http://www.waxpoetics.com...33-reasons

I mean, I like Quest and all, but this quote is kind of BS. Prince can play the piano. Prince can play synths. What is this guy on?

Edit: gotta love this formatting.

[Edited 3/20/12 21:47pm]

Yeah I love it. But I have 33 reasons why Prince IS NOT Hip-Hop!

1- Tony M.

2- Tony M.

3- Tony M.

4- Tony M.

5- Tony M.

6- Tony M.

7- Tony M.

8- Tony M.

9- Tony M.

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24- Tony M.

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28- Tony M.

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33- Tony M.

Spinlight said:

28. “Shakespeare couldn’t tell a story that well.”

Prince’s bio stretched the truth quite a bit. Shaved his age a little bit to grab teen market. Embellished his ability. (Don’t get me wrong, he can play anything he wants to, but if you list over twenty instruments, and fifteen of those instruments are keyboard related, then, yeah, it’s impressive to someone who don’t know any better; but in my head, you play three instruments: drums, bass, and guitar. Okay, I’ll be fair and say four—and keyboards. Not: (1) Organ—no organ on his first seven records! (2) Rhodes (3) Clavinet (4) Synth. (5) Piano… Come on, now.) Now, the previously mentioned coulda been record-label politics. But in early interviews (especially with Right On! teen mag), Prince too was having some fun making up his bio on the spot to get some hood cred. My favorite being how he was so poor, he’d steal Bubble Yum and stand in front of a McDonald’s just to pretend he was eating a meal.

MarquessMarq said:

Yeah I love it. But I have 33 reasons why Prince IS NOT Hip-Hop!

1- Tony M.

2- Tony M.

3- Tony M.

4- Tony M.

5- Tony M.

6- Tony M.

7- Tony M.

8- Tony M.

9- Tony M.

10- Tony M.

11- Tony M.

12- Tony M.

13- Tony M.

14- Tony M.

15- Tony M.

16- Tony M.

17- Tony M.

18- Tony M.

19- Tony M.

20- Tony M.

21- Tony M.

22- Tony M.

23- Tony M.

24- Tony M.

25- Tony M.

26- Tony M.

27- Tony M.

28- Tony M.

29- Tony M.

30- Tony M.

31- Tony M.

32- Tony M.

33- TC Ellis

Fixed

artist76 said:

"Stretching the truth" - This from a man who says Prince didn't credit him on an album, when it was actually a live album and he just jumped on the drums for bit unplanned at the end of one song. That's stretching the truth, by not telling all of it.

For someone who claims to be such a big Prince fan, it kind of surprises me he doesn't give Prince credit for playing the piano or the synths?? And then he says he can just play keyboards? First of all, I don't know the difference between a synth and a keyboard but I presume its negligible. Secondly, just because Prince didn't put an organ on his record until 7 albums in doesn't mean shit.

Just weird. I didn't even read the whole list because it was just odd and seemingly pointless. I don't get it.

[Edited 3/21/12 0:01am]

Spinlight said:

artist76 said:

"Stretching the truth" - This from a man who says Prince didn't credit him on an album, when it was actually a live album and he just jumped on the drums for bit unplanned at the end of one song. That's stretching the truth, by not telling all of it.

For someone who claims to be such a big Prince fan, it kind of surprises me he doesn't give Prince credit for playing the piano or the synths?? And then he says he can just play keyboards? First of all, I don't know the difference between a synth and a keyboard but I presume its negligible. Secondly, just because Prince didn't put an organ on his record until 7 albums in doesn't mean shit.

Just weird. I didn't even read the whole list because it was just odd and seemingly pointless. I don't get it.

[Edited 3/21/12 0:01am]

you have missed his point

reread

jonylawson said:

Spinlight said:

For someone who claims to be such a big Prince fan, it kind of surprises me he doesn't give Prince credit for playing the piano or the synths?? And then he says he can just play keyboards? First of all, I don't know the difference between a synth and a keyboard but I presume its negligible. Secondly, just because Prince didn't put an organ on his record until 7 albums in doesn't mean shit.

Just weird. I didn't even read the whole list because it was just odd and seemingly pointless. I don't get it.

[Edited 3/21/12 0:01am]

you have missed his point

reread

No, I didn't miss his point. I just think that if Prince can capably play those separate instruments, he should rightfully list them separately. Not everyone who can play a piano can play the synth. We know this from his touring bands.

Spinlight said:

jonylawson said:

you have missed his point

reread

No, I didn't miss his point. I just think that if Prince can capably play those separate instruments, he should rightfully list them separately. Not everyone who can play a piano can play the synth. We know this from his touring bands.

If you can play the piano, I would guess you'd know the basics of playing a synth, but you would not automatically know how to get the most from it.

In that respect, yeah...they're different instruments.

I have always found this Questionmarklove fellow to be a bit of an arse.

Spinlight said:

jonylawson said:

you have missed his point

reread

No, I didn't miss his point. I just think that if Prince can capably play those separate instruments, he should rightfully list them separately. Not everyone who can play a piano can play the synth. We know this from his touring bands.

AGREE! Knowing how to play piano doesn't make one able to arrange the synth arrangements on albums like 1999, SOTT and LoveSexy. Arranging in hearing which part an instrument should have, as well as playing it the correct way.

More chip shop than hip hop.

questlove is basically saying telling everyone how prince is relevant from a hiphop perspective outside from a pop or r&b influence.

Prince is hip hop almost at much as james brown is hip hop... cats like The Neptunes, Outkast, bad boy and many othe producers have studied Prince's use of the linn drum machine and emulate it. also the use of his synths.

Plus i dont care what anyone says, In my opinion Pince recorded alot of good rap records !

DAYS OF WILD

FUNKY DESIGN

THE P

FACE DOWN

his verse on "INCENSE AND CANDLES" is better than most rap on the radio

SEXY MF

MR GOOD NIGHT

THE GOOD LIFE

GETT OFF

DEAD ON IT (but that was making fun of rap)

POPE

on the real, his rap verse was on anna stesia is classic for 1988 standards.

[Edited 3/21/12 9:41am]

Nikademus said:

MarquessMarq said:

Yeah I love it. But I have 33 reasons why Prince IS NOT Hip-Hop!

1- Tony M.

2- Tony M.

3- Tony M.

4- Tony M.

5- Tony M.

6- Tony M.

7- Tony M.

8- Tony M.

9- Tony M.

10- Tony M.

11- Tony M.

12- Tony M.

13- Tony M.

14- Tony M.

15- Tony M.

16- Tony M.

17- Tony M.

18- Tony M.

19- Tony M.

20- Tony M.

21- Tony M.

22- Tony M.

23- Tony M.

24- Tony M.

25- Tony M.

26- Tony M.

27- Tony M.

28- Tony M.

29- Tony M.

30- Tony M.

31- Tony M.

32- Tony M.

33- TC Ellis

Fixed

Double Fix - #34 - DVS

This was a DOPE article!

You can say what you want about Prince and what he did for Hip-Hop...His print is remarkable! Haha

I realize Prince was influential to many hip-hop artists, but wasn't he initally dismissive of rap music? Tried to play catch up by working with Tony M.

nyse said:

Prince is hip hop almost at much as james brown is hip hop...

NO.

This article is, of course, just an extension of what Questlove did in the early 90s. He makes some good points, but his good points are weakened or ignored because he oft time reaches too much to coopt or assimilate Prince into hip hop. It is true that Prince did influence more than a few hip hop artists, but that does not make him hip hop. Additionally, Questlove errors most when he takes things that are just natural or innate to the rock-n-roll or pop star lifestyle and tries to make them hip hop. These things existed before hip hop and even before Prince. And, no, hip hop does not have a monopoly on rebellion, neither does rock-n-roll before it or jazz before it or even blues before it. While Mozart may not have been funky, he was certainly rebellious, and being rebellious does not make Mozart hip hop.

*

Finally, I do agree with Questlove that Prince was stretching his bio. And, yes, the piano, synth, keyboard, and organ are the same instrument. Most of the people that I know can play each because it is the same basic construct. Hey, we know that Prince is as much hype as he is everything else. It doesn't bother me that he stretched the truth because he has a legacy of delivering the goods.

nyse said:

Prince is hip hop almost at much as james brown is hip hop... cats like The Neptunes, Outkast, bad boy and many othe producers have studied Prince's use of the linn drum machine and emulate it. also the use of his synths.

Plus i dont care what anyone says, In my opinion Pince recorded alot of good rap records !

DAYS OF WILD

FUNKY DESIGN

THE P

FACE DOWN

his verse on "INCENSE AND CANDLES" is better than most rap on the radio

SEXY MF

MR GOOD NIGHT

THE GOOD LIFE

GETT OFF

DEAD ON IT (but that was making fun of rap)

POPE

on the real, his rap verse was on anna stesia is classic for 1988 standards.

[Edited 3/21/12 9:41am]

And Bob George, one of my favorite Prince raps.

The only reason I need: QUESTLOVE THINKS SO!

The piano is as different from many synthesizers as the guitar is from the bass guitar. It's just been common to associate the piano with all the other keyboard instruments because of the black and white keyboard and because romplers have a piano sound in them and people are most familiar with that type of "synthesizers". Playing a two-handed composition on the weighted keys of a piano is entirely different from playing lead lines on a monophonic synthesizer like the Moog Minimoog or ARP Odyssey. There are of course similarities between all the instruments that use a "piano style" keyboard, but some people are always taking the credit away from keyboard players for being able to play different keyboard instruments. How many people do you know that really can play the clavinet? You can't just sit down on one and expect it to sound great.

You could just as well say that the guitar, the electric guitar, ukulele and mandolin are all the same instrument. Hell, throw in the violin there too.

(Not that Prince's ability to play 3948593 instruments wouldn't be horseshit. )

an MAZING article.....of course this isnt front page news though.................

smoothcriminal12 said:

nyse said:

Prince is hip hop almost at much as james brown is hip hop...

NO.

co-NO.

Adisa said:

smoothcriminal12 said:

NO.

co-NO.

ok ok I did kind of over exagerate on that one