this song is criminally underrated, IMO. the beats are fantastic and the lyrics are very clever (the chorus is genius). Mayte's backup vocals are great. i don't even mind the scratching and the samples from Def Comedy Jam.

if you hate it, why? do you have an aversion to anything approaching hip-hop?

'Whos the funky drummer with the crooked little sticks
He might have better luck if he was drummin with his dick\
If u dont play the piccolo, why u wanna lick?
now check the drum solo and tell me not to kick it'

I know the president is MJ but - Who's the Drummer suposed to be?

BTW - that song took a very long time but it's grown on me, lots of little hidden messages!

I like it.

A loop is a loop is a loop, uh!
[Edited 6/19/09 5:59am]

I loved it and listened to it incessantly back in 94-5. I have listened to it probably 3 times in the last 10 years.

whistle said:

That's a rather large leap! I don't think not liking a song means you hate every song in that genre.

chocolatehandles said:

How do you know the president is MJ?

Anywho - it freaks me out when i realize that a song like "Pope" is almost 20 years old.
[Edited 6/19/09 6:11am]

Always loved this one. I listen to it and make the analogy of Prince not wanting to be bound to record companies and the industry again. he'd rather be the spiritual (if you take Pope literally) or dangerous maverick (if you take it as a reference to Bernie Mac) rather than the sterile President of a record company (in this case Warner Bros Records).

It's that whole Days of Wild "putting on something that another wouldn't dare" thing again. "Your car got mags that be dippy dippy dope but the whole damn nation got the same" Prince would rather be put "in the grave" than conform to the norm.

As we know from the time it was recorded, (it was one of the original one word title O+> songs from 1993) Prince was p'd off, disillusioned, "retired" but on fire. He had that FU attitiude again.
[Edited 6/19/09 7:04am]

lol unfortunatley he seems to have that attitude at the moment too

PS i love this track

I never liked this song.

I might have listed to it once or twice ever.

Just not for me.

chocolatehandles said:

And where did THAT crazy idea come from?

It's a favorite for me.

I don't like this song. The only thing about the song that's cool is the chorus but that's it. It always struck me as kinda corny and I tend to dig when Prince raps but this was not one of those songs. I always press skip when it hits my iPod.
[Edited 6/19/09 7:59am]

I dislike it. Pope is an awful song... it's the only bad track on the Hits / B-sides imo:

It's a bad sequence in between Cream and Purple Rain on the cd,

Prince doing hiphop, makes me cringe, it just sounds dull.

love it....

I'm down with prince the rapper

1 of my least fave Prince songz.

sexxydancer said:

+1

Absolutely love it. Nice inclusion on a greatest hits package, definate FU statement towards WB.

There is a slightly longer version with the keyboard line of DMSR mixed in on the Dawn; is this official or fan-made?

One of my favs

i like it

ONLY CUZ I DON'T FAVOR PRINCE RAPPING

LOVE it!

of course I dig it.

I like that song and for the Pope I will be in Rome next Friday

I dig it!

I like it, what's he talking about?

Yup, Im liking this one. Its not a top 10 favourite, but its a cool song.

Great, great song! This song, to me, has everything thrown in but the kitchen sink - samples, scratching (which I don't usually care for), great vocals, cool lyrics, etc. Never sounded cheesy to me - sounded ahead of its time when it came out.

It's a fun song, I like it, picturing Prince as the Pope is really Funny

LOVELOVELOOOOOVE THIS JAM!

I think it's stupid.