I like Tony's rap on the single edit of "My Name Is Prince".It's short and to the point,ending with the excellent line "U must become a Prince before you're king anyway".The rap on the album version is too long.

There's no such thing as good rap OR necessary rap.

"Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang is the exception that proves the rule.

I have always liked tony m's raps

He is a cool rapper and added a lot to prince's records

It is interesting as prince has used male and female rappers alternatively to good effect

stillwaiting said:

NeonCraxx said:

Love 2 The 9's has no rap. (other than Prince's) What? Can't Tony ask Mayte a few damn questions?! Sheesh!

Unlike It's a Wonderful Life....I wish Tony M had never been born. If Prince never had the fascination with rap, and didn't think he needed a new album every single year, his reputation would have been a lot better. Yep, I wish Tony M had never been born.

Man, you are tight on! He should NOT have released an album every year. WB was right in that he DID saturate the market. And, his attempt at rap only proved him to be a follower instead of inovator.

Love 2 the 9's was well blended with rap and tony m proved he could sit at the top table as far as rap is concerned with his tones on 2gether! Prince saturating the market lol

What!!!

Willing And Able is fecking brilliant rap an all

Chuck d of public enemy lists prince as one of his all time great influences so to say prince was a follower instead of innovator is wide of the mark.....why shouldn't prince rap on his records and his style was put in the rap....he could have avoided it completely but if he had we would 1) not be discussing it now and 2) May not have added dimension to his back catalogue in respect to trying something that everyone would be saying....why did prince not use rap in his songs,etc

A few thoughts:

Prince using/adding/incorporating rap into his music should, ideally, be viewed no more different than when he incorporated/incorporates any other musical style or flourish into the mix.

For example, people didn't have a negative reaction when he incorporated/borrowed new wave and rockabilly in his music in the early 80's.

However, in reality, rap is unfortunately viewed as a much more aggressive and often devisive genre. So, when Prince started mixing it in the purple batter, some fans were surprisingly close minded about it.

People tend to speak around this fact but, in the early 90's, many of Prince's older fans weren't necessarily into hip hop. They accused Prince of "selling out" or "bandwagon jumping".

While this may be somewhat true (Tony M. I am looking at you), people seemed to dimiss the fact that Prince had rapped on record at least as far back as 1986, if not earlier. Any elements of rap/hip hop done by Prince still seemed very much like a Prince song. He did, as he did with other musical styles, the Prince take on a genre.

If anything Prince's rapping has exposed a generational rift amongst Prince fans.

[Edited 1/18/12 10:00am]

[Edited 1/18/12 11:43am]

^ i think thats an over simplification. the way he used rap in the early days was nowhere near the same way he incorporated new wave and such

uuhson said:

^ i think thats an over simplification. the way he used rap in the early days was nowhere near the same way he incorporated new wave and such

Really? Explain your point more.

skywalker said:

A few thoughts:

Prince using/adding/incorporating rap into his music should, ideally, be viewed no more different than when he incorporated/incorporates any other musical style or flourish into the mix.

For example, people didn't have a negative reaction when he incorporated/borrowed new wave and rockabilly in his music in the early 80's.

However, in reality, rap is unfortunately viewed as a much more aggressive and often devisive genre. So, when Prince started mixing it in the purple batter, some fans were surprisingly close minded about it.

People tend to speak around this fact but, in the early 90's, many of Prince's older fans weren't necessarily into hip hop. They accused Prince of "selling out" or "bandwagon jumping".

While this may be somewhat true (Tony M. I am looking at you), people seemed to dimiss the fact that Prince had rapped on record at least as far back as 1986, if not earlier. Any elements of rap/hip hop done by Prince still seemed very much like a Prince song. He did, as he did with other musical styles, the Prince take on a genre.

If anything Prince's rapping has exposed a generational rift amongst Prince fans.

[Edited 1/18/12 10:00am]

[Edited 1/18/12 11:43am]

There were hard core fans from Dirty Mind that were disappointed with the mainstream pop rock/new wave turn they felt was the sellout Purple Rain in some ways. There were.

ufoclub said:

skywalker said:

A few thoughts:

Prince using/adding/incorporating rap into his music should, ideally, be viewed no more different than when he incorporated/incorporates any other musical style or flourish into the mix.

For example, people didn't have a negative reaction when he incorporated/borrowed new wave and rockabilly in his music in the early 80's.

However, in reality, rap is unfortunately viewed as a much more aggressive and often devisive genre. So, when Prince started mixing it in the purple batter, some fans were surprisingly close minded about it.

People tend to speak around this fact but, in the early 90's, many of Prince's older fans weren't necessarily into hip hop. They accused Prince of "selling out" or "bandwagon jumping".

While this may be somewhat true (Tony M. I am looking at you), people seemed to dimiss the fact that Prince had rapped on record at least as far back as 1986, if not earlier. Any elements of rap/hip hop done by Prince still seemed very much like a Prince song. He did, as he did with other musical styles, the Prince take on a genre.

If anything Prince's rapping has exposed a generational rift amongst Prince fans.

[Edited 1/18/12 10:00am]

[Edited 1/18/12 11:43am]

There were hard core fans from Dirty Mind that were disappointed with the mainstream pop rock/new wave turn they felt was the sellout Purple Rain in some ways. There were.

I don't disagree. I just think there is more of a bias against Prince and rap.

Not everyone will be pleased with prince venturing into other genre's but if you look at purple rain as an example it typifies his exact musical style as being multi genre expressive and whether new wave or rap he has turned his hand and to be honest done a pretty decent job of whichever genre albeit not his original or categorised source of music Is this not prince though not being categorised in one music genre...pleasing everyone staying in the same style....experimenting and surprising maybe even transcending artists in there chosen area

skywalker said:

uuhson said:

^ i think thats an over simplification. the way he used rap in the early days was nowhere near the same way he incorporated new wave and such

Really? Explain your point more.

well for one, I'm not one of the old people you're talking about that doesnt understand rap. I'm only 20, so I've grown up with rap all around me. There are a few songs where the added rap really just sounds like nothing more than pandering to new fads. And im a big fan of hip hop from the late 70s onward through the early 90s when he started throwing it in. I do think theres a few songs where its done pretty nicely; I enjoy the rap in love 2 the 9s, acknowledge me, and quite a few others. But theres a lot of songs like the flow, sexy MF etc that just sound like desperate attempts to reach the rising hip hop market.

uuhson said:

skywalker said:

Really? Explain your point more.

well for one, I'm not one of the old people you're talking about that doesnt understand rap. I'm only 20, so I've grown up with rap all around me. There are a few songs where the added rap really just sounds like nothing more than pandering to new fads. And im a big fan of hip hop from the late 70s onward through the early 90s when he started throwing it in. I do think theres a few songs where its done pretty nicely; I enjoy the rap in love 2 the 9s, acknowledge me, and quite a few others. But theres a lot of songs like the flow, sexy MF etc that just sound like desperate attempts to reach the rising hip hop market.

But really how was prince not "pandering to new fads" when he incorporated "new wave" in his music? I think skywalker has a valid point. That doesn't mean it applies to everybody but I also think some prince fans hate rap and by extension will hate any rap in a prince song.

U say that "sexy MF" sounds desperate while at the same time saying you like many of the raps in his songs. Could it be that the raps that sound "desperate" just coincide with the raps that you don't personaly care for? I happen to quite enjoy sexy MF. And it was quite popular at the time of its release with the general public.

uuhson said:

skywalker said:

Really? Explain your point more.

well for one, I'm not one of the old people you're talking about that doesnt understand rap. I'm only 20, so I've grown up with rap all around me. There are a few songs where the added rap really just sounds like nothing more than pandering to new fads. And im a big fan of hip hop from the late 70s onward through the early 90s when he started throwing it in. I do think theres a few songs where its done pretty nicely; I enjoy the rap in love 2 the 9s, acknowledge me, and quite a few others. But theres a lot of songs like the flow, sexy MF etc that just sound like desperate attempts to reach the rising hip hop market.

But really how was prince not "pandering to new fads" when he incorporated "new wave" in his music? I think skywalker has a valid point. That doesn't mean it applies to everybody but I also think some prince fans hate rap and by extension will hate any rap in a prince song.

U say that "sexy MF" sounds desperate while at the same time saying you like many of the raps in his songs. Could it be that the raps that sound "desperate" just coincide with the raps that you don't personaly care for? I happen to quite enjoy sexy MF. And it was quite popular at the time of its release with the general public.

because one was done well and the other was shamelessly bad. and come on man, the guy went "gangster" seemingly overnight, he definitely was pandering his ass off in the early 90s


edit: and oops i ment my name is prince sounds desperate, sexy mf is a bit more acceptable




and it barely broke into the top 100 pop/hip hop charts.. really not that popular

[Edited 1/19/12 4:31am]

[Edited 1/19/12 4:33am]

I just think the rap vocal delivery in sexy MF was produced badly in terms of concept. He could have tried a different tone, put a bit of some effect to make it melt into the retro live band sound of the music in a unique way that really worked.

uuhson said:

because one was done well and the other was shamelessly bad. and come on man, the guy went "gangster" seemingly overnight, he definitely was pandering his ass off in the early 90s


edit: and oops i ment my name is prince sounds desperate, sexy mf is a bit more acceptable




and it barely broke into the top 100 pop/hip hop charts.. really not that popular

[Edited 1/19/12 4:31am]

[Edited 1/19/12 4:33am]

Gangster? Chain mask, and high heels? Squealing "Hurt me! Owwah!"? Seemed like Prince being Prince to me.

I dunno. For me, it was just another facet of Prince's persona. The jamie starr/morris day side of him coming out. The pimp/gigalo schtick.

RodeoSchro said:

There's no such thing as good rap OR necessary rap.

"Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang is the exception that proves the rule.

ManlyMoose said:

RodeoSchro said:

There's no such thing as good rap OR necessary rap.

"Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang is the exception that proves the rule.

Maybe if he didnt suck so bad at rap. Really, he is terrible. His genius is that he takes other styles and fabrics of music and make them his own. The rap crap was was never an innovation or inspiring.