From the Wax Poetic (great) article on Madhouse: "You could visit certain hipsters in 1965 and be guaranteed to find John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme in their living rooms. Fast-forward to ’73 and we’re talking Head Hunters by Herbie Hancock. Aside from being landmark albums in jazz, the records were badges of cool for their time (and even now), tchotchkes that revealed as much about the buyers’ sophistication as their tastes in music. Believe it or not, 8 became one of those records in 1987." (http://www.waxpoetics.com...ated-strut)

Well, I was 10 in 87 and it'd take me 10 more years to become a hipster. By then, Madhouse was long forgotten and the hype was mostly British electronic music and trip-hop (and D'Angelo when it came to R&B), so I wouldn't know how hip Madhouse was. Just, the thing is that A Love Supreme and Head Hunters were top-sellers while Madhouse didn't even make gold. Nonetheless that's still a few hundred thousands copies spreaded among hipsters. I know from older fans that in Paris, yeah, between 85 and 93 everything Prince-related was the summum of hipness and Madhouse was part of it, but the USA, UK and the rest of the world, IDK.

Any hipster memories from 1987?

there wasn't such a thing as hipsters in the 80s. but that aside, in the uk at least, no-one bar the odd prince fan had heard of madhouse, and i never heard anything about it from the states either. the side projects of prince were just things that only hardcore prince fans knew about. prince was popular at the time of their release but most of his fans weren't hardcore and wouldn't have heard of madhouse and family or jill jones. even a lot of his bigger fans didn't care about side projects and it's the same today

the writer of the article probably wasn't even born in the 80s or was in nappies when the album came out. i see some people posting a load of shite about other artists like madonna and her "impact" in the 80s and 90s and then see they weren't even born when the event took place, but because they read a few articles and books they think they know it all

Not sure about hip. I do remember hearing 6 on the radio back then and knowing Prince was all over this even though he wasn't listed anywhere in the credits. Other than that I remember a couple friends seeing the cassette in my car and drooling over the chick on the cover and immediately loving Madhouse for that reason alone. Another friend thought I lost my mind when he heard it. This is one of those projects that I grew to love over time...but honestly at the time I didn't really think much of it outside for the fact that it was a sort of cool Prince side project.

I don't think they were really "hip" - - but I did enjoy them. I thought they were great, and still listen to them from time to time. I have a framed cover of "8" and a framed promo advert for "16" on my wall in my music room

I don't remember there being any promotion in the UK for either of the Madhouse albums, no music press ads or anything.

I remember buying "8" at a record fair during the Lovesexy period for not much money. The guy had no idea what or who it was.

In Paris, Prince was like a god around that time (late 80's) (but in the US he was not considered too cool with college age kids or just above). I know because I have a musician friend who was born in and lived in Paris at that time who really got into Prince just at that point. I'd believe the Madhouse albums were considered hip in Paris.

What an excellent article! Excerpt:

.

“I did all the sax and flute, and Prince played everything else,” Eric Leeds confirms. “Much has been said about his insistence on not letting it be known that he was involved with the project. His motives are his own, but as I remember it, he wanted the music to be related to on its own merits, and perhaps was concerned that if it was released as a ‘Prince jazz album,’ it would draw more attention to the idea that Prince would play jazz than to the value of the music itself.

.

“The jazz community can be pretty brutal in its regard for the idea that a pop musician would have the arrogance to consider himself a jazz musician. By the ‘jazz community,’ I mean the writers and critics. Ironically, many jazz musicians that I know really dug the album and were convinced that Prince was behind it from the very start.”

.

Saxophonist James Carter, cause of the greatest buzz in modern jazz since the début of Pulitzer-winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, remembers 8 fondly. “Man, Madhouse brings back memories of a high school talent show in which we performed ‘Six’ as an instrumental,” says Carter, recalling his Northwestern High days in Detroit. “I always dug Eric Leeds’s sparse baritone sax work throughout the piece. Prince lays down one of the funkiest grooves in D minor; Eric jabs like a boxer.”

.

[Edited 12/31/13 7:13am]

As a Prince fan, I was into Madhouse from the beginning, but, I didn't notice the 2 albums being "hip" until the early 90s. Even then, it was an "underground" type of hip. Someone who wasn't really in to Prince would find out that I was a fan and would ask me if I'd heard Madhouse. After this happened a few times I realized that to some, 8 & 16 were largely unheard gems that they would pride themselves in being in to.

Around this time I was doing the audio for the local NBC news affiliate and I created some commercial bumpers out of Madhouse tracks. It was fun when the rare person would recognize it and say something to me about it. Of course the station had no idea and no royalties were paid, but, oh well...

Here in the States, Around their time of release the 10 & 13 videos were played often on BET

Eric Leeds was also interviewd on the show
He talked about the videos, the band, being the opening act on tour
But besides that i never ever heard these played on main stream radio

As far as 8 i didnt even know it exsisted till they promoted 16 on BET

Sometime early '87, I'm in a local wrecka stow, buying a Prince "If I Was Your Girlfriend" CMS (cassette maxi-single for the young'uns), and I heard "8" playing.

I asked the clerks what we were listening to. They tell me it's a new record by Madhouse. I say it sounds like Prince. They say they were just talking about that. They say he's not listed in the credits but it's on Paisley Park Records, so, maybe. They had been debating if it was Prince when I walked up. I bought a copy on the spot.

After i seen Madhouse on BET i bought the album on cassette
But it wasnt till 89 when i bought 8

[Edited 12/31/13 7:58am]

Here in The D (Detroit), which has a long-standing love affair with Prince as a city, 8 got mad airplay (esp. by The Electrifying Mojo) and it was either common knowledge or widely suspected that Madhouse was a Prince project. I think Prince fans considered themselves "hip" even if the term hipster wasn't being used, so yes Madhouse fits within that whole aesthetic!

I remember when "8" was released in 87 in Denmark.

It was like a secret record, kind of underground, but (iirc)... with the famous Paisley Park logo on it.

I did not buy the album until years later.

datdude said:

Here in The D (Detroit), which has a long-standing love affair with Prince as a city, 8 got mad airplay (esp. by The Electrifying Mojo) and it was either common knowledge or widely suspected that Madhouse was a Prince project. I think Prince fans considered themselves "hip" even if the term hipster wasn't being used, so yes Madhouse fits within that whole aesthetic!

Same in the Washington D.C area. Prince was very popular in the 80s in this area and 8 got a lot of airplay and did actually do well on the RnB charts.

Sometimes on this board some of you forget about the RnB charts. A group or an artist may be very popular with black audiences and be unknown to the rest of the public.

-