... And you'd thing he'd just tear that up. What he does falls flat, when it's not cringeworthy.

I hope we are talking abot real reggae or dance hall like Beres Hammond or Buju Banton. If you're talking about Sean Paul or Shaggy, you get a quick express to music appreciation class.

And maybe a slap.

Blue Light is one of his strongest and is very well known here in the Pacific. I've heard countless covers and almost every live island band I have encountered has it in their back pocket ready to play. You would be amazed how popular that track is.

That of course does not mean it's a great song, but I think he got that one right with the response I have encountered.

Lol, he does the accent/dialect really bad in ripopgodazippa and he sounds too intimate for the style, so it sounds a bit cringe.

I'm certain he CAN do it. He might even have some mind blowing dance hall on the shelf in vault... like some of those other gems he's released recently.

But half hearted Ripopgodazippa and Blue Light don't do those styles any justice even lyrically.

Milty2 said:

People, people, the only thing he can pull off nowadays is his tamborine.

Pentacle said:

iZsaZsa said:

Pentacle said:

People, people, the only thing he can pull off nowadays is his tamborine.

And yours.

I don't think he's got the required technique...

Pentacle said:

AnonymousFan said:

Lol, he does the accent/dialect really bad in ripopgodazippa and he sounds too intimate for the style, so it sounds a bit cringe.

Yup, this is why I find it kinda hard to listen to that song. It's cringey haha. It's a nice try though, I much prefer the song Blue Light.

joelmarable said:

breakdown2k14 said:

I love me some "Ripopgodazippa"

That was the first thing I thought of when I read the thread title.

LadeeDas said:

I think he can pull off something like Ska. He would be incorporating a different genre in his music catalogue while still be in his element

Yeah, I agree with you, ska he could pull off well. Maybe with Protoje, Chronixx or Damian Marley...

It's not a reggae song, but i can hear some reggae buried deep within 17 Days. More of that plz Prince.

breakdown2k14 said:

brince only does new wave and rnb ballads well .. funk .. no .. jazz .. no ... rap .. Hell No ... classical ... no .. emd .. blech .. but this man with the right band and a new wave theme and he is the best

i do like blue light a lot tho .. barely a reggae song .. very overproduced .. but good tune

TrevorAyer said:

brince only does new wave and rnb ballads well .. funk .. no .. jazz .. no ... rap .. Hell No ... classical ... no .. emd .. blech .. but this man with the right band and a new wave theme and he is the best

i do like blue light a lot tho .. barely a reggae song .. very overproduced .. but good tune

databank said:

TrevorAyer said:

brince only does new wave and rnb ballads well .. funk .. no .. jazz .. no ... rap .. Hell No ... classical ... no .. emd .. blech .. but this man with the right band and a new wave theme and he is the best

i do like blue light a lot tho .. barely a reggae song .. very overproduced .. but good tune

Well, I would go as far as to say that Prince only does Prince music well. But that is more than enough.

[Edited 1/13/16 13:22pm]

appleseed said:

... And you'd thing he'd just tear that up. What he does falls flat, when it's not cringeworthy.

When did he even try?

Blue Light

Ripopgodazippa

If It'll Make U Happy

That's 3 (three) songs, one of which is unreleased.

Is there anything else?

Is 3 songs enough to make a definitive statement?

To which extent were they really attempts at reaggae or dancehall anyway? To me they're more Prince doing his thing with a reggae flavor on it, just small trips to other sonorities.

I don't think Prince can do it as you say earlier, in the sense of making a full reggae album all by himself, without a reggae producer, that reggae afficionados would say is a remarkable reggae album. That would imply doing more than applying a reggae formula or touch to his own sound, which is basically what he did on the 3 tracks above. I think achieving this would require Prince listening to a shitload of reggae, so he can demonstrate a deep understanding of the genre's subtleties beyond the cliché.

Now Blue Light was a fun, at the time unexpected exercice.

Ripopgodazippa is a wonderful gem of a song IMHO, subtle, sensual as hell with this wonderful clarinet solo by Kathy J. A great reggae song? Maybe not. A great Prince song, damn yeah!

As for If It'll Make U Happy I find it pretty delicious because as with everything Prince was doing at the time it was transfigured into some weird, untypical new wave, in that case with a reggae flavor.

paulludvig said:

databank said:

Well, I would go as far as to say that Prince onoy does Prince music well. But that is more than enough.

If there's ONE genre that Prince has shown an absolute mastery of it's funk, far above anything else let alone new wave. And that's frome someone who's a huge new wave and funk listener, owning hundreds of albums in each genre. Listen to how Prince managed to transfigure a lame song by the creator of funk himself, James Brown (in his late, quite unremarkable period) into a 10 minutes killer funk jam. Prince did more than remixing Gimme Your Love, he just kicked Brown in the balls. I could come up with 100 other examples of Prince being a master at funk, one of the greatest funkateer ever, but that one says it all.

The idea of Prince doing great reggae bores me. The little he did was a Princified version of reggae, as it should be. Prince is as close as anyone to having a decent grasp of most american musical idioms, so he already has a large palette.