the band began "Uptown" during the Dirty Mind tour.

As for sexism, TRC is only sexist if one thinks that the Christian Bible is sexist, and many do. So, as with everything else, how one sees that point is based on one's background and personal beliefs.

As for the racism, I can see where whites could think that some of the statements are racist. I don't believe in telling anyone what they should feel. However, I often wonder if these same people who are offend by Prince's language understand the perpetuation of a race's inferiority by a language that views everything "black" as bad: blackmail, blackball, even black day of which Prince, himself, is guilty of using in "The Cross." So one could read into Prince's statements of the pale or banished ones as an act of what Mercer Cook called "Linguistic Liberation" where African people attempt to reverse language/words that perpetuate their inferiority. Keep in mind that many white supremacists used the mark of Cain theory to mistreat African people. However, it seems that Prince is probably using more BN rhetoric, or extreme BN rhetoric, that views whiteness as the absence of color as well as the absence of nutrients. Thus, bleach turns everything white because it is killing everything, brown sugar has more nutrients than white sugar, and wheat bread is healthier than white bread because white bread is overly processed bread. Thus, as an artistic act of linguistic liberation, some BN view whiteness as a metaphor for the negativity suffered by civilizations of color when coming into contact with whites. Of course the question is how much of this would Prince know from his own reading or exposure. While one can argue that the language on TRC is incendiary, one can also argue that people of color have not historically fared well after contact with their Caucasian brothers and sisters. And to connect all of this back to religion, Genesis 2:10 provides a geographic location for the Garden of Eden,which would be to the slight west of Egypt or the Nile River. Taking current scientific evidence into consideration, one could conclude that Adam and Eve, based solely on location, had to be people of color. Thus, Prince seems to be alluding to the BN notion that people of color where the first people on the planet and were tricked, allowed themselves to be trick, from their relationship with God. I'm writing all of this not to say that I believe in all of this, but to show that there are historical facts and religious beliefs on which Prince is basing TRC. Now whether someone accepts, likes, or dislikes the message is another discussion all together, but it seems quite unfair to discount or devalue the effort that Prince put into creating the narrative simply because one does not agree with the narrative. It is a great concept record of man's fall from grace and the need to reconnect with or regain grace by learning the Truth, which in this case is the truth according to JWs, BNs, and Prince's own weaving of the two. I'm not saying that anyone should take TRC as their mantra, but it is one hell of a concept record both lyrically and musically. I enjoy the aesthetics of it the same way that I enjoy the aesthetics of Beowulf, the Iliad, or the Odyssey, which, to me, are merely grand myths that are well written. For my personal tastes, TRC is one of my favorites, but I must admit that I am one of those people who like Prince's post-2000 work and am still jamming Lotus/MPLS.

Ultimately, TRC remains in the vein of Prince's solution for the world's problems that mankind must seek a higher solution of love and understanding, which begins as early as "Bambi" on Prince, as the speaker chooses to give the female the benefit of the doubt that she may be happy with her choice of lover rather than degrading her. "Maybe I'm really naive. Who's to say; maybe you're really having fun." And as he reaches his climax of the physical/sexual solution in Purple Rain, sexual salvation surrenders to a more metaphysical solution. By the time he gets to "Darlin' Nikki," Prince's songs seem to assert that where in the past sex could lead to liberation--"Head," "Sexuality," "Do Me, Baby," "1999," and "International Lover,"--if not salvation, now sex is seen as empty and unable to relieve or save his protagonists. Thus, "Darlin' Nikki" ends with the notion that sex ain't saving me so let me seek something higher..."Hello, how are you? I'm fine because I know that the Lord is coming soon." This is echoed by "Computer Blue" which declares that "love and lust both have four letters but entirely different meanings." All of this is elevated or expanded in ATWIAD, and spirituality replaces sex as the catch-all answer that Prince provides for humanity's problems, with "Temptation" being the the exclamation point as he says, "Now, I understand; love is more important than lust." So, if we didn't see the JW or some type of religious conversation coming, then that means that we completely missed the metaphor that culminates in Lovesexy, which is the second attempt or manifestation of TRC, with the New Breed being the first and the New Power Generation being the third. Of course, the major difference between the use of religion in TRC and Dirty Mind and Controversy is that by the time Prince's arrives at TRC, his definitions of right and wrong are more concretely and narrowly defined more on Christian doctrine rather than the more general notion of "let's just love each other and not hurt each other." In this, I can see how some who bought into or invested into this mulatto lookin' dude painting pictures of peace, love, and a multicultural Paisley Park world where sex and individuality are the only tools needed for happiness can feel ideologically betrayed. However, "Annie Christian" is rooted in Christian folklore and is a street that eventually leads to TRC. Prince is still selling a multicultural paradise; it is just that sex has been replaced with faith and the ten commandments.
[Edited 5/24/09 2:16am]

Does Prince address any of his bi-curious side in this album. It seems like he threw everything bu the kitchen sink into it.

Colonized mind

Wanna talk about it
Colonized Mind

Upload, the evolution principle
You see a rock on the shore and say
“It’s always been there”

Download, no responsibility
Do what you want, nobody cares

Upload, the master race idea
Genetically disposed to rule the world

Download, future full of isolated
Full of isolated, boys and girls

Upload, the 2 party system
The lesser of 2 dangers,
Illusion of choice

Download, their form of fascism
Nothing really ever changes
You never had a voice

Listen to me one time :

If you look, you’re sure gonna find
Throughout mankind’s history
A Colonized Mind


The one in power makes law
Under which the colonized fall
Without God, it’s just the blind leading the blind

Upload, a joint venture record deal
It’s just another way another man can still sleep
While he’s sticking you with the bill

Download, a temporary acquisition
of fleeting fame and fortune
Nothing to leave in your will
Hey hey hey hey



Upload, a child with no father
Download, no respect for authority
Upload, a child with no mother
Download, a hard time showing love

If you look, you’re sure gonna find
Throughout mankind’s history
A Colonized Mind
The one in power makes law
Under which the colonized fall
Without God : it’s just the blind leading the blind
[Edited 5/24/09 4:01am]

people read way to much into his lyrics. if you WANT them to be racist i guess
you're always going to find something to cling onto as such.

some of the stuff is harsh but beyond the overt machismo and 13th century view
on women i can't find that much wrong with the lyrics of the album.

beyond that it is still one of my favorit prince albums post lovesexy. all of
it is very well done and a million miles beyond the albums he released just
prior to it, including most of the npgmc era songs.

the rainbow children, one nite alone, the one nite alone tour, xpectation,
c-note and news.

those projects combined can stand proudly as an era next to 1986-1988 and the
1993-1995 eras.

IstenSzek said:

that is an interesting point. Sorry i won't add to it, but yes, i agree.

Musicology onwards seems a bit 'poppy' to me, whereas that era spoke to the hardcore, small scale tour, interesting, challenging music.

Maybe he didn't get much bank from that and that's why he's where he is now.