LoveSymbolofaDove said:

Now I never been a Prince basher. Obvioulsy you know that an artist is not always going to do things you agree with. But last night was awful.

Prince should have performed. I feel that it was a slap in the face to every single fan or whoever was watching that we had to endure 2 1/2 hours of performances that were not even great to just see him accept an award. Say what you want but the tradtition of the BET Awards is for each Lifetime Achievement Award Winner to perform. Al Green did it, The O'Jays did it, James Brown did it, and the Isley Brothers even did it.

It's insulting that for whatever reason he didn't perform. No one was watching the tribute to see Alicia Keys, Janelle Monet, Esperenza Spaulding, Patti Labelle, or even Chaka Khan, everyone was watching to see Prince and to see him perform. I would have love to have seen if the Grammy's or the AMAs were giving him a lifetime achievement award if he would have performed. My thing is that you are an artist. That's your job....

It would be different if none of the honorees performed or anything, but that's not the case. The tradition of the awards is to have the person perform! But of course he has to be different. I respect that, but what I have a problem with is that when does it stop being about him and being about the people who support him. I am sure people were looking at their screens and was like what???

And about the statement about not doing what he did back in the day. I respect that. However, replace the motive not the passion, replace the presentation not the excitement, what I am saying is it's cool to do away with the curse words and sexual language but not the loyalty to giving a great show or giving the fans or people who supported you what they deserve.

You know, I wasn't even upset that Prince didn't perform. HOWEVER, everyone could see the difference between the real talented musicians like El Debarge and the up and coming singers/musicians like Esperanza Spaulding. Hopefully, everyone saw that the rappers are the frauds in this music game without Prince mentioning how real music needed to be played.

it was a good tribute altho i wish women would just get out of the way. i want Prince to go up against some dudes or male performers with real talent.

Patti LaBelle was awful. She did even sing the damn song.

even though he did not perform, i actually enjoyed watching his reactions, it was more entertaining than the tribute (don't get me wrong the tribute was nicely done but i was more excited to see prince there than anyone else last night)

Milty said:

it was a good tribute altho i wish women would just get out of the way. i want Prince to go up against some dudes or male performers with real talent.

Patti LaBelle was awful. She did even sing the damn song.

Really.

The women were the only performers I could even bear to watch. The men were pure shit.

missfee said:

Klyph said:

WHAT!! Are you serious? I'm sorry but the whole "I was wild, don't do what I did" nonsense SCREAMED "I'm a hypocrite and Jehovah won't let me acknowledge that the BEST music I did was when I was wild." Prince would have been just another talented musician if he hadn't let himself be "free" in every aspect of the word. His "raunchy" lyrics, his androgynous nature, his willingness to say "fuck it" in the face of convention is what MADE him be more that just another talented musician. These weren't mistakes, these were calculated choices from a man who knew what he was doing.

Oh, and one more thing. The state of Black music is HORRIBLE. So Prince, stop lying to these terrible "musicians and performers" because the future of music is in CRAPPY hands if these hack-jobs are it.

[Edited 6/28/10 6:01am]

Yeah he irritated me when he said that cockamamie bullshit too. His ass wasn't even there for the first 2 HOURS MIND YOU yet he talking about he feels that the future of music is in good hands...NUCCA PLEASE!!!!

LOL.

I thought the tribute to Prince was great.

I loved Janelle's energy.

I thought Esperanza was really good.

I thought Alicia was sexy as hell.

And Patti was Patti. Fabulous as always.

I also had NO problem with Prince not performing.

I don't think it was disrespectful at all.

I thought his speech was really gracious.

You can nitpick certain things about it like him saying younger artists don't have to do what he did in the past. Or him saying that music is in good hands.

If he had come out there and talked about how great he was for 5 minutes. People hear would never stop giving him shit for it.

But once again, you have people here on the org who in their delusion think they're Prince's lawyer, doctor, accountant, manager, parent, pastor, and lover. They think they know what's best for him and what he would prefer when they really don't.

I'd say all the performances were a mess.

Not to say they weren't talented performers, but whew, the tribute was an embarrassment.

Janelle did okay, but the song sat nowhere good for her range, and it was excruciating. Keys and Labelle made fools of themselves. Trey Songz, bless his heart, sounded like a yodeling goat.

Best part of the night was Prince's response to Alicia's ridiculous piano crawling. Absolutely hilarious.

jeidee said:

why is it that chicks always sing the prince tributes?

I asked the very same question....hmmmmm....I mean couldn't Maxwell or Jaheim handle the register....or maybe D'Angelo...welll maybe Maxwell killed his voice a bit being greedy with the tour...but I did ponder over it for a minute

DAV123 said:

jeidee said:

why is it that chicks always sing the prince tributes?

I asked the very same question....hmmmmm....I mean couldn't Maxwell or Jaheim handle the register....or maybe D'Angelo...welll maybe Maxwell killed his voice a bit being greedy with the tour...but I did ponder over it for a minute

Prince has always said he prefers the female voice.

Get.Over.It.

MaddMaxx said:

WaterInYourBath said:

Esperanza was the best part of the Prince tribute. Her coolness overshadowed Janelle and Alicia, and even Ms. Patti.

Let the church say 'amen'. Damn......she was so silky smooth. Everything about that performance was on the money.

Patti is Patti.....you know what to expect, as my Grandmother says, "All that yellin'". I thought Alicia Keys' vocals were dreadful. When reaching for the falsetto......ouch. I actually like the Janelle number. Didn't know what to expect, but I think she rocked it. But man, the Esperanza clip is on heavy rotation in this office today.

I've been a fan of Esperanza for a long time, and she performed exactly how I expected: Darn-near perfectly, with grace and no antics.

I actually think Alicia's part would have been excellent too if she had stayed mellow. She lost herself.

I'm actually glad he didn't perform. I think participating in such a cheap-ass event like this is beneath him.

BartVanHemelen said:

Genesia said:

Word to those criticizing Janelle - what you saw last night is exactly what her live show is like. If you don't like it, steer clear.

So what you're saying is that she can't sing? Because I don't know what she was doing during LGC, but it wasn't singing.

So let's see: crap album, plus can't sing live. And this is the next big thing?

You must be on the wrong fan site, music as a art form is not about perfect execution or amazing technical abilities.

Do I want Janelle to sing like Placido Domingo? NO. Do I want Janelle Monae to be as calculated as MJ? NO. Do I want Janelle to master every instrument like P? NO. I want Janelle to be Janelle, and she did a great job!

A very wise man, Alejandro Jodorowsky, say it best:

"La perfeccion es perderse en el objeto (Perfection is to loose yourself on the object)"

Think about that.

Paris9748430 said:

DAV123 said:

I asked the very same question....hmmmmm....I mean couldn't Maxwell or Jaheim handle the register....or maybe D'Angelo...welll maybe Maxwell killed his voice a bit being greedy with the tour...but I did ponder over it for a minute

Prince has always said he prefers the female voice.

Get.Over.It.

What the hell...get over what...man u people up in here.....

it's an opinion, and an Observation...ya know you can do that too.....geesh!

I missed it, but ummmmmmmm....how do I say this?

I'm not sure I care if I ever hear some named "Trey Songz" perform.

"Trey Songz"? Seriously? That was the best name he could come up with?

Sounds like the name of a Garbage Pail Kid doll or something.

DAV123 said:

jeidee said:

why is it that chicks always sing the prince tributes?

I asked the very same question....hmmmmm....I mean couldn't Maxwell or Jaheim handle the register....or maybe D'Angelo...welll maybe Maxwell killed his voice a bit being greedy with the tour...but I did ponder over it for a minute

Always the same people also. Perhaps because it was not one of the larger award shows, but I would think he could attract something more than Chaka & Patti to pay him honor. And while Stevie was kind of funny, basically it was a 45 second monologue followed by the 2nd of three hairball wretching interpretations of Purple Rain. Really?!

I've seen Janelle live and I loved it and love her... but some of her live appearances haven't been great. Sometimes she sounds a little tired vocally, which is no surprise.

Just bummed that some of her appearances aren't showing her at her best, because they'll be her biggest chances for exposure. She has the energy and the presence and the talent, but lately, her live spots on tv have underwhelmed me.

And it would have been nice to have a strong male performer do something besides Trey Songz. Ladies were making the men look silly last night. But hey, everyone looked pretty silly last night.

[Edited 6/28/10 14:01pm]

rusty1 said:

the prince of 26 years of age would've laughed at today's version of himself... what made prince an exciting musican was the freedom in his music... prince used to be nasty, funky,spirtual and rock out all at once... now that he's a jw he has to watch what subjects he sings about... if u would have told me even back in 1987,, that he would've been this way now... i would've said no way!!!

That's funny to me that you say that because back in '85/'86/'87, in those years, my friends and I (who were all HARDCORE fans at the time) used to sit and discuss where Prince might be 20+ years in the future, and we used to say stuff like "Watch - he's going to be a religious fanatic and become all prudish etc etc" and we weren't 100% joking.

The pendulum swings far to one side, eventually it's going to swing far over to the other side.

[img:$uid]http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa62/brocklynn76/Prince/Prince009.jpg[/img:$uid]

Look at the guy behind Prince

[img:$uid]http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa62/brocklynn76/Prince/Prince008.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa62/brocklynn76/Prince/Prince007.jpg[/img:$uid]

[img:$uid]http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa62/brocklynn76/Prince/Prince006.jpg[/img:$uid]

I think he looked great

RubyButterfly said:

rusty1 said:

the prince of 26 years of age would've laughed at today's version of himself... what made prince an exciting musican was the freedom in his music... prince used to be nasty, funky,spirtual and rock out all at once... now that he's a jw he has to watch what subjects he sings about... if u would have told me even back in 1987,, that he would've been this way now... i would've said no way!!!

That's funny to me that you say that because back in '85/'86/'87, in those years, my friends and I (who were all HARDCORE fans at the time) used to sit and discuss where Prince might be 20+ years in the future, and we used to say stuff like "Watch - he's going to be a religious fanatic and become all prudish etc etc" and we weren't 100% joking.

The pendulum swings far to one side, eventually it's going to swing far over to the other side.

What do you see in my future?

RubyButterfly said:

rusty1 said:

the prince of 26 years of age would've laughed at today's version of himself... what made prince an exciting musican was the freedom in his music... prince used to be nasty, funky,spirtual and rock out all at once... now that he's a jw he has to watch what subjects he sings about... if u would have told me even back in 1987,, that he would've been this way now... i would've said no way!!!

That's funny to me that you say that because back in '85/'86/'87, in those years, my friends and I (who were all HARDCORE fans at the time) used to sit and discuss where Prince might be 20+ years in the future, and we used to say stuff like "Watch - he's going to be a religious fanatic and become all prudish etc etc" and we weren't 100% joking.

The pendulum swings far to one side, eventually it's going to swing far over to the other side.

Yeah, there s that saying, "you become that which you rebel against."

OK, I watched most of the stuff on Youtube. Couldn't find Esperanza, whoever that is. But based on what else I saw, it's probably a blessing that I couldn't find it.

Trey Songz - horrible but at least he was trying to actually honor Prince. I get the impression that his snippet of "Purple Rain" was ad hoc. He gets props for his respect.

Janelle Monae - never really heard of her and now I know why. Can't sing a lick. Funny looking, too. But I like her energy and that makes up for her lack of talent in all other areas. She butchered the song, though.

Alicia Keys - CAN sing, but not that song. She's so pretty that I usually don't care what she sounds like. And the arrangement of "Adore" was very good. But man, that song is WAAAAAAAAY out of her range, no matter what key she plays it in.

Patti Labelle - Damn, I thought that was Divine from the John Waters movie. At least she didn't eat any dog poop, but the song sounded like dog poop.

Prince - He was very gracious. He looks much better in real life than he has in most recent pictures.

ernestsewell said:

I'm a bit let down with the whole thing. The BET Awards in general are always pretty whack, but last night's was ridiculously bad. The show SUCKED up to when El Debarge turned around in his Danny Zucko jacket and sang. THAT was, by far, the best moment in the show to that point. (PS His single drops in July, and his new album, Second Chance, drops after that.)

Chris Beat'em'Down Brown: Endless cringe moments with that dude.

re: Prince tribute

Trey Wrongz was horrible. I knew he was going to go into "Purple Rain", because the whole song sounded like "Purple Rain" anyway. It was horrible. He knew it, we knew it, and Prince knew it.

Janelle Monae singing "Let's Go Crazy" - PERFECT! She couldn't have done a more perfect song for her style.

Esparanza Spaulding - HOLY SHIZNIT. I need to find this woman's work!

Alicia Keys - someone on the Wyldflow3r show At Midnight last night was talking about how dangerous they thought it was that pregnant Alicia was climbing around on a piano. I thought it was unnecessary in general.

Patti is Patti. I was disappointed that Chaka didn't sing. I think they could have chosen a different song than "Purple Rain" (the second time we heard it) to close with. They should have gotten a song that Patti and Chaka could have dueted on.

I turned off the show after that.

Ernest, I thnk you summed it up perfectly. Other than the Prince tribute I wasn't expecting much. Great to see Prince there and enjoying it. His speech was nice and as always, would have liked to see him perform.

I always say what I play on my radio shows you most likely will never hear at a party I deejay. And vice versa. I knew the other cats' music on the BET Awards just from deejaying parties. I think most people here in the Org are wizened music listeners and can put the performances and award shows in proper perspective.

Prince and a few others are the rare exceptions when we can witness real musicianship and performance on these shows. Just cut the weeds and maybe you will find a flower.

Also, Prince's shirt says "20TEN" so I think that is definitely the name of the new CD.

rusty1 said:

the prince of 26 years of age would've laughed at today's version of himself... what made prince an exciting musican was the freedom in his music... prince used to be nasty, funky,spirtual and rock out all at once... now that he's a jw he has to watch what subjects he sings about... if u would have told me even back in 1987,, that he would've been this way now... i would've said no way!!!

I wish I could have seen Prince's face when Trey was trying to sing PR. At the end when the background message was "Pray for our soldiers and their families" or something like that...JWs don't believe in joining armed forces or fighting for a country, so I imagine was not liking that one.

And my thoughts today are this...if anyone performing last night had been in an audition for American Idol, none of them would have made it through the first level. They should have had Chaka and El do the entire tribute to Prince. Patty screamed, Alicia was off her game, the guys were a joke.

The ony good thing was Chris Brown's dance skills. And I hate that boy.

I think having women perform his songs probably meant more to Prince because women (from what I understand) are more warm, loving and exude more sensuality and love. If Maxwell and D'Angelo would have played there would have been a battle between those two men to show Prince just how much more talented they are than they other. It would have been the r&b version of the "While My Guitar Gently Weep" tribute to Harrison when the other musicians started resenting Prince for hamming it up too much (i.e. Marc Mann and Jeff Lynne).

I dug Esperanza Spalding blowing a kiss to Prince after singing "If I Was Your Girlfriend". It was very sweet and touching. But to have some of the finest women and musicians minus Janelle Monae pay tribute to him with that much earnestness it has to be recognized. It could have been better but considering these are the performers that Prince WANTED, it was good.

JoeKelley said:

Ernest, I thnk you summed it up perfectly. Other than the Prince tribute I wasn't expecting much. Great to see Prince there and enjoying it. His speech was nice and as always, would have liked to see him perform.

I always say what I play on my radio shows you most likely will never hear at a party I deejay. And vice versa. I knew the other cats' music on the BET Awards just from deejaying parties. I think most people here in the Org are wizened music listeners and can put the performances and award shows in proper perspective.

Prince and a few others are the rare exceptions when we can witness real musicianship and performance on these shows. Just cut the weeds and maybe you will find a flower.

I don't watch a lot of awards shows but, I thought it was cool that all the musicians were instrumentalist and none of the performances were (or it seemed so) pre-recorded music. I enjoyed that, to say the least ...

BET could never honor Prince properly. Have you ever watched the BET Awards before? They make the black music scene look like it was hit by a hurricane. They took the complete low road, with absolute dreadful performances. That Let's Go Crazy cover was a monstrosity... who even performed that? She looked like Rob Schneider's character in the movie "Grown Ups". Only real musicians and artists could ever come close to honoring him, such as those artists at the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame performance/induction. Prince should be compared to The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, The Rolling Stones, Hendrix, all the truly great bands and artists in history... and not be subjected to getting his songs raped by low class ghetto artists/award shows.

BartVanHemelen said:

Genesia said:

Word to those criticizing Janelle - what you saw last night is exactly what her live show is like. If you don't like it, steer clear.

So what you're saying is that she can't sing? Because I don't know what she was doing during LGC, but it wasn't singing.

So let's see: crap album, plus can't sing live. And this is the next big thing?

I didn't know what she was doing either. Like Trey Songz, it was like a bad joke. Her scream at the end sounded JUST LIKE his trademark holler though. I couldn't believe it. I've never heard anyone attempt to do that like him, but she at least got THAT part right.

I think she knows what she did was pretty extreme (and not in a good way). I watched the afterparty, and at one point Janelle was being interviewed by Tigger and Diddy. She seemed happy when she was about to respond about how she was feeling, but they quickly interrupted and said they were going to show a piece of her "great performance." Her face quickly turned to STONE. Her entire mood changed before they showed the clip. No smiles, no nothing.

Forgive me everyone for never even have hearing of Janelle, but her singing was god awful and her choice of costume looked stupid. I felt uncomfortable just watching on TV, I can just imagine Prince having to sit through that crap, and fake a smile. Patti and Alicia seemed heartfelt. My favorite moments were, the faces Prince was making while Alicia shimmied on the piano and when he picked up Patti's shoe.