I get irritated when I see someone try to copy Prince. If you've heard of a producer by the name Seven Arellius (google him) he tries TOO HARD to be like Prince. He produced P Diddy's artist Donnie's album and even called up Dr. Fink to help with the music. In his studio he has pink and purple lights, with a fog machine, and he has DOVES. Then the songs sound JUST LIKE Prince! I think Andre Cymone had some Prince qualities too. I was even irritated when D'Angelo came out with the song where he was naked in the video because it sounds JUST LIKE PRINCE! Am I the only one that gets irritated by this.

First of all, his name is SEVEN AURELIUS aka Channel 7. If you're gonna hate on the dude, at least spell his name right. Actually, Seven is one hell of a talented dude, a multi-instrumentalist and produced many many hits for artists like Ashanti and Ja Rule. I have 3 or 4 tracks from his unreleased solo album and they are killer.

He's clearly influenced by Prince, but who isn't? Hell, The Neptunes and Timbaland have spent large parts of their careers ripping off Prince's sounds.

As for Andre Cymone, you realise that he and Prince were childhood friends and that Prince lived with Andre as a teenager, right? They both grew up idolizing the same people, playing all the instruments and playing together, so to say Andre has Prince qualities doesn't make any sense. Prince has Andre qualities too, since they bounced ideas and styles and grooves off of each other all the damn time in the early days. It's even said that Andre came up with the groove for "Do Me Baby" and a few others.

As for D'Angelo, wasn't that song quite clearly a Prince tribute? He even said so, on multiple occasions.

Put it this way, if there was nobody out there that was influenced by Prince, we probably wouldn't be here discussing it right now on a website about Prince.

Prince is one of THE most defining figures of black music, of all time. And you're annoyed by the fact that he's so talented and influential? Seems like some misplaced annoyance to me. If you're gonna go that route, at least mention cats that really did rip off Prince, like Ready For The World.

illriddles said:

Militant's points are valid, and stand on their own. You wanted anyone to google this person, yet you can't even give a correct spelling in order for someone to find them. "Hey, google this guy name Mikul Jakshun, he's hot!" Um..what?! Get it?

And don't get all butthurt and trollish because someone doesn't agree with you. Your last statement/question was "Am I the only one...." Apparently the answer is YES, at this point.

Your argument in the "Pink and purple lights, fog machine, doves" doesn't hold water. You think Prince is the only person with mood lighting in a studio? You think every other artist is standing in some spartan, clinical studio recording vocals, without any ambiance or mood setting? Prince doesn't hold the trademark on studio ambiance, or a damn fog machine.

Let's not even start to run a list of people who sound like/are influenced by/resemble Prince. There are many. Prince ain't that original either. Go listen to James Brown and Santana stuff. You think all those cool fills by the band when Prince throws up a hand gesture are original? LOL Think again. Prince wouldn't be Prince without Sly, Santana, James, and George Clinton, nor would D'Angelo be D'Angelo without Prince, Michael Jackson, etc. "Rip off" vs "influence" is not that thin of a line.
[Edited 11/25/09 14:43pm]

[Keep it civil and on track folks]

luv4u said:

Hey, I tried to edit his nonsense in my reply.

ernestsewell said:

It should not have been reposted after I snipped it

ernestsewell said:

You're totally right. Why ask for an opinion you don't want?

And I love seeing Prince's influence on today's artists/producers. I may not enjoy all of their work, but it makes me glad that Prince's legacy lives on. If no one emulated him, then no one would remember him. Unless we're talking about straight up plagiarism, it's a compliment.

renfield said:

Exactly. Like I said, there is a THICK line between those two. It's obvious most times who is getting influence and who is flat out ripping shit off. Even the Chris Brown thing posted is a rip in the simple fonts Prince used. There are rappers who flat out use the Purple Rain font, and lyrics as titles from that album. It's like when Prince told Mel B. that sometimes people are complimentary to him, and some just want a piece of the purple pie. D'Angelo is influenced. Ready For The World was latching onto a popular sound, like anyone does. There's a popular sound in music right now that heavy synth sound that we heard with Adam Lambert, but also hear with Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera (on her Greatest HIts earlier this year or late last year, but is supposed to be on her new album - which might make her look like a copy cat instead of an original). Even the boy bands of the late 90's and early 00's were latching off each other's sounds; same with the pop princess wannabes all copying sounds. RFTW was greatly influenced by Prince, and made no bones about that. It's when they LIE about not listening to Prince music, yet obviously are, that it gets ridiculous.

It's not like Prince has a foothold on his own sound anymore. No artist does long term. People borrowed from James, borrowed from Zapp, borrowed from George Clinton, borrowed from Prince, borrowed from whoever. It's the natural way of things. Every single artist has someone that's put a fire under their butt to record something new.

illriddles said:

UNTITLED by D'Angelo is the BEST Prince song, Prince never wrote. I'm not a fan of D'Angelo, but I have to give it up, when it comes to making a Prince song, he did it and he did it well. Thats NOT easy to do. If you don't like that, then HATE Prince for remaking James Brownesque songs 50 times in his career (ie: Pretty Man, The Work, Musicology, etc...)

Now those other dudes you speak of, they ARE posers.

"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery".
Yeah, I stole that one too.

.
[Edited 11/25/09 16:40pm]

I once interviewed Kenny Loggins, and asked him what he thought about Prince...his answer was that Prince was good, but that Prince would be here without Santana, Rick James, Sly....that it's all incestous..artists borrow from artists. The Beatles Rubber Soul was them breaking out of the mop top days because they heard Bob Dylan and wanted to write songs like him..

I thank the ones that responded without being disrespectful. But getting back ON topic, there is a gospel singer by the name Tonex whom you also can tell Prince had a major influence on. I don't have problems with people giving their opinion, but there is a certain way to give it without being disrespectful. To the moderators, I apologize but they acted like I said I was going to kill them or something. And something petty like misspelling a name? Their replies should be the ones that were snipped because my topic was not vulgar or disrespectful.

illriddles said:

You get the kind of response you deserve, based on you calling people the names you did. Militant never bashed you in his response, yet you went off on him.

Everything else in response to you stands as valid....obviously.

But what did that have to do with YOU?!

immitated but never duplicated