His emancipation was the dawning of a wonderful new era for the Purple Faithful. We all lined up with our tickets for crystal Ball, NPG Music Club, and anything else that Prince was free to do once he wiped slave off his face and recovered his infamous moniker. With those greedy, evil, non-music playing record executives out of the way, we were set to ride the wave of euphoria that would spring forth from the ample bosom of Prince's genius. And we indeed got a funky, freaky, magical mystery tour of epic proportions - with a few nasty bumps in the road. Prince was a sort of maverick of the digital age as he struck out on his own - purportedly to get his music directly to the people who wanted it the most. Sure there were fits and starts - kinks to work out - and it was all so volatile and fleeting. Nothing lasted long but it kept us on our toes - irritating and intriguing us - all at once sometimes. He was trying things that no one else had the balls to do - a hallmark of the Prince that those of us who had been there from the beginning had come to know and love (BEFORE the purple bandwagon). But at the end of the day, we got way more Prince than we would have if he stayed on the plantation. Prince didn't necessarily flood the market or spread himself too thin - at least not to the extent that WB was thinking.

.

Today, we have come to the point that we see 3 albums that are blatantly tailored for the pop tart charts - complete with unqualified youngsters. As Chris Rock said in one of his jokes, there is always that dude at the club who isn't really old but just too old to be in the club. I can not resist the feeling that Prince is that dude now. But since its Prince and he is still cooler than everyone in the room, no one says anything and his entourage is escorted to VIP in the music section of the internet - the same one that he pronounced dead just a short time ago.

.

Hit N Run impresses me like one of those Prince experiments that some kid raised on the internet and social media talked him into. With his wealth of material, it is nothing for Prince to toss out a collection of songs in some new distribution channel just to see what it will do (not unlike what was done with Crystal Ball, Musicology, and 20Ten). In this way, it is more like bait than an actual album release - the kind of new Prince release that used to build such anticipation that you would actually be in a crowd at the local record store the day it was released back in the day. Of course, that feeling is gone - I suspect forever. Now I think there aren't not nearly as many people who care about a new Prince album release and, among the faithful, something like this Hit N Run material with the teenage nightclub vibe is nearly anti-climatic. As Prince clearly works to remain relevant (whatever the hell that means in 2015), there is so much forgettable new Prince material out there now that I think it is taken for granted now. For the first time in my decades of devotion to Prince, I think I have come to a place where I completely understand what the WB was afraid of: the unbridled and seemingly whimsical releases from Prince today. And I never thought I would be here.

clicked on thread, saw wall of text, clicked away from thread.

ThomasBjj said:

clicked on thread, saw wall of text, clicked away from thread.

I also saw a huge Brick and clicked away...

ThomasBjj said:

clicked on thread, saw wall of text, clicked away from thread.

This.

This is so deep and original.

warning2all said:

ThomasBjj said:

clicked on thread, saw wall of text, clicked away from thread.

Read the wall of text. Have NO IDEA what the OP is tryin' to say. U were right to click out

warning2all said:

The irony of finally breaking away from Warner Brothers in the '90's was, as it turned out, his best work was behind him. We thought with his "Emancipation" all this great music being held back would be unleashed. His Emancipation turned out to be complete self-indulgence & a lack of answering to anyone about Quality-Control. Prince would be enjoying a higher stature and more respected legacy today if he stayed with WB. They would have wanted higher quality releases more spaced out but better promoted--which, in retrospect would have been much,much better than having "Planet Earth", "MPLSound", "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic", "Newpower Soul", "NPGMC Albums", "20Ten".. Let's be honest: nobody out there really cares about "HITNRUN". If it wasn't for his intense media efforts the last 3 weeks, Noone would know about it. How many people actually read those articles & interviews anyway? I bet 99.5% of readers don't. He was upset that WB wanted to hold him back from over saturation, yet he didn't release anything from 20Ten to AOA himself. And when he comes back, we get "Plectrum Electrum"?? I believe Prince is happy. He owns his masters. He's rich. He lives in his own bubble at Paisley Park. He is a big believer is his own celebrity status and believes he's a genius/icon and is surrounded by yes-men. So you could say he did something right. Or, you could look at his discography Post "Diamonds and Pearls" and see a steady decline in quality, relevance, popularity; missed opportunity, bad decision-making & declining sales. Personally, I really don't know where he goes from HITNRUN.....

I appreciate your intelligent reply and your reading comprehension. You make some salient points for those of us who have the ability to think critically and digest something more than emoticons and text speak.

I think the Prince we all fell in love with was Hungry for success & he had a Massive Team

around him making sure that everything ran like clockwork and in ways that were likely to turn a profit..

After WB it 'feels' to me like we just get whatever Prince feels like promoting for a few weeks to make some quick Money.

FUNKYNESS said:

warning2all said:

The irony of finally breaking away from Warner Brothers in the '90's was, as it turned out, his best work was behind him. We thought with his "Emancipation" all this great music being held back would be unleashed. His Emancipation turned out to be complete self-indulgence & a lack of answering to anyone about Quality-Control. Prince would be enjoying a higher stature and more respected legacy today if he stayed with WB. They would have wanted higher quality releases more spaced out but better promoted--which, in retrospect would have been much,much better than having "Planet Earth", "MPLSound", "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic", "Newpower Soul", "NPGMC Albums", "20Ten".. Let's be honest: nobody out there really cares about "HITNRUN". If it wasn't for his intense media efforts the last 3 weeks, Noone would know about it. How many people actually read those articles & interviews anyway? I bet 99.5% of readers don't. He was upset that WB wanted to hold him back from over saturation, yet he didn't release anything from 20Ten to AOA himself. And when he comes back, we get "Plectrum Electrum"?? I believe Prince is happy. He owns his masters. He's rich. He lives in his own bubble at Paisley Park. He is a big believer is his own celebrity status and believes he's a genius/icon and is surrounded by yes-men. So you could say he did something right. Or, you could look at his discography Post "Diamonds and Pearls" and see a steady decline in quality, relevance, popularity; missed opportunity, bad decision-making & declining sales. Personally, I really don't know where he goes from HITNRUN.....

I appreciate your intelligent reply and your reading comprehension. You make some salient points for those of us who have the ability to think critically and digest something more than emoticons and text speak.

I'm sorry but I did take the time to read what u wrote and didn't understand a single word of it. And I have an IQ of 130. Let's not argue about it but I think u may wish to work on the readeability of your posts since you write them for others to read. No offense meant, just sayin'

Ego101 said:

I think the Prince we all fell in love with was Hungry for success & he had a Massive Team

around him making sure that everything ran like clockwork and in ways that were likely to turn a profit..

After WB it 'feels' to me like we just get whatever Prince feels like promoting for a few weeks to make some quick Money.

I dont doubt that. Since he can now come away with with the commanding share of profits from his work without someone tell him that he cant put it out there when he feels like it, I am sure that marketability is considered to some extent on certain projects. I suppose there can be positives and negatives associated with that. He can also step up and say think like Black Lives Matter, release songs specifically for social causes like Baltimore and SST - the concepts of which were actually overshadowed the relevance of his other recent output.

warning2all said:

The irony of finally breaking away from Warner Brothers in the '90's was, as it turned out, his best work was behind him. We thought with his "Emancipation" all this great music being held back would be unleashed. His Emancipation turned out to be complete self-indulgence & a lack of answering to anyone about Quality-Control. Prince would be enjoying a higher stature and more respected legacy today if he stayed with WB. They would have wanted higher quality releases more spaced out but better promoted--which, in retrospect would have been much,much better than having "Planet Earth", "MPLSound", "Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic", "Newpower Soul", "NPGMC Albums", "20Ten".. Let's be honest: nobody out there really cares about "HITNRUN". If it wasn't for his intense media efforts the last 3 weeks, Noone would know about it. How many people actually read those articles & interviews anyway? I bet 99.5% of readers don't. He was upset that WB wanted to hold him back from over saturation, yet he didn't release anything from 20Ten to AOA himself. And when he comes back, we get "Plectrum Electrum"?? I believe Prince is happy. He owns his masters. He's rich. He lives in his own bubble at Paisley Park. He is a big believer is his own celebrity status and believes he's a genius/icon and is surrounded by yes-men. So you could say he did something right. Or, you could look at his discography Post "Diamonds and Pearls" and see a steady decline in quality, relevance, popularity; missed opportunity, bad decision-making & declining sales. Personally, I really don't know where he goes from HITNRUN.....

Once that 1980 community was removed, the whole Prince culture changed it started going down, by the time WB was removed, the direction and quality control, vision was scattered. The Live shows were always good, but the album output always had it's ups and downs.

.

Your post was spot on.

databank said:

FUNKYNESS said:

I appreciate your intelligent reply and your reading comprehension. You make some salient points for those of us who have the ability to think critically and digest something more than emoticons and text speak.

I'm sorry but I did take the time to read what u wrote and didn't understand a single word of it. And I have an IQ of 130. Let's not argue about it but I think u may wish to work on the readeability of your posts since you write them for others to read. No offense meant, just sayin'

I said nothing to you. I am not concerned with your IQ, reading comprehension, or preferences so there is no need to address or attack me about the "readability" (with one e) of my post. I addressed a group that you are not in based on your own words so there is no reason for us to communicate. There are plenty of other posts on this site. I take no offense from those who can not understand me writing because, plainly, there are those that do.

Wow, such sarkiness towards a poster who didn't use emoticons, and had the audacity to write a 3 paragraph post.

FUNKYNESS said:

databank said:

I'm sorry but I did take the time to read what u wrote and didn't understand a single word of it. And I have an IQ of 130. Let's not argue about it but I think u may wish to work on the readeability of your posts since you write them for others to read. No offense meant, just sayin'

I said nothing to you. I am not concerned with your IQ, reading comprehension, or preferences so there is no need to address or attack me about the "readability" (with one e) of my post. I addressed a group that you are not in based on your own words so there is no reason for us to communicate. There are plenty of other posts on this site. I take no offense from those who can not understand me writing because, plainly, there are those that do.

I did not "attack" u. As someone who opened this post and bothered to read it, I feel legitimate to express my concern about the fact that I found the language confusing. Now it's fine if others got your point, but I didn't and I wish I had for if I had I could have commented the content instead of the form. But OK, nevermind + peace

databank said:

FUNKYNESS said:

I said nothing to you. I am not concerned with your IQ, reading comprehension, or preferences so there is no need to address or attack me about the "readability" (with one e) of my post. I addressed a group that you are not in based on your own words so there is no reason for us to communicate. There are plenty of other posts on this site. I take no offense from those who can not understand me writing because, plainly, there are those that do.

I did not "attack" u. As someone who opened this post and bothered to read it, I feel legitimate to express my concern about the fact that I found the language confusing. Now it's fine if others got your point, but I didn't and I wish I had for if I had I could have commented the content instead of the form. But OK, nevermind + peace

right...

NouveauDance said:

ThomasBjj said:

clicked on thread, saw wall of text, clicked away from thread.

This.

You're both idiots with the Vines-induced attention span of a goldfish. This so called brick of text is exceptionally well written and, moreover, well founded.

KnowThySelfie said:

Wow, such sarkiness towards a poster who didn't use emoticons, and had the audacity to write a 3 paragraph post.

This... Right here...

nothing wrong with the ideas presented in this post...nor was it difficult to grasp or comprehend...

So the OP writes a perfectly understandable post without stupid so called funny gifs and one emoticon and gets shot down because it was 3 paragraphs and too much to read for some. OK.

kapo74 said:

NouveauDance said:

This.

You're both idiots with the Vines-induced attention span of a goldfish. This so called brick of text is exceptionally well written and, moreover, well founded.

LOL! My thoughts exactly.

kapo74 said:

NouveauDance said:

This.

You're both idiots with the Vines-induced attention span of a goldfish. This so called brick of text is exceptionally well written and, moreover, well founded.

So well written they couldn't use fucking paragraphs?

NouveauDance said:

kapo74 said:

You're both idiots with the Vines-induced attention span of a goldfish. This so called brick of text is exceptionally well written and, moreover, well founded.

So well written they couldn't use fucking paragraphs?

You must be new around here. This site sucks when it comes down to layout

kapo74 said:

NouveauDance said:

So well written they couldn't use fucking paragraphs?

You must be new around here. This site sucks when it comes down to layout

Exactly. Even the most fastidious of us sometimes forget to shift-return.

I think the OP's point is well taken. It was a little wordy, but I got it.

kapo74 said:

You must be new around here.

Clearly not honey. This forum software is borked we all know that, but it's not difficult to edit a post.