Was always a fan of this song, and the remix. Plus it was pretty awesome live.

Prince rapping (prapping) is a genre/style all to its self.

One of my faves. Very bouncy beat and defiant lyrics.

SoftSkarlettLovisa said:

Dead like Elvis. Surprisingly I really like the accapela version. The x-tended rap money mix is great too.

Love both...it might be my favorite joint that P raps on.

I like Face Down and also Pussy Control (which I feel is another Prince rap song).

SoftSkarlettLovisa said:

SoftSkarlettLovisa said:

I always liked it. I never looked at Prince as a skilled "rapper" by any stretch, but he got his point across lol. The video is straight comedy. The remix lifts it up even higher in my book. I put it a notch above the original version.

Since I'm not a big hip hop person, Prince's emceeing skills never bothered me that much unless they were just god awful as with "Mr. Goodnight." But, other songs, such as "Sexy MF," "Irresistible Bitch," "My Name Is Prince," "Jughead," are songs that I enjoy. I think that Prince's use of emceeing works best when he is contouring emceeing into his own funk aesthetic rather than contouring his funk aesthetic to emceeing. As such, I loved "Face Down" the moment that I heard it. And, even more, my wife and I loved hearing it live in 96 and 97. It was so amazing to be able to yell, "PLAY DAT MUTHAFUCKIN' BASS!!!" I've seen Prince perform live over 50 times, and I'll have to admit that "Face Down" is one of the highlights. As for the video, it is good/okay. I like that it's funny and funky. I love Prince being funny.

SoftSkarlettLovisa said:

I love the song and video!!! Maybe I'm weird but there's something about the moody strings playing in the chorus that gets my blood pumping with excitement, like I'm going to read a mystery novel set in the Middle East. [Edited 9/2/17 4:46am]

great song, any song where prince references elvis, either vocally or in lyric is a great song. the strings were most likely done by the brilliant claire fischer.

kingricefan said:

I like Face Down and also Pussy Control (which I feel is another Prince rap song).

i loved joint to joint the most of any raps he did, my best friend and fellow P fan never gave any of princes' hip hop a chance, never.

Awesome. More people should have paid attention to his words.

A highlight on the Emancipation album. Any "best of" list needs this track on it.

Love the song and the video. Definitely a favorite.

The video is quite revealing.....

Once on the org (late 2010 if I recall) a teenage girl said on a thread about the vid something in the line of "Oh God Prince is such a genius! I didn't know he could also play the violin until I watched this video"

Now that I know that the orchestra samples come from "Killin' At The Soda Shop" from Jill Jones, I like it even more.

olb99 said:

Now that I know that the orchestra samples come from "Killin' At The Soda Shop" from Jill Jones, I like it even more.

They do? Wow! Hadn't noticed

databank said:

Once on the org (late 2010 if I recall) a teenage girl said on a thread about the vid something in the line of "Oh God Prince is such a genius! I didn't know he could also play the violin until I watched this video"

Um, I checked on Youtube but cannot find an 'official' video. Anyone got a link?

databank said:

olb99 said:

Now that I know that the orchestra samples come from "Killin' At The Soda Shop" from Jill Jones, I like it even more.

They do? Wow! Hadn't noticed

I think so.

.

Face Down 2:19/2:24/2:35 = Killin' At The Soda Shop 1:15

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Face Down 2:33 = Killin' At The Soda Shop 1:23

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The samples on Face Down are played back a bit slower than on Killin' At The Soda Shop.

.

I haven't been able to identify the main orchestra sample on Face Down (the one repeated during the chorus), but I'd bet it comes from Killin' At The Soda Shop as well. It's just buried in the mix.

.

And Graffiti Bridge 0:00 = Killin' At The Soda Shop 0:45 (of course).

.

Prince apparently liked to recycle.