HEY EVERYONE, so it’s been like 15 years since Prince released The Rainbow Children; a jazz-driven album that’s funky and is organic musically. Prince stated at the time that it was his most controversial album of his entire career. And, that skinny motherfucker was so fucken’ right. And I heard it about a week ago. It’s quite an interesting album.


Going into the lyrics, Prince tells the TRUTH! And I mean the ABSOLUTE TRUTH; which is to be anti-Semitic, racist, sexist -- and an over-all complete bigoted asshole. So, if you’re not being an over-all bigoted asshole, you need to get out; because that’s where the party’s at, baby!

Here are some examples.

From “Muse 2 the Pharaoh” – “Holocaust aside, many lived and died
But when all truth is told
Would u rather b dead or b sold?”

- OKAY, so here he basically says that the Holocaust (yes THE fucking Holocaust) doesn’t matter and should not be given a thought of when giving thought about past genocides and oppressions. And that is fucking sad, really. Like what the fuck was he thinking?? Do all JWs, or Christians or any other religious people think like this? Please let me know, because if so, this is completely fucked. And furthermore, comparing the Holocaust with slavery and implying that the Holocaust isn’t as important is just ignorant and over-all sad.

From “Family Name” – “U might say, "what u mad about?"
But u still got ur Family Name
Pleased 2 meet u, Mr. Rosenbloom
I'll b John Blackwell just the same
What's ur Family Name?”

- This is just blatantly anti-Semitic. Ok, no other reason but to bring up stereotypical Jewish names such as “Rsoenbloom, Goldstruck, & Pearlman.” You can make all of the excuses for Prince if you want (I get it, he’s Prince), but Prince seemed to want to make it very clear about talking shit about Jews here. Like oh my gosh; Prince is literally Hitler right here! I was honestly sort of expecting for Prince to later talk about his fetish for GAS CHAMBERS! (Ok, that was a joke, an exaggeration there. But you see what I mean) When I first heard this, this shit gave me CANCER. No joke! I don’t know much about Jehovah Witnesses, other than the fact that they give away Watchtowers; I don’t know a whole lot because I’m not religious as you could tell by now. But, do they actually hate Jewish people? Or is this just Prince? Or was he just confused at the time? Someone please clear this up for me. This -- I can say HONESTLY -- freaked me out when I heard it and went over the lyrics.

From “The Rainbow Children” –
“Her children in subjection 2 her, she in subjection 2 the Wise One And the Wise One in subjection to the only begotten one, All – forever is in subjection 2 God”

- What the fuck? Ok, I know religious people might say that “god created man first and then woman and then children and blah, blah, blah”, but many logical-thinking people are not down with that BS. This statement is completely sexist and nothing more.

So, in conclusion of my analysis of this totally fucked album (at least concept-wise); Prince tells us to forget about the holocaust because that was never really important compared to any other tragedies and oppressions; he basically says that White people are the Devil (you know, that guy with those horns on his head), women are just sex objects, and also FUCK Jews and FUCK gays; because who really cares about those people, anyways? And last but not least, Prince tells us we should worship the almighty Flying Jehovah Jezuz Monster (PBUH) throughout the entire fucking album, and if not then you are a “banished one”. Lol like what the fuck is that suppose to mean?! Is he saying that he wants to “banish” everyone who doesn’t follow the JW cult? That’s truly fucked up, Prince.


On a serious note, I am a Prince fan and have been since the fall of last year and I’m happy to be a part of this community. And even though he had some completely fucked beliefs about religion and politics; I still obviously listen to his music and I’m still a fan… Because at the end of the day, Prince was his own person and had his own beliefs; this was just my thoughts on this whole thing. Plus on the other hand, Prince did do some good things politically too. He gave to charity, and he did a great thing for Baltimore and BlackLivesMatter last year which was good. So for those things, I give him props.

So nonetheless, that’s my scattered analysis and point of views of some of the lyrics I found pretty goddamn interesting.

Given that you're 13, I must say, I'm impressed with your spelling and grammar.

That's about it.

I'm not seeing any of what you're saying about antisemitism, racism or whatever. Nice try, thanx for playing.

LBrent said:

The only way to truly appreciate TRC is without the polutant that religion serves.

.

It's so sad so many people are brainwashed into believing in such mythical things.

.

Listen to the music and enjoy it for what it is.

.

darkroman said:

Yes, Prince has lightened up about some of that doctrine...especially the sexism. One of his last interviews, he was excited about a woman president and stating that the age of men was basically over which was why he hired women. He doesn't have a past of male superiority, so I think during the TRC, he was just deep into religious fanatism here. Prince's views are idiosyncratic and ever changing..For example, he was a pacifist for at least the last 15 years of his life but in 1982 wrote a song called Free in which he sang about fighting for your freedom.

Comparing Prince to Hitler (who actually did murder 6 million Jews) is a bit much. As for the holocaust quote you included, I am not sure what to make of it because the song is talking about Pharaohs and God's wrath ( if I recall from the old testament, God's wrath was reserved for those Egyptians enslaving the "Jews"). Could Prince be referencing slavery of the later sort and saying it is still worse than dying in a holocaust? In other words, God would smite those who enslave others but pretty much leave alone worldly wars and genocides...Some think that the Civil War was God's punishment for slavery (in fact, Lincoln [a man that Prince stated was a racist] even said-thus ng that death of 800,000 people was our penance to God for allowing slavery. .) That Prince quote by itself could mean "As bad as the holocaust is, it is still better than being a slave?" but within the context of the song, I am not sure what he is talking about completely.

That being said, I don't agree with comparing tragedies but I am not sure we should jump to the conclusion of Prince being indifferent or happy about the death of millions.

The other line about Rosenbloom (etc.) was prince stating that least Jewish people have their original family names. But that black people do not have that advantage seeing as their names were given to them by slave masters.

I don't think Prince hates Jews per see but I do think he is harboring resentment for the attention their tragedy gets and feels that blacks have not been given the same consideration. I think its immature argument for him to even have and yes, insensitive to Jewish people who historically have supported civil rights for black people.

HEY EVERYONE, so it’s been like 15 years since Prince released The Rainbow Children; a jazz-driven album that’s funky and is organic musically. Prince stated at the time that it was his most controversial album of his entire career. And, that skinny motherfucker was so fucken’ right. And I heard it about a week ago. It’s quite an interesting album.


Going into the lyrics, Prince tells the TRUTH! And I mean the ABSOLUTE TRUTH; which is to be anti-Semitic, racist, sexist -- and an over-all complete bigoted asshole. So, if you’re not being an over-all bigoted asshole, you need to get out; because that’s where the party’s at, baby!

Here are some examples.

From “Muse 2 the Pharaoh” – “Holocaust aside, many lived and died
But when all truth is told
Would u rather b dead or b sold?”

- OKAY, so here he basically says that the Holocaust (yes THE fucking Holocaust) doesn’t matter and should not be given a thought of when giving thought about past genocides and oppressions. And that is fucking sad, really. Like what the fuck was he thinking?? Do all JWs, or Christians or any other religious people think like this? Please let me know, because if so, this is completely fucked. And furthermore, comparing the Holocaust with slavery and implying that the Holocaust isn’t as important is just ignorant and over-all sad.

From “Family Name” – “U might say, "what u mad about?"
But u still got ur Family Name
Pleased 2 meet u, Mr. Rosenbloom
I'll b John Blackwell just the same
What's ur Family Name?”

- This is just blatantly anti-Semitic. Ok, no other reason but to bring up stereotypical Jewish names such as “Rsoenbloom, Goldstruck, & Pearlman.” You can make all of the excuses for Prince if you want (I get it, he’s Prince), but Prince seemed to want to make it very clear about talking shit about Jews here. Like oh my gosh; Prince is literally Hitler right here! I was honestly sort of expecting for Prince to later talk about his fetish for GAS CHAMBERS! (Ok, that was a joke, an exaggeration there. But you see what I mean) When I first heard this, this shit gave me CANCER. No joke! I don’t know much about Jehovah Witnesses, other than the fact that they give away Watchtowers; I don’t know a whole lot because I’m not religious as you could tell by now. But, do they actually hate Jewish people? Or is this just Prince? Or was he just confused at the time? Someone please clear this up for me. This -- I can say HONESTLY -- freaked me out when I heard it and went over the lyrics.

From “The Rainbow Children” –
“Her children in subjection 2 her, she in subjection 2 the Wise One And the Wise One in subjection to the only begotten one, All – forever is in subjection 2 God”

- What the fuck? Ok, I know religious people might say that “god created man first and then woman and then children and blah, blah, blah”, but many logical-thinking people are not down with that BS. This statement is completely sexist and nothing more.

So, in conclusion of my analysis of this totally fucked album (at least concept-wise); Prince tells us to forget about the holocaust because that was never really important compared to any other tragedies and oppressions; he basically says that White people are the Devil (you know, that guy with those horns on his head), women are just sex objects, and also FUCK Jews and FUCK gays; because who really cares about those people, anyways? And last but not least, Prince tells us we should worship the almighty Flying Jehovah Jezuz Monster (PBUH) throughout the entire fucking album, and if not then you are a “banished one”. Lol like what the fuck is that suppose to mean?! Is he saying that he wants to “banish” everyone who doesn’t follow the JW cult? That’s truly fucked up, Prince.


On a serious note, I am a Prince fan and have been since the fall of last year and I’m happy to be a part of this community. And even though he had some completely fucked beliefs about religion and politics; I still obviously listen to his music and I’m still a fan… Because at the end of the day, Prince was his own person and had his own beliefs; this was just my thoughts on this whole thing. Plus on the other hand, Prince did do some good things politically too. He gave to charity, and he did a great thing for Baltimore and BlackLivesMatter last year which was good. So for those things, I give him props.

So nonetheless, that’s my scattered analysis and point of views of some of the lyrics I found pretty goddamn interesting.

[Edited 9/30/16 4:26am]

[Edited 9/30/16 4:40am]

NorthC said:

LBrent said:

I'm not seeing any of what you're saying about antisemitism, racism or whatever. Nice try, thanx for playing.

Then you need a pair of . This is sort of how I and lots if other people felt when we heared this album for the first time. Of course the lyric also include: "He taught an integrated world 2 sing The color U R don't mean a thing" But, interestingly enough, he is singing about himself in the third person here. I totally understan dthe OP's views even if he's overreacting a little bit. This album made me lose interest in Prince for years. It didn't come back until he toured Europe again in the 2010s, when he had toned down his preaching. Glad that fanatic religious phase was over!

Well, speaking as a Jew...of color...and a woman...I don't see, but then again, there's always that particular brand of fan who seems to despise P at a cellular level yet luuuuuuurves his music sooooooo much.

Whatever. Have fun whining.

Don't bother replying. I'm out.

They lyrics mean ...

Holocaust aside (as in outside this one event that was heinous)

That the Jewish people would rather die than be sold as slaves (referencing leaving egypt)



The family name lyrics mean that the jewish slaves got to keep their names and african slaves did not.


Neither set of lyrics is anti-semitic. They contrast the experience of jewish slaves and african slaves.


The concept of TRC was one of Princes tightest he ever did as an independent and the content clearly portrays where he was in his bible studies and how deeply it effected him, the music is brillant and all good art pushes buttons - it doesnt mean Prince hated anyone...it means he was studying -

[Edited 9/30/16 6:46am]

The danger of poetry is ambiguity. A lot can be read - or not read - in those lyrics, and I remember at the time I was mostly interested into the esthetic, metaphorical, poetic quality of TRC's lyrics, which I believe are quite impressive. I didn't pay much attention to those controversial aspects - and there was a lot of controversy at the time - because I wasn't sure what Prince meant by all this, and I still am not. Later, when Kevin Smith told how he went to tell him fans at the Celebration were accusing him of all those things, it seems Prince kinda freaked out and told Kevin that he didn't mean any of this at all. I wish he would have lived to give us a better explaination, but anyway it seems he went into a phase of bigotry at the time (same with the shocking anti-homosexual things he reportedly told W&L), then later on he relaxed a bit and became more open-minded again. Regardless of his personal opinions at various points in his life, he was still a brilliant poet IMHO and that's what matters to me in the end.

Unfortunately, fundamentalist and/or cultish religions tend to exclude many people. I don't know if Prince ever left those views behind completely.

PurpleTrollster said:

From “Muse 2 the Pharaoh” – “Holocaust aside, many lived and died
But when all truth is told
Would u rather b dead or b sold?”

- OKAY, so here he basically says that the Holocaust (yes THE fucking Holocaust) doesn’t matter and should not be given a thought of when giving thought about past genocides and oppressions. And that is fucking sad, really. Like what the fuck was he thinking?? Do all JWs, or Christians or any other religious people think like this? Please let me know, because if so, this is completely fucked. And furthermore, comparing the Holocaust with slavery and implying that the Holocaust isn’t as important is just ignorant and over-all sad.

You quoted the lyric then had to add an entire paragraph to prop up your misunderstanding.

Granted he asks a question that's very difficult... Would the victims of the holocaust prefer to be alive and sold as slaves... or murdered. Not an easy question.

From “Family Name” – “U might say, "what u mad about?"
But u still got ur Family Name
Pleased 2 meet u, Mr. Rosenbloom
I'll b John Blackwell just the same
What's ur Family Name?”

- This is just blatantly anti-Semitic. Ok, no other reason but to bring up stereotypical Jewish names such as “Rsoenbloom, Goldstruck, & Pearlman.” You can make all of the excuses for Prince if you want (I get it, he’s Prince), but Prince seemed to want to make it very clear about talking shit about Jews here. Like oh my gosh; Prince is literally Hitler right here!

Again... no, just like P.Control isn't a song about a girl with strong vaginal muscles.

He's talking about being able to trace your family. If you were an african child kidnapped and sold into slavery you were given a new name. How would that child who grew up with a name given to them by their "owner" be able to trace their family? They can't.

At no point does Prince give props to Hitler.

I was honestly sort of expecting for Prince to later talk about his fetish for GAS CHAMBERS! (Ok, that was a joke, an exaggeration there. But you see what I mean) When I first heard this, this shit gave me CANCER. No joke! I don’t know much about Jehovah Witnesses, other than the fact that they give away Watchtowers; I don’t know a whole lot because I’m not religious as you could tell by now. But, do they actually hate Jewish people? Or is this just Prince? Or was he just confused at the time? Someone please clear this up for me. This -- I can say HONESTLY -- freaked me out when I heard it and went over the lyrics.

No. He's saying that for him personally, he feels the plight of African (Americans) is at least equal to if not worse (in the long run) than that of the Jewish people. In fairness, Prince was an African American so it's not hard to see why he would think that. Humans are biologically designed to care more about their family/people/tribe. Than others.

From “The Rainbow Children” –
“Her children in subjection 2 her, she in subjection 2 the Wise One And the Wise One in subjection to the only begotten one, All – forever is in subjection 2 God”

- What the fuck? Ok, I know religious people might say that “god created man first and then woman and then children and blah, blah, blah”, but many logical-thinking people are not down with that BS. This statement is completely sexist and nothing more.

Biology.

On a serious note, I am a Prince fan and have been since the fall of last year and I’m happy to be a part of this community. And even though he had some completely fucked beliefs about religion and politics; I still obviously listen to his music and I’m still a fan… Because at the end of the day, Prince was his own person and had his own beliefs; this was just my thoughts on this whole thing. Plus on the other hand, Prince did do some good things politically too. He gave to charity, and he did a great thing for Baltimore and BlackLivesMatter last year which was good. So for those things, I give him props.

So nonetheless, that’s my scattered analysis and point of views of some of the lyrics I found pretty goddamn interesting.

Yeah, but it's easy to take a lyric out of context. Allow me to demonstrate...

PurpleTrollster said:

forget about the holocaust because that was never really important

Dude, that's fucked up.

terrig said:

They lyrics mean ...

Holocaust aside (as in outside this one event that was heinous)

That the Jewish people would rather die than be sold as slaves (referencing leaving egypt)



The family name lyrics mean that the jewish slaves got to keep their names and african slaves did not.


Neither set of lyrics is anti-semitic. They contrast the experience of jewish slaves and african slaves.


The concept of TRC was one of Princes tightest he ever did as an independent and the content clearly portrays where he was in his bible studies and how deeply it effected him, the music is brillant and all good art pushes buttons - it doesnt mean Prince hated anyone...it means he was studying -

[Edited 9/30/16 6:46am]

Now this makes sense.

Although Jewish slaves back in Egypt didn't have family names like Rosenbloom as that was forced onto European Jews only in the 18th century. Also concentration camps used numbers not names. And prisoners had no choice between being a slave or dead, often slave first then dead.

[Edited 9/30/16 7:36am]

LBrent said:

I'm not seeing any of what you're saying about antisemitism, racism or whatever. Nice try, thanx for playing.

Exactly.

I don't how people can follow an artist for so long, yet fail to understand anything about them.

Noodled24 said:

PurpleTrollster said:

From “Muse 2 the Pharaoh” – “Holocaust aside, many lived and died
But when all truth is told
Would u rather b dead or b sold?”

- OKAY, so here he basically says that the Holocaust (yes THE fucking Holocaust) doesn’t matter and should not be given a thought of when giving thought about past genocides and oppressions. And that is fucking sad, really. Like what the fuck was he thinking?? Do all JWs, or Christians or any other religious people think like this? Please let me know, because if so, this is completely fucked. And furthermore, comparing the Holocaust with slavery and implying that the Holocaust isn’t as important is just ignorant and over-all sad.

You quoted the lyric then had to add an entire paragraph to prop up your misunderstanding.

Granted he asks a question that's very difficult... Would the victims of the holocaust prefer to be alive and sold as slaves... or murdered. Not an easy question.

Yeah, but it's easy to take a lyric out of context. Allow me to demonstrate...

PurpleTrollster said:

forget about the holocaust because that was never really important

Dude, that's fucked up.

My hat's off to you guys who have the patience to explain these things over and over.

While I disagree with most of your conclusions, I give you tons of credit for taking the time to analyze this stuff as deeply as you did. If you are indeed 13, then keep using your brain the way you did here and I have no doubt you will be successful in anything you attempt!

NorthC said:

LBrent said:

I'm not seeing any of what you're saying about antisemitism, racism or whatever. Nice try, thanx for playing.

Then you need a pair of . This is sort of how I and lots if other people felt when we heared this album for the first time. Of course the lyric also include: "He taught an integrated world 2 sing The color U R don't mean a thing" But, interestingly enough, he is singing about himself in the third person here. I totally understan dthe OP's views even if he's overreacting a little bit. This album made me lose interest in Prince for years. It didn't come back until he toured Europe again in the 2010s, when he had toned down his preaching. Glad that fanatic religious phase was over!

I don't think he's singin about himself here, he's more likely to be referencing Sly Stone given the next line is "Everybody's a star all the everyday people sang" ...

"Whatever" is my reply to the OP:

Prince was great, he was a legend and still is..., TRC was an ok good album...

(altho not as great as the classics 1980 - 1988)

Prince was amazing, I will never think otherwise.

May Prince rest in peace, despite some negativity, I asume you are a bit critical....?

Peace.

PurpleTrollster said:

From “Muse 2 the Pharaoh” – “Holocaust aside, many lived and died
But when all truth is told
Would u rather b dead or b sold?”

- OKAY, so here he basically says that the Holocaust (yes THE fucking Holocaust) doesn’t matter and should not be given a thought of when giving thought about past genocides and oppressions. And that is fucking sad, really. Like what the fuck was he thinking?? Do all JWs, or Christians or any other religious people think like this? Please let me know, because if so, this is completely fucked. And furthermore, comparing the Holocaust with slavery and implying that the Holocaust isn’t as important is just ignorant and over-all sad.

Your name choice speaks volumes - Trollster. Back to school for you.

Art is so great. I see nothing but valid opinions here and I'm glad people at the org are down to respectfully discuss.

.

All people are composed of contradictions and Prince is no exception. It's cool that throughout his career and life he changed so much - that shows a lot of personal growth.

.

Edit: Except for Mary Poppins above me - and that was the best post here by far haha

[Edited 9/30/16 8:53am]

There was some more hateration for the Rainbow Children in the associated artist post. I don't think that Prince was being anti-Semitic, but I think he wanted to removed the Holocaust from the discussion-not that it never happened but we are not going to do a comparison or bring it into the conversation. THere was a time when African Americans wanted to talk about slavery and its aftermath only to have someone say what about the Holocaust? That would end the conversation. SO I believe that if you say-we know about the Holocasut and it was bad but we are going focus just on slavery in America, not that it didn't happen but we are just going to focus on that 1 topic.

I am in total agreement with Noddled 24.

But it is quite difficult to trace you history when even the cenus property logs don't have your name, sex, or age correct. My Great-Great grandfather is listed as a female named Mase on several different registries.

This is a good and productive debate.

Good luck with the cancer. And learning what the word "literally" means.

[img:$uid]http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f331/larslimburg/tumblr_inline_nejqigXOJ51reb8lg_zpszxx4eesi.gif[/img:$uid]

Your user name says it all.

Trollin', trollin', we could have such fun just trollin'.
Rockin', rollin' oh yeah.

Sorry for the double post.

[Edited 9/30/16 12:35pm]

Sorry for the double post.

[Edited 9/30/16 12:34pm]