A: Prince didn't promote it for shit.
B: Did you see the artwork for it? A two year old in a "Graphics for Toddlers" class could do a better cover. Prince's big problem over the past 10 years has been the sleeve design. It looks cheaper than cheap as if he either did it himself or he let a friend do it that has no design experience. If you put the Black Sweat sleeve up against something like "Raspberry Beret" or "Kiss" or "Take Me With You" there's no comparison. It doesn't even seem like it's the same artist. You can't sell a recored that looks that awful. First impressions are everything. It would have been better if he had no artwork than to have that cheap swirl and a cut out shadow of himself. Bad, bad, bad.

muleFunk said:

Trust me. Prince is passe. He lives off nostalgia. There's a very minute percentage of fans that actually buy his new stuff. They go to see his old material. People don't listen to his new records. In the 80's and you could say a good part of the 90's all my friends had every record that he put out. They usually bought it when it was released. Now days I can't name one friend who knows a new Prince song. He's put himself into a corner that he can't get out of. To me he's very closed off from the music world and doesn't allow for change. Prince is so busy controlling his rights to everything that he forgets the real reason he's here in the first place.

It probly would have kicked ass, if he released it in the 80s. its didn't sound contemporary and Prince just can't have another top 10 hit. He's too old. teenagers these days are VERY agist.

I remember all my non Prince fan friends liking this single, it could have done really well if it had pro marketing (packaging, artwork that made it seem intriguing and cool) and also if the music video hadn't been so formal and stiff... more wild and cool (look at how a similar (simple B&W shots) but much wilder video like the Beyonce's Put a Ring on It got so much attention. Did you know that younger people these days think of Prince as a oldies standards kind of artist that never cussed or danced wildly or inspired any kind of rebellious controversy?

But I do remember that Black Sweat had a good initial hype, friends of mine were mentioning it to me. It needed a wild active video. A dance off video where Prince was performing on a stage and a dance off was happening on the audience floor with youngsters pulling all kinds of moves on the chorus would have been good. And putting in lot's of hot people doesn't hurt either.

The other route would have been to put it out in a narrative video kind set in more real world places. But still with raw crazy dancing.

I think the song was excellent for a pop single. He should have hit all the talkshows performing it.

kenlacam said:

Co-sign!

RumAndRaisin said:

This.

I actually think it's a pretty dull example of Prince trying to imitate himself whilst trying to stay hip with teenyboppers (see also: MPLSound). But it get some exposure, and a slick video. With some real promotion, it could've been a decent hit.

Prince doesn't have the staying power with one song/project to hammer it home for these big hits. He'll do TV promo, but perform an album track or something completely different to the current single. I like it that way, but it doesn't convert into single sales/rotation.

I too thought it was a great song with great promise. It caught initial buzz beyond the Prince fan community--necessary for any longlasting play. But that initial momentum was not sustained. It seemed to suffer under what turned out to be the botched up promotion of 3121.

Black Sweat should have been the lead single for 3121, not Te Amo Corazon. To their credit, Universal gave Te Amo a high profile release and video premiere--for a song that just simply is not the kind of song that grabs ANY listener and says HEY STOP GO GET THIS ALBUM. Te Amo had no WTF quality, nothing that would make you want to replay it over and over again to figure it out. The best singles (incl the best Prince songs) have that quality--some element that makes you say "WHAAAA?"

Black Sweat was formulaic minimalist Prince--enough to make your system boom, but not overwhelming (it was pretty short time wise too) so that by the time the song reached its end, it begged for replay. It should have been the lead single.

And it should have been remixed. Either by Prince with an extended mix or someone else.

But like the rest of the 3121 project, it went down the tubes real fast.

1. weak, boring song
2. he is not the flavor of the day- all the young kids in my family liked
the song (which is typical for the usual shit they listen too), but teens
seem to listen to who ever is hot, and the market is flooded w/ whoever
the record industry wants to promote as hot. I think we are truly lucky
that P even gets his videos played at all today! The best bands/artists
have no videos at all, and those that do, aren't in constant replay/rotation
like they warrant when you compare them to what is played repeatedly.
Example- Alicia Keys, she is someone I think is quality but her videos
are played far less than the female singers of the day (beyonce, ciara,
etc.).

imo It was a shame,
Black Sweat had all the components to be a great Prince song....but alas the hook was so horrible, it ruined the sum of all the other parts.

It's a good song and it deserved to at least reach the upper half of the charts but some have compared it to Kiss and it's nowhere near Kiss.
[Edited 7/26/09 17:52pm]

muleFunk said:

Its such a shame .. i am only 17 and a huge prince fan but i supose i was lucky enough to be brought up on good music. Ive played black sweat to a few to my friends who all said it was a good song...maybe just to shut me up lol

I think its a good post-millenium Prince song, personally.

But ill-promoted by him (what isn't?) and obviously not as strong as his 80's hits.

But I do like the video.

Interesting how so many of you in here say that the song tanked because it wasn't any good but what about the shit on the radio today? A song like "Blame It" or "Boom Boom Pow" is any better? Y'all can kick rocks with that shit. The song didn't do well cause Universal and Prince didn't do enough to promote the damn song. I kinda blame Universal more for that cause they pushed the song to the wrong markets and not to the Top 40 airplay stations where it needed to be. The song should have been huge, no question about it.

loads of people i no (mostly non prince fans) loved this song. I really liked the video (the cup of tea bit in it was funny).

as many people have said with better promotion and radio play it would have done well. especially in the uk. also if it had good remix's it would have done even better.

In the US, it debuted at number one on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles Sales chart, which tabulates both physical and digital sales. (from wikepedia, but i don't understand US charts)/.

I also think love could have done well. Equally a couple of songs of mplsound could have charted as well - with actual promotion
[Edited 7/27/09 8:47am]

jethrouk said:

Love would have been HUGE. It was a summer hit waiting to happen but didn't. He could've released "Lolita" after he was on American Idol and that would have been big too. A lot of people may disagree with me but I think "Incense and Candles" would have been big too, especially on Urban radio stations. He would have been on a Hot 97 or Power 105 or Power 106 with that one. Even "The Dance" & "The Word" would have done well too. I also think that MPLSound has songs that would be big right now. Too many "coulda, woulda, shoulda's" with Prince.

Because you couldn't really dance to it and because it wasn't in heavy rotation on the radio. We are in the club era. If you can't jam to something on the dance floor or in your car, then the song won't do very well. The vid was hot tho. In the end he and girly worked up a black sweat. I was pleased.

DesireeNevermind said:

There were A LOT of videos on youtube were people danced like crazy to Black Sweat. It was quite popular. Maybe you can't dance to it, but a lot of other people can.
[Edited 7/27/09 13:38pm]

RumAndRaisin said:

but it was a good song

ludwig said:

Exactly. I saw a few vids on youtube with people dancing to Black Sweat too.

Cause it sucks? I mean, the song is okay, but those synths destroy my ears. ITs all about marketing, yuo put a song EVERYWHERE, and it will be a hit. Prince did a video and it got very little radio play because he doesn't have a record company to push it. I don't care, I'm glad when music I like isn't a HIT, makes me think it has more integrity than a Britney Spears song.

People say "Prince didn't market the song".

He made a video for the song and it was played in the video rotations. The song was a "hit" as far as Prince 2000's was concerned because a video was made.

After the video is made the RECORD COMPANY will make the song a hit or let it die.

purplecam said:

most of those folks weren't dancing. maybe having an epileptic episode but not dancing.

the only folks who got down were these guys and the girl did all the work. LOL
wonder why it hasn't been yanked.

It's alittle annoying.

As it relates to this song, I've always said that Black Sweat was a hit - as a video. Is it the same as being a hit on radio? Nope, but it is still significant. The video definitely helped bring attention to 3121, which did go Gold, as I recall. I bet Black Sweat was probably his most-played video since TMBGITW. It served its purpose.

DesireeNevermind said:

Oh come on. Why can't you just aknowledge that other people are better dancers than you. There were a lot of videos with excellent dancers on youtube dancing their asses off to Black Sweat.

Playstation 3 owners have a programme called Vidzone that lets you watch virtually thousands of videos from thousands of artists.
The only 2 Prince videos available are Te Amo Corozan and Black Sweat

purplecam said:

"Love" was the SHIZ-NIK, 4 sure.

muirdo said:

yeah thats kinda like virgin music OD its black sweat & the most beautiful girl in the world

ludwig said:

oh that was so not funny yet so cute. get your youtube dance on babe. i will even comment in your favor. the majority (4 out of 5) still sucked ass tho.

muleFunk said:

It isn't the record company who has to get their ass all over TV and perform the track. The artist has to be playing ball too and Prince doesn't.