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I've seen several comments on The Org suggesting that fans who disliked Prince's foray into hip-hop in the '90s are simply white fans who aren't happy unless Prince is performing rock.

That's a false dichotomy; the statement is premised on the idea that rock is the only alternative to hip-hop, which is obviously untrue.

I'm one of those people who generally didn't care for Prince's hip-hop, but that doesn't mean I only wanted him to perform rock. I like when he peformed pop, dance, jazz, blues, and experimental stuff.

Some of my favorite albums are 1999, Parade, The Black Album, and the Rainbow Children. None of those are rock (yes, there are a couple of rock-oriented songs on those albums, but they are primarly non-rock LPs). I love songs like How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore, Hot Thing, Eye Know, and Beautiful Loved and Blessed. Those aren't rock.

Bottom line, when I say I don't like his hip-hop it's okay to disagree with me and try to convince me that it was good. But please don't assign false motives to me and suggest I only like his rock music. That's simply not true.

Prince's takes on Hip-Hop were certainly interesting and ended up being a weird kind of Glam Rap, and I enjoyed most of it, but I can certainly understand why it's not everyone's cup of tea. It's not exactly what I would call "good".

[Edited 6/8/19 18:51pm]

Many say that Prince started following trends when he incorporated Hip Hop (and to some extent House) into his music and I agree to some extent because songs like 18 and Over sound as if he was chanelling Snoop Dogg and Dre but you also have to keep in mind that his style was always an amalgam of what was going on around him musically.

So in the early 80s you would hear some Punk and New Wave influences, in the mid 80s some New Romantics and Rock, and by the time the 80s had come to an end Rock was no longer the mainstream, but from the mid 90s on Rap had become the new Pop.

He was basically still doing what he always did....take what´s happening around him and put his own spin to it.

I think if the music from the 90s until today had been more interesting, more challenging for him he wouldn´t have released so many songs that his hardcore fans find lacklustre.

.

Then again, I think it became more difficult for him (and most other people of his generation or of our generation) to really keep following new styles and new releases because the age of radio and TV as the main media to find out about new music was definitely over. These days, you kind of have to look for new music in other places. There´s still great music out there but it´s not that easy to find.

PS: His Rock music was also a bit too clean sounding in the mid 90s all the way up until the mid 2000s. He was no longer "Rock" enough for the younger alternative Rock crowds and not really up to date when it comes to RnB, though he was still much better than most Rock and RnB acts of that time.

lurker316 said:

.
I've seen several comments on The Org suggesting that fans who disliked Prince's foray into hip-hop in the '90s are simply white fans who aren't happy unless Prince is performing rock.

That's a false dichotomy; the statement is premised on the idea that rock is the only alternative to hip-hop, which is obviously untrue.

I'm one of those people who generally didn't care for Prince's hip-hop, but that doesn't mean I only wanted him to perform rock. I like when he peformed pop, dance, jazz, blues, and experimental stuff.

Some of my favorite albums are 1999, Parade, The Black Album, and the Rainbow Children. None of those are rock (yes, there are a couple of rock-oriented songs on those albums, but they are primarly non-rock LPs). I love songs like How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore, Hot Thing, Eye Know, and Beautiful Loved and Blessed. Those aren't rock.

Bottom line, when I say I don't like his hip-hop it's okay to disagree with me and try to convince me that it was good. But please don't assign false motives to me and suggest I only like his rock music. That's simply not true.

I’ve always been critical of Prince’s move toward hip-hop, but I don’t recall ever being accused of that to be honest.

I always felt that the developments in experimental electronica had much more in common with Prince’s work up to that point. He himself had been an influence on early House and Techno (The Electrifying Mojo etc). Yes, he may still have been chasing trends, but it would have had an authenticity and circularity to it. Certainly, when I began to lose interest in Prince’s music in the mid-90s it was in favour of the likes of Aphex Twin and Autechre - they exhibited the kind of experimentalism and technical wizardry that I’d always admired in Prince.

KoolEaze said:

Many say that Prince started following trends when he incorporated Hip Hop (and to some extent House) into his music and I agree to some extent because songs like 18 and Over sound as if he was chanelling Snoop Dogg and Dre but you also have to keep in mind that his style was always an amalgam of what was going on around him musically.

So in the early 80s you would hear some Punk and New Wave influences, in the mid 80s some New Romantics and Rock, and by the time the 80s had come to an end Rock was no longer the mainstream, but from the mid 90s on Rap had become the new Pop.

He was basically still doing what he always did....take what´s happening around him and put his own spin to it.

I think if the music from the 90s until today had been more interesting, more challenging for him he wouldn´t have released so many songs that his hardcore fans find lacklustre.

.

Then again, I think it became more difficult for him (and most other people of his generation or of our generation) to really keep following new styles and new releases because the age of radio and TV as the main media to find out about new music was definitely over. These days, you kind of have to look for new music in other places. There´s still great music out there but it´s not that easy to find.

I don't disagree with that, but I felt that he'd lost touch with the developments that best suited his abilities and strengths. He'd become somewhat isolated creatively.

https://youtu.be/w0g9Qkrc8nE?t=89

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