Prince likes to mix different styles on each record, so there are few pure funk albums in his discography and those don't necessarily have his funkiest songs.

For me, Dirty Mind, Controversy and 1999 had some of the most potent funk as did the Time albums, Prince was clearly the funkiest man on Earth during that period.

Post Purple Rain he served airy French champagne funk in records like Parade and it was different but equally awesome. The Black Album was supposed to reconnect him with his funk roots but we all know what happened. In my view, the following are his best funk records even if they are not always funk from start to finish.

1999

Controversy

The Black Album

Parade

Come

The Exodus

funkomatic said:

herb4 said:

Exodus by far.

I love funk, but don't like this one except for "The Exodus has begun" and "Count the days".

Goldnigga is the funkiest NPG album!

The Good Life, Return of the Bump Squad, Get Wild, Big Fun, New Power Soul...

.

I don;t know what to tell you. There's some thick funk in those tracks. Count the Days is not funky at all.

.

I was thinking about this topic earlier today and 1999 has a lot of good funk on it. Lady Cab Driver, DMSR, 1999, Automatic.. So does MPLSound (Dance 4 Me, Valentina, Ol Skool Company), as much as it gets ragged on around here. The New Power Soul album has some slick funk tracks too. So does Come.

.

Prince has never really delivered a true funk album. His records are all the same. One or two funk/dance tracks, one or two rock trcks, one or two ballads and at least one clunker/weirdo track.

1. The Funk Bible aka The Black Album, "Le Grind" is incredible!

2. The Time

3. What Time Is It?

4. 1999

5. Crystal Ball (unreleased version) - Side 1 and 3 are sooooo funky.

KingSausage said:

For You

Thank you.

3rdeyedude said:

Batman

The first two songs that came to my mind where the remixes of The Future and Electric Chair

1999 By far

Then

Dirty Mind

Controversy

Come (Lots of jams there)

MPLSound

High (Unreleased)

Parade (Some of the cuts are deep in the funk)

SOTT (Funk cuts are best ever made like Housequake and Hot thing)

Prince (Sexy Dancer, I feel 4 u, Lover album version and Bambi alone)

herb4 said:

funkomatic said:

I love funk, but don't like this one except for "The Exodus has begun" and "Count the days".

Goldnigga is the funkiest NPG album!

The Good Life, Return of the Bump Squad, Get Wild, Big Fun, New Power Soul...

.

I don;t know what to tell you. There's some thick funk in those tracks. Count the Days is not funky at all.

.The instrumentation seems to be very inconsistent. It varies from a live band sound to elektro-funk-numbers. Neither of them is really top-notch material (melodies, choruses, arrangements etc.). BTW: Never wanted to claim that Count the days is funky (which it is ). It's just one of the two tracks I really like from that record.

I was thinking about this topic earlier today and 1999 has a lot of good funk on it. Lady Cab Driver, DMSR, 1999, Automatic.. So does MPLSound (Dance 4 Me, Valentina, Ol Skool Company), as much as it gets ragged on around here. The New Power Soul album has some slick funk tracks too. So does Come.

.1999 aside that's where our opinions totally differ. I don't think that Prince succeeded in updating his funk sound. The new material doesn't come close to his top-notch classic funk material from the 80s. A nice groove here and there but mostly nothing to really write home about as a whole.

Prince has never really delivered a true funk album. His records are all the same. One or two funk/dance tracks, one or two rock trcks, one or two ballads and at least one clunker/weirdo track.

.Totally agree. It's a pity that a creative mind like Prince always wanted to be Pop and so rarely really tried to think outside the box without any compromises.

[Edited 5/3/14 23:43pm]