p 167 chapter 12 HIT: Summer 1990: nude tour

The next piece fell into place by accident. Unbeknownst to Prince,
Game Boyz dancer Tony Mosley occascionally practiced raps he had written
during sound checks. One afternoon, midway through the tour, Prince overheard
him and experienced an epiphany: Mosley had a tough, streetwise image, a
powerful baritone voice, and witty rhymes. Quickly, a delighted Mosley
was integrated into the live act not merely as one member of hte dance troupe, but as a rapper who sometimes took center stage.

And when the European swing concluded, Prince called him into Paisley Park Studios to add raps to several songs, including a remix of the song "New Power Generation" from Graffiti Bridge. Rapidly, this inexperienced your rapper emerged as a key member of the New Power Generation.

From the very beginning, though, Prince saw talents in Tony Mosley
that no one else could detect. "I thought he was a Dr. Dre wannabe," said
Rosie Gaines in a typical appraisel.


Throughout Mosley's tenure, reactions to his contributions - from fans, critics, and Prince's associates -would
be almost monolithically nagative, and with good reason: Mosley's delivery
was sloppy and dull, his image contrived and generic. His sudden prominence in
Prince's music had little to do with Mosley himself - it was instead a historical accident explained only by Prince's haste to exploit the commercial appeal of rap. Because Prince had never understood rap, and in fact disliked
rappers, like Chuck D and Ice-T, to whom Mosley's stylings bore a superficial
resemblance.

But Mosley had the boss' ear, and he knew it. Several band members
recall hat Mosley exclaimed one day to his colleagues regarding Prince
(who was not present):
"I'm gonna shove black down that nigga's throat if it kills me."
This declaration was a rallying cry to bring Prince back to his roots
in African-American music.

-Possessed:


[Edited 6/16/09 6:50am]
[Edited 6/18/09 9:38am]

Well this is sure to endear Tony to all the neutrals out there.

Seriously though, although this is an interesting insight (I'm guessing it's from the Alex Hahn book Possessed:The Rise and Fall?) it will only serve to bring out all the Tony M (negative) critics, it's getting as tired as the whole Larry Graham influence thing.

Personally I never had anything against Tony on record (sometimes his quiet spoken baritone interludes are pleasing to the ear - Willing and Able for example?) but I never liked his delivery on stage, that throaty shouting sounded so harsh, and he seemed to rap at 10 x the speed of the studio version too, I guess the live versions were performed a bit faster?)

Poor Tony

KeithyT said:

actually the whole situation for me is not as much about Tony directly but to me the disrespectful thoughts toward Prince.

why does Prince have to be as black as Tony or anyone else needs...

Unlike the band members from previous times,

I think Tony M and many during and after did not come with Purple
Passion

When you make a statement like "I"m going to shove black down his
throat..."

tells me you don't appreciate the legacy that he is and the
history... No way you can be a true fan and think he isn't 'black'
enough, Prince's music has always been MultiGenre, Prince's music has
always been FUNK. Funky Rock, Funky Disco, Funky RnB, Funky
Phycedelica, Jazz Funk

Every band member from the early days to the Lovesexy band had
Princes vision and passion, they came having learned their craft from
listening to his music, they knew how to play Prince music, the beats
and the breaks, the sax playing sounded like a Prince, the guitar
playing, even Cat created her dance moves to Prince music

KeithyT said:

yeah on the diamonds and pearls tour it's liked he screamed out the lyrics but on the act 1 tour, he seemed 2 get a better handle of the vocals...

can't say anything bad about tony m otherwise typo queen will b upset ..SHE LOVES HER SOME TONY M

L4OATheOriginal said:

Oh Snap!

Uhhh...wasn't that T.C. Ellis on New Power Generation Part II?

Hatman said:

yes but the maxi single contains "brother with a purpose" which features tony m


TYPO QUEEN TOLD ME ..SHE ABOUT TONY M!

OldFriends4Sale said:

hmmm im pretty sure Prince didn't make it to Australia for the Nude Tour
D&P tour was the first that came to Australia

crokey20 said:

Correct

L4OATheOriginal said:

Oh snap, you got me! True!

His rapping was terrible and artificial, was he related to Timbaland, as his name is Mosley. Mosley is not really a black sounding name. M'bongoshongolehele Bomashikaniqiuaniqua is

Huggiebear said:

Mosley as a last name is not uncommon (it's a last) What African Americans have African names? They have European names. (Brown is an English/British surname) go to England and a lot of (white)English people with the last name Brown a lot of white & black americans have the last name Brown

I worked with a woman at city hall who was very proud of her last name:Mosley, she is African-American and come from a very large upper middle class Mosley clan

Shane Mosley is a black american boxer
Walter Mosley got his surname from his black father(he has a white mother) he is an author and one of his books was turned into a movie:Devil in a Blue Dress starring Jennifer Beals & Denzel Washington

KeithyT said:

Exactly how I feel. Prince incorporating rap as an element was very creative in the early 90's. A song didn't have to *be* a rap song, but it could have a rap in it. It increased the "family" feeling of the NPG. Tony was like the overagressive young guy who would kind of defend Prince and talk too loud while Prince hung back. And Tony's raps were fine as far as the studio was concerned. Prince was able to choose good performances and tone them down and make them fit, although if Tony had been a better performer, Prince's task might have been easier.

Live, he was not good.

...i like tony..
...mzsexybaby

Anotherwontdare said:

Prince incorporated rap back in the early-mid 80's
from Vanity 6 If a Girl Answers, Love or Money, Girls & Boys, It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night, Cindy C, Positivity, Alphabet St.

But he did it in a way that it didn't change his style or seem like he was trying to keep up with something(which is what he did in the 90's)

...he WILL ALWAYS keep us waiting!!!..
..mzsexybaby

OldFriends4Sale said:

Americans with African names

Louis Farrakhan
Malik el Haji Shebazz
Meschell Ndgocello (Or something like that)
Mbushe Wright
Najee
Louis Fard

Irresistible Bitch was Prince rapping in 1982.
[Edited 6/28/09 21:44pm]

Huggiebear said:

I know some people do, but 99.9% of Africans that came over thru the slave trade ended up with mostly Northern European surnames. Those African names would not have been allowed to remain.

Most of those people you mentioned have (Muslim/Arabic names which is Middle Eastern derived, not African and definately not W.Africa/Central which is where the majority of Africans came from)

as well as they are not their birth names.

changed name birth name ethnic origin of that name

Louis Farrakhan aka Louis Eugene Walcott Normandy/English his family is of Jamaican/West Indian origins
Malik el-Hajj Shebazz/Malcolm X aka Malcolm Little(Scottish/English)
Meshell Ndegeocello(Swahili) aka Michelle Lynn Johnson Anglo-Saxon:English Scottish/Irish, she was born in Germany
Nbushe Wright(English surname)
Najee aka Jerome Najee Rasheed(Arabic)
Louis Fard(Enlish surname...why did you mention this name is not African) are you talking about the (white or white looking mulatto?)founder of the Nation of Islam? W D Fard below

[Edited 6/29/09 9:35am]
[Edited 6/29/09 9:36am]

Huh?...wha?..I thought this thread was about Tony M and his horrible delivery...

SavonOsco said:

lol oh stop you can follow what happened, you know how this happens

Someone said his last name didn't sound like a last name a black american would have or something like that
[Edited 6/29/09 17:11pm]

Whats Tony M doing now?