Man, that is a straight steal! Wow!! Someone should have got paid when the album was officialy released in '94. Interesting!

Just to re-emphasize it's at the 3:25 mark. I didn't see that little nugget at first underneath the Youtube video. I sat listening up to that point like

Wow! Now I finally understand the lyric, "The beat won't stop 'till the J.M. jocks."

If Prince took the rap off of Positivity because he learned of the rap's origin, then why did he allow it to be released, still uncredited, on The Black Album in 1994? Strange.

Who's responsible for this? Cat, I suppose? Why wouldn't Cat just tell him?

Spinlight said:

If Prince took the rap off of Positivity because he learned of the rap's origin, then why did he allow it to be released, still uncredited, on The Black Album in 1994? Strange.

Who's responsible for this? Cat, I suppose? Why wouldn't Cat just tell him?

I always thought Warners released it against his wishes. I don't think they gave him much choice in the matter. They just took it and released it as it would have been in 1988.

HonestMan13 said:

Spinlight said:

If Prince took the rap off of Positivity because he learned of the rap's origin, then why did he allow it to be released, still uncredited, on The Black Album in 1994? Strange.

Who's responsible for this? Cat, I suppose? Why wouldn't Cat just tell him?

I always thought Warners released it against his wishes. I don't think they gave him much choice in the matter. They just took it and released it as it would have been in 1988.

no, prince did a deal to get paid for it's release

the black album was finished in the can, thus released as it was. lovesexy wasn't, so it was changed

Spinlight said:

If Prince took the rap off of Positivity because he learned of the rap's origin, then why did he allow it to be released, still uncredited, on The Black Album in 1994? Strange.

Who's responsible for this? Cat, I suppose? Why wouldn't Cat just tell him?

This rap was in Positivity? Is version floating around anywhere?

berniejobs said:

Spinlight said:

If Prince took the rap off of Positivity because he learned of the rap's origin, then why did he allow it to be released, still uncredited, on The Black Album in 1994? Strange.

Who's responsible for this? Cat, I suppose? Why wouldn't Cat just tell him?

This rap was in Positivity? Is version floating around anywhere?

Yes, the Positivity demo is out there and it contains the Cat rap we know from Cindy C. At the end, she says "the mystifying music that we call Positivity!" instead of "that we call Cindy C!"

unique said:

HonestMan13 said:

I always thought Warners released it against his wishes. I don't think they gave him much choice in the matter. They just took it and released it as it would have been in 1988.

no, prince did a deal to get paid for it's release

the black album was finished in the can, thus released as it was. lovesexy wasn't, so it was changed

It's still surprising given the American copyright law. I would think that he would have to either change the credits or pay the original composer. IDK why that isn't a requirement just cuz the record was finished in 1987.

Well nobody said JM Silk didn't get paid. JM Silk aka Steve Hurley was a Chicago house producer/reimixer who remixed for many artist such as Madonna, Michael Jackson as well as PRince (Gett Off). I cautiously assume that Warners paid some fee. It would be futile to speculate why he is still uncredited though. The music industry is funny that way.

Spinlight said:

unique said:

no, prince did a deal to get paid for it's release

the black album was finished in the can, thus released as it was. lovesexy wasn't, so it was changed

It's still surprising given the American copyright law. I would think that he would have to either change the credits or pay the original composer. IDK why that isn't a requirement just cuz the record was finished in 1987.

It is possible to change how a song is credited on ASCAP after it was released. For example, Mike Love and Brian Wilson are now listed as co-writers of the Katy Perry song "California Gurls" after complaining that the line "I wish they all could be California Girls" was lifted from the Beach Boys song. But in that case they probably cared more about getting credit than getting paid. In the case of "Cindy C.," the original composer might not have cared much about getting official credit if he got a nice settlement. It's not like it was a hit song or anything. Just a guess, though.

electricberet said:

Spinlight said:

It's still surprising given the American copyright law. I would think that he would have to either change the credits or pay the original composer. IDK why that isn't a requirement just cuz the record was finished in 1987.

It is possible to change how a song is credited on ASCAP after it was released. For example, Mike Love and Brian Wilson are now listed as co-writers of the Katy Perry song "California Gurls" after complaining that the line "I wish they all could be California Girls" was lifted from the Beach Boys song. But in that case they probably cared more about getting credit than getting paid. In the case of "Cindy C.," the original composer might not have cared much about getting official credit if he got a nice settlement. It's not like it was a hit song or anything. Just a guess, though.

There have been no such changes to Cindy C, on ASCAP or anywhere else. They are all listed as the sole writer being Prince.

Of course, noone really has any idea about whether Hurley got paid or not. One might assume, however, that seeing as Hurley did re-mix work for Prince, there was no issue between them.

Mindflux said:

electricberet said:

It is possible to change how a song is credited on ASCAP after it was released. For example, Mike Love and Brian Wilson are now listed as co-writers of the Katy Perry song "California Gurls" after complaining that the line "I wish they all could be California Girls" was lifted from the Beach Boys song. But in that case they probably cared more about getting credit than getting paid. In the case of "Cindy C.," the original composer might not have cared much about getting official credit if he got a nice settlement. It's not like it was a hit song or anything. Just a guess, though.

There have been no such changes to Cindy C, on ASCAP or anywhere else. They are all listed as the sole writer being Prince.

Of course, noone really has any idea about whether Hurley got paid or not. One might assume, however, that seeing as Hurley did re-mix work for Prince, there was no issue between them.

Sounds very plausible and likely. Keep in mind, however, that the official release of the Black Album was in 1994, and Silk´s last remixes for Prince were done for some D&P maxi singles.

And we know that Prince is not very accurate when it comes to giving credit. Sometimes he´s more generous than he has to be, and sometimes he gets sued by people like Tony M. or Levi.

I think the Black Album, despite its offical release and its fame in the late 80s, was and still is too obscure to worry about.

But then again...I´m sure Silk Hurley must have heard Cindy C. in 1988 on a bootleg. It´s almost impossible that he HASN´T heard the song back then, given his status as a producer and the fact that the Black Album was THE most discussed album back then.