Prince rapping can be fun and entertaining but it is never more than the pop rap that did the rounds in the 90s - Jackson had a bit here and there on the “Dangerous” album, various pop stars liked to have a guest rapper but it is rarely of much relevance or importance or quality.

P should have got a good rapper if he was serious but, as you’ve said, he probably thought he could do it himself. Also, he never liked having serious competition/quality around, for example his sidelining of The Time or how Rosie Gaines vanished after one album. Fair enough - his band, vision and sound but it meant that an obvious second tier talent like Tony M (who I enjoy listening to,by the way) got far too much air time.

Rap and hip-hop was not something Prince could have really done by the time he turned on to it. He was a glam multimillionaire rock and pop star.

The fact that Public Enemy used a looped ten second sample of his guitar solo from Let’s Go Crazy in one of their mid/late 80s’ songs illustrates how far P was from quality hip hop in the early 90s. Musical trends move fast and, in terms of hip-hip, Prince had missed the boat by miles.

I love all his early 90s’ tunes, including ones that get a fair amount of hate on the Org like Push, Jughead, etc. But they are lightweight pop rap compared to lots of other stuff from that time. I mean, they maybe match MC Hammer but not Rakim and Eric B, Public Enemy, NWA and so on.

Prince shoulda stuck with his worldly wise Sign O The Times / Lovesexy sophisticate persona IMHO but he went for reinvention and we got the joyful sounds of D&P, Symbol, Exodus. So all good but P was not a quality rapper.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

Couldn't be any worse than Eric Sermon!