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. "A united state of mind will never be divided
The real definition of unity is 1 People can slam their door, disagree and fight it But how U gonna love the Father but not love the Son? United States of Division" | |
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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. | |
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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) | |
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Really.
The women were the only performers I could even bear to watch. The men were pure shit. We don’t mourn artists because we knew them. We mourn them because they helped us know ourselves. | |
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LOL. "You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup...Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend." - Bruce Lee
"Water can nourish me, but water can also carry me. Water has magic laws." - JCVD | |
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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. JERKIN' EVERYTHING IN SIGHT!!!!! | |
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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. | |
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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 "A Man Can't Ride Your Back Unless It's Bent" MLK 4/3/68 | |
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Prince has always said he prefers the female voice.
Get.Over.It. JERKIN' EVERYTHING IN SIGHT!!!!! | |
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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. "You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup...Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend." - Bruce Lee
"Water can nourish me, but water can also carry me. Water has magic laws." - JCVD | |
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I'm actually glad he didn't perform. I think participating in such a cheap-ass event like this is beneath him. | |
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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. "I have so much love for Prince. But why don't they look at me that way"- MJ | |
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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! "A Man Can't Ride Your Back Unless It's Bent" MLK 4/3/68 | |
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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. | |
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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?!
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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!!! BOB4theFUNK | |
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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] | |
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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. | |
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[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 | |
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What do you see in my future? "I have so much love for Prince. But why don't they look at me that way"- MJ | |
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Yeah, there s that saying, "you become that which you rebel against." | |
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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. | |
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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. Minneapolis Music Month in March on the
"Upper Room with Joe Kelley & Gi Dussault" Interviews, Radio Shows, Minneapolis Music www.upperroomwithjoekelley.com "Upper Room with Joe Kelley" LIVE Mondays 6pm-8pm NYC Time WVOF 88.5 FM in Fairfield, C | |
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Also, Prince's shirt says "20TEN" so I think that is definitely the name of the new CD. | |
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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. "Let love be your perfect weapon..." ~~Andy Biersack | |
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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. 3121 #1 THIS YEAR | |
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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 ... Peace ... & Stay Funky ...
~* The only love there is, is the love "we" make *~ www.facebook.com/purplefunklover | |
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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. | |
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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. "You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup...Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend." - Bruce Lee
"Water can nourish me, but water can also carry me. Water has magic laws." - JCVD | |
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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. | |
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