A few things I recall right now:

- "Cindy C" is about Cindy Crawford and with the line "I will pay the usual fee" Prince more or less calls her a whore.

- "Dead On It" is pretty merciless on rappers and calls them tone deaf.

- "Bob George" has the sounds of a killing spree on it.

"Superfunkycalifragisexy" has all those references to S&M and drinking blood (the squirrel meat reference had appeared earlier as well).

- "Rockhard In A Funky Place" has the "keep your finger on the trigger" line at the end. I always interpreted this as a twisted reference to the suicidal tendencies the listener might have.

The record is not comparable to, say, "Antichrist Superstar", but for an 80s pop artist like Prince some of that was pretty heavy stuff. Most of it is just funny of course, but there are a few moments there that do not sound simply like jokes. I suppose it was just the "negativity" of the lyrics that Prince himself got put off in the end. It's not a "celebration of life" type of an album like Lovesexy is.

it's not evil, just too funky

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[Edited 4/9/11 1:51am]

novabrkr said:

A few things I recall right now:

- "Cindy C" is about Cindy Crawford and with the line "I will pay the usual fee" Prince more or less calls her a whore.

- "Dead On It" is pretty merciless on rappers and calls them tone deaf.

- "Bob George" has the sounds of a killing spree on it.

"Superfunkycalifragisexy" has all those references to S&M and drinking blood (the squirrel meat reference had appeared earlier as well).

- "Rockhard In A Funky Place" has the "keep your finger on the trigger" line at the end. I always interpreted this as a twisted reference to the suicidal tendencies the listener might have.

The record is not comparable to, say, "Antichrist Superstar", but for an 80s pop artist like Prince some of that was pretty heavy stuff. Most of it is just funny of course, but there are a few moments there that do not sound simply like jokes. I suppose it was just the "negativity" of the lyrics that Prince himself got put off in the end. It's not a "celebration of life" type of an album like Lovesexy is.

No it's not lol. The gunshots in Bob George? I was like wow the first time I heard that. You've explained some stuff about songs I didn't know Thanks for the info

Nothing Prince was trying ectstacy as the time and he was angry as he felt it was 2 raw. He was also answering the claims that PR, ATWIAD and Parade were 2 white sounding and even SOTT was a bit more Miles than funk, whereas Black album was as funky and street as it got. Bob George sounds a bit disturbed, but the rest is as funky as a muthafucka, Cindy C and Le Grind are amazing funky and raw songs, they sound fresh even now. (I am listening to Cindy C as I type). Theres nothing dark about this except in a Daring Nikki, sexual, daring and hellafunky is how I decide the Black Album. Totally an unappreciated funk masterpiece.

The good/bad dichotomy was just a mythology to cling to as he switched attentions to the explicitly stated "positivity" of lovesexy.

It is "evil" if the creator of the project thinks that it is.

Didn't he do the Black album while he was on the ecstasy trip? That's what I thought that's why.

You think his ecstasy trip lasted that long?

novabrkr said:

You think his ecstasy trip lasted that long?

lol maybe. most likely its somewhere (beginning, middle, end) of the sessions of songs used on the recordings, or that inspired the songs

According to the story he took only one pill and ended up on a bad trip. Due to these experiences he decided to shelve the black album and make a new album instead. So, he had already finished the album at that point. However, it's possible that he might have used alcohol / drugs during the recording process as well, but we don't know anything about such things.

One of the things that gives a good indication that Prince was / is fairly clean is how much music he has done. You can't get as much done as what Prince did during his peak if you are using alcohol / drugs.