Do you have any idea how fucking infuriating it is to walk into your dorm room after being away for the weekend to see that someone has written "FAGGOT" in indelible ink on your $25 dollar Prince poster?

Seriously in what circles do you people hang out that you get ridiculed for your musical tastes?

BTW the idea that there will never be another great musician is stupid. Of course others will come along, but it seems that some people on this board seriously over- rate Prince and want to believe that he is THE only musician.

Seriously in what circles do you people hang out that you get ridiculed for your musical tastes?

BTW the idea that there will never be another great musician is stupid. Of course others will come along, but it seems that some people on this board seriously over- rate Prince and want to believe that he is THE only musician.

Beautiful post. I'm 22 and I get ridiculed all the time as well. "Prince? You're kidding, right?" We've got to stick together.

I respect what you are doing with that radio show.

If you wanna be critical of Prince and his music without actually having gone in and tried to listen to other things the brotha has done besides Purple Rain, I say fine. Remain in the dark, stay ignorant. It’s your loss!

getwild007 said:

GOOD LORD!!! WTF??? That's some ignant, IGNANT shit...

CalhounSq said:

prince poster: $25

permanent marker: $2

kickin the shit outta whoever wrote on your property: priceless.

Prince. That one name, that one man, has had as profound an impact on my life as anyone outside of my family ever has had. When I was 12 years old, ten years ago, I heard "7" on the radio and I was sold. I was too young to afford albums, and didn't have my own radio, so until I was 14 I had to rely on randomly hearing tidbits on the radio when I was in the car with my parents.


During one year, from about June of 1994 until the following summer, I bought every album from Prince I could find. I never noticed the weird looks I got from the cashiers, the confused looks my classmates gave me when they saw one of his albums in my backpack. The teasing started gradually, and rest assured it still happens today. Do you have any idea how fucking infuriating it is to walk into your dorm room after being away for the weekend to see that someone has written "FAGGOT" in indelible ink on your $25 dollar Prince poster? It was at that moment that I had a realization. People I talk to over the age of, say, 27, know Prince, and if nothing else respect him. People younger than that don't.


Ok, so we all know most people have no idea that Prince is still making music, and that most people under the age of 25 (an age bracket that I fall into, by the way) wouldn't know real music if it came up and licked their crotch, and so on. For any number of reasons, young people today, and I don't mean just 14 year old girls listening to Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, are not doing what the generations before them have done. They are blindly accepting what is given to them. They all listen to the same things, because they are so deathly terrified of being different and ostracized that they believe that they will be forever shunned for being different. All this? Over music? Believe it folks.


I have a radio show on my college station. I play Earth, Wind & Fire, Prince, George Clinton, James Brown, you get the idea. I have one of the smallest audiences on the campus. I also have the only funk show. When I tell the kids on my campus (BTW I'm almost 22 I consider myself an adult) that I play a funk show, they say "Oh, you mean like Run DMC?" See what I'm up against?


I wish I had an answer for this. I don't. I know that in some of this post I'm coming across as angry, and that isn't an accident. These things do make me angry. But more than anything else, It makes me sad. In everything that is said in the news today, you see people saying "TV and video games are ruining are children." That may be true, but what is even worse is that people of my generation (which I call "Generation Like," which seems appropriate seeing as how almost everyone I know under the age of 30 says this word at least 250 times in a two minute conversation), we were the ones that were 14 when Gangsta rap hit. We were the 15 and 16 year old kids who worshipped Kurt Cobain and then watched him shoot himself in the head with a shot gun. We were the ones who watched the shootings at Columbine live on TV one spring afternoon, and then the next day guess who the media blames for warping these two bastards into monstrous killers. Marilyn Manson.


What we have now is a youth culture so obsessed with listening to whats cool, what their parents hate, and what the media says is bad for them that they are actually lashing out at anything that doesn't fall into one of those categories. For all of you that keep wondering why Prince isn't selling any records anymore, I've got the answer for you right hear. The young kids buying the records now are the children of people that grew up listening to Prince. Kids do not, and never will, share the musical taste of their parents. I certainly don't like the music that my parents do, and my guess is none of you like the music your old man likes either. What is cool now will be the subject of ridicule in 15 or 20 years, got that?


So, there are the few of us that have access to the airwaves and we'll continue to fight the good fight. Nothing makes a Ja Rule fan's head spin like Parliament tearing through "Up For The Down Stroke." It's fun to watch. Really.


Orgers, remember this one thing. Prince is one of the last great musicians of our time. Maybe he is the very last. Don't ever forget that. For those of us that know, understand, and love the man's music, it is one of the most valuable gifts that we could ever have asked for, and it is one that we take for granted far too often. Think about how many times you've listened to "Lovesexy" and just smiled through the whole album, or how many times you've almost been moved to tears at the end of "Adore," just from the sheer beauty and otherworldly brilliance of the song. Most people never get to feel that way. We did. That, my friends, is something special. So the next time you feel yourself thinking some of the same thoughts I've expressed hear, just let "Joy In Repitition" play in your mind, and remember that people like Prince give us the most valuable gift in the world. Hope.