Alguy said:

It's weird how everyone has a completely different report on Prince. One minute hes a self-obsessed womanizing lunatic, the next he's a laid back, educated jazz cat.

Like everyone, Prince obviously mediates for his audience.

bashraka said:

That's why I di Prince so much: because he full of interesing dichotomies. The man is still shy and awkward when giving press interviews but he can sit in a roundtable with Dyson, West and Smiley and engage in a lenthy roundtable discussion about music, politics, history and current events. Because o his religious tenets he adheres to not participating in the electoral process but is opinionated about Obama and the nation's domestic and foreign affairs. I think Prince has grown not only musically but as a person. The 22 year old of "Dirty Mind" couldn't care less about these kind of things. My only problem is that how come he doesn't speak openly in public like this when he gives interviews to Ebony magazine. That's what I would have liked to have read: an unadulterated and unedited article about Prince's musings on things as he sees them and not the e-mailed answeres that Ebony's staff had to make semi-coherent.

I totally agree, I would love to see more of this side of Prince. Its a shame.

JudasLChrist said:

I gotta say. I don't love Cornel West. What I know of him, anyway. I do need to sit down and read one of his books to know for sure, but he just seems like such a star-fucker. Why on earth would someone like him be hanging out with Michael Steele? I mean, EW!

Probably because there is more to a person than thier political affiliation or soundbytes you see on tv.

[Edited 7/26/10 8:04am]

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

hjd said:

It must have been the sleep deprivaton that caused mr. West to remember the two Montreux shows this way. The two shows had basically the same set up and none of them was a jazz show.

The compositions Prince played @ Montreux last summer did have a jazzy set up . So its easy 4 a non diehard fan 2 confuse it. Prince redid all his masterpiece songs in a new jazzy format. Maybe Mr. West was so in awe of Prince presence & looked in2 his eyes & couldn't tell the difference....

There may have been a bit of a jazzy set up of Prince songs, but mr. West remembers hearing Coltrane and Charlie Parker.....

Alguy said:

It's weird how everyone has a completely different report on Prince. One minute hes a self-obsessed womanizing lunatic, the next he's a laid back, educated jazz cat.

Gemini.

Everybody has a different opinion of every1 so....

Too Cool!

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

I remember at Tavis Smiley benefit concert last year that Prince was a special guest at. Cornel was dancing his ass off on stage he can really dance. I was shocked. Just didn't expect that. Tavis was dancing to. No comment on him...

Did Prince perform and what did he play if he did?

Any footage of this concert available?

XNY said:

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

I remember at Tavis Smiley benefit concert last year that Prince was a special guest at. Cornel was dancing his ass off on stage he can really dance. I was shocked. Just didn't expect that. Tavis was dancing to. No comment on him...

Did Prince perform and what did he play if he did?

Any footage of this concert available?

many sleep on his social commentary, but Prince is like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh,

Bob Dylan all in one in his art

try to not take him seriously, but his message literally touches millions of

souls around the world

thx for the C.West perspective

NouveauDance said:

Alguy said:

It's weird how everyone has a completely different report on Prince. One minute hes a self-obsessed womanizing lunatic, the next he's a laid back, educated jazz cat.

Like everyone, Prince obviously mediates for his audience.

Well the Jazz Cat gets all the women-everytime.

shiloh66 said:

The August issue of Playboy has an interview with Cornel West in which he's asked about Prince... here's the text for those of you interested... pretty cool

PLAYBOY: What was it like to record a song with Prince?

WEST: Lord have mercy, that man is a genius of unparalleled vitality, and going into the studio to record something for him was an extraordinary blessing. But I just love hanging out with the man. We were together in Montreux last summer. He did two shows one night, two hours of jazz - Coltrane, Charlie Parker - and then came back with two hours of funk. Unbelievable. Afterward he said "Brother West, do you sleep?" I said, "Well, I try not to." He doesn't sleep at all. He said, "Let's spend some time talking." First thing we did, we went on top of the hotel and watched some of Obama's speeches. Then we had a dialogue for about an hour, then we started talking about music for another hour, and then we talked politics for another hour. We stayed up until 7:30, eight. He packed and jumped on his plane. Stayed up all night. And another time Michael Steele and I were at a Prince concert together.

PLAYBOY: You and the chairman of the Republican National Committee went to a Prince concert?

WEST: Oh yeah. Politics can't stop you from rockin' to a genius man! [laughs]

Dr. West is a very interesting brotha. I dig what he says about this and that, he's "on point" with most of I've heard him say during interviews and such.

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

XNY said:

Did Prince perform and what did he play if he did?

Any footage of this concert available?

Prince at The Conga Room - Prince Saturday, February 28, 2009 -- 7:30 p.m. The Conga Room Los Angeles, California 8:35 p.m. Ol' Skool Company Dreamer Everyday People I Want to Take You Higher Long Train Runnin' 1999 ----- Shhh Musicology Play That Funky Music Play That Funky Music (Reprise) Hollywood Swinging ----- Bridge Over Troubled Water When Will We B Paid Cream U Got the Look I Feel 4 U Controversy ----- The Bird Jungle Love The Glamorous Life --Holly Rock Purple Rain 10:18 p.m.

thanx.

I LOVES me some Cornell West!

Plus, I think he's HOT

many sleep on his social commentary, but Prince is like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bob Dylan all in one in his art

PsychedelicMama said:

I LOVES me some Cornell West!

Plus, I think he's HOT

CocoRock said:

NelsonR said:

many sleep on his social commentary, but Prince is like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bob Dylan all in one in his art

[img:$uid]http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/42447455/Ghostface+Killah+Cmon+SON.jpg[/img:$uid]

XNY:

I disagree. Prince is often overlooked for his social commentary, very likely because of his strong sexual themes in his past. Even then, songs like "Pop Life", "$ Don't Matter 2Nite", "Lady Cab Driver", "SOTT", "Mr Man", and others like "Paris 179830" and "Uncle Sam" by Tevin are brilliant, but overshadowed by "Shh" and "LRC", "Gett Off", or "UGot the Look". One could say Prince probably should've released more singles like the first group of compositions, but these socially themed songs have been there throughout his career.

In some ways, I think his use of sexual overtones, esp in the 80's, was a form of escapism for Prince's "characters". A sort of anti-60's/hippy demonstration: Prince's answer for the coming appocylpse wasn't to demonstrate against it (really how far did the 60's get us... preventing another Vietnam or corporate irresponsiblity??) - as if we really could, but his answer, for lack of a better one, was to dance your ass while society and the world as we know it was destroyed. I think it's a pragmatic and escapist response to the truth: we have little or no control over the use of nuclear weapons, waging wars, etc.

XNY said:

CocoRock said:

XNY said:

My reply was intended to rebuff the notion that Prince was Marley, Tosh and Dylan rolled into one. But yeah, while I'm at it, dude simply ain't that deep. Prince's world view is seen through tunnel vision, and as a result, pretty narrow minded.

Well, I wouldn't necessarily go that far comparing him to Dylan, but Bob Marley wasn't all that deep either. Face it. If Marley were still alive today, we wouldn't be listening to any of his songs, esp on the radio- and we wouldn't even be mentioning his name here.

Sadly, nothing sells more cd's in America as much as a dead black artist with a vision - because they can't rock the boat anymore. Hendrix was trashed here before he died- especially after he played the Star Spangled Banner on guitar. As soon as he passed away, he was guitar god. We have selective amnesia. MJ's a perfect example. Everyone wrote him off as a pedophile until he died last year, now he's nearly a saint. Where was this wonderful press while he was alive?

By the way, that's a pretty bold statement about his so called 'tunnel vision'. Don't be so naive to think we, too, don't have a narrow view of the world. If you live in the US for instance, Americans live in a bubble, and are clueless to it. Think about it. We barely know shit about the rest of the world, especially our closest neighbors Canada and Mexico. We're so enamored with our reflection that we forget the rest of the world exists, and will very likely pay for that ignorance in the near future. I could go on and on, but suffice to say, Prince's world view is not at all unlike our own. I actually think he's way beyond us in some respects. A perfect example: "Osama Bin Laden's gettin' ready to bomb..." --Prince in 2000. How did he see that coming while most of us were blind as a bat?

XNY said: