I got this Cd the first day it came out. Didn't ever really care for it; at the time my favorite Prince disc was "Lovesexy," and cringeworthy songs like "Diamonds and Pearls," "Live 4 Love," made me embarassed.Always founds the Cd to be too manufactured and even a little contemptuous; as if Prince knew this wasn't for his "real" fans."

However, I always loved "Push" and would be it on repeat; always LOVED, and still do, Prince's rap in it.

Now many years later put it on and I did what I usuaally do, skipped "Thunder" "Live 4 Love" and listened to a couple songs; I start to get into "Cream" basically for the first time ever; I've always thought of it and a PG-13 version of "Kiss" in the past.

Then I sstart listening to the whole CD; top to bottom. Over and over and over. Can't get enough of it and NOW I wouldn't changed a thing. Has to currently be my favorite Prince CD; it's all so catchy and upbeat and the Prince rap in Push kind of confirms the whole thing; "from Pakistan to Poland to stright into your town picking up kiddies like a circus clown! Haaa haaa haa..

Well it only took about 20 years but

I think the good stuff still shines, the bad stuff is still baaaaad!

I skipped this album when it came out. I liked "Cream" and the title track, but the other stuff just wasn't doing it for me. It just seemed vapid at the time, and I ended up favoring a lot more.

I've liked it more in recent months, especially since I edited Tony M. out of those few songs. It's a whole different album without him on it. Frankly, it's how it should have been all along. (Also never ripped "Jughead" to my hard drive, so it's not even on my radar.)

In fact, last night I even edited the video version and took Tony M. out of that one as well.

Sounds worse today than when it came out.

If that's even possible.
[Edited 2/21/10 11:07am]

ernestsewell said:

You like editing people out of Prince songs/videos, don't you?

MattyJam said:

Who else have I edited out of a Prince song besides Tony M?

I edited Larry out of "Everyday Is A Winding Road", but so what. He didn't belong there to begin with.

ernestsewell said:

I must be the only person in the world that likes Larry's part in that song.... "D'ya love your brotha? Everyday Everyday..."

NouveauDance said:

co-sign

it's rare I take a listen, but I have always loved the 4 big singles from D&P...(5 if you count Insatiable too)....

the 4 or 5 big videos are simply amazing.. especially Gett Off

I really like most og the songs, the only let down on the album was the rapping.

but I still rate this album very high 9/10.

Included are a lot of Prince "pop" classics.

MattyJam said:

You might be. To each his own.

Love it!

Agreed. The CD seems written to be listened to as a whole. I like it a lot esp. "Thunder", "Daddy Pop", "Live for Love" et al.

To this day "Gett Off" and "Willing and Able" are the only two Prince songs with "rap" in them that I dig.

Good album...not great, but good.

StonedImmaculate said:

willing and able is my favourite..

ernestsewell said:

This made me ACTUALLY laugh out loud.

gamera said:

I'm hard core anti-Tony.

ernestsewell said:

What is so bad about Tony that he have 2 b edited out?

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

I'm just not a fan myself. I didn't want or need to hear anyone besides Prince rapping on a Prince record, and even a little of that goes a long ways. That's just me though. I'm sure he's a nice dude and has musical talents. Prince of all people featured him prominently on several records, so his ego should be just fine too.

gamera said:

I thought Tony was excellent on "Willing & Able" & especially Sexy MF can't imagine that song without him and to go to the trouble of editing him out of it is not kool to me.....

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Well it doesn't have to be cool to anyone but me, and the dozens of people asking for, and loving, the edits. It's a free land, and we all listen to things differently.

Tony M. rapping was a desperate attempt by Prince to get hip again. He used to set trends, but by 1990, when he started pulling in people like TC Ellis, Tony M., etc, he was following the trends. It's not that Tony M. didn't add anything of value to the music, but rather he actually took away from it.

I know all the raps from those two albums, as much as anyone. (My roommate jokes with me, "You're not black!" whenever I try to keep up with one of the raps. LOL Don't hate, roommate.) But when I decided to sit down a couple of months ago, and take his raps out of "Daddy Pop", "Willing And Able", "Push", and "Live 4 Love", and kept as much of the song as possible, but just cut him out...the album had a whole different feel. Yes, you can still hear him say "Push up on it", or do all his parts in "Gett Off", but the other stuff being gone makes that album SO much different and more desirable.

I noticed a lot of the raps were near the end of the songs. I began to consider the notion that putting a rap in certain songs was almost an after thought by Prince, rather than part of the original plan when he started writing the song. When I took Tony out of those songs, the songs made sense to me. They didn't need a rap. It wasn't necessary, at all. The flow (pun) goes so much better along.

ernestsewell said:

So did U also edit Cat & Sheila E & Robin Power & Q-Tip & Eve & Chuck D & Doug E Fresh & Carmen Elektra & Rosie Gaines out the songs to when they were rapping with Prince? Just edit all the people out that rap with Prince. He would love that....

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

As I stated, I edited Tony M. out of those songs in Diamonds and Pearls, as well as songs from .

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Doug E Fresh can go as far as I'm concerned

Erik

For me,it's the opposite.I LOVED this CD in 1991/92,when I listened to it constantly.

Recently,I tried to listen to it and I found myself skipping through half of the tracks! I still love "Cream","Gett Off" and Strollin",but I can't tolerate stuff like the chaotic "Daddy Pop" and the syrupy title track

This is one of his albums that didn't age well,imo.

i loved gett off and hated the whole rest of the record for a long time then it grew on me big ..

i love love daddy popp i'd like to hear the tony mless edit cuz he kinda ruins the end of a classic for me and walk dont walk is pure genius with the car horns and good vibes .. diamonds is sooooo great an absolute classic would have loved it sooner if productions was less celine dione more stevie wonder or some old vintage rnb sound ... also love thunder and insatiable .. i cut out a few songs and like some other tunes ok but prince highs on this record are really high ..

now if earnest can ADD prince vocals to the family record sign me up that would make my year i might not even have to buy whatever plastic elevator music prince puts out this year to cure my fix

Cream is a great song. But overall Diamonds and Pearls is one of the most embarrassing cds in my collection.
I really believe the NPG was the death of Prince.

TrevorAyer said:

Who?

I've always loved D&P. Great song.

Despite the lack of drum programming that still dominated pop music back then (only "Thunder" uses it I think?), it has dated quite alot LOL. "Gett off" "Strollin' "Willing and able" "money..." and "Cream" have not dated to me at all really. 5 songs off an album from a very dated sounding era is a good result, BUT, "Daddy pop" "live for love" "walk dont walk" and "push" have dated badly (as opposed to just dated). I love most of those songs, particually "push", but boy, those songs inparticular sound very dated.

"Daddy pop" wouldn't sound out of place off the Ninja Turtles soundtrack. I love that OST and I like "Daddy pop" actually LOL, so I couldn't care less if its dated Just sayin'....