A lot has been stated about the contributions of former band mates in the sounds and success of Prince. Most of us would agree that hip hop wasn't his forte, BUT his foray into the soundscape was a mixed bag,

I feel however that the contributions of the Wendy/Lisa era are getting A LOT harder to distinguish since he died. In the article, Lisa claims to have introduced Prince to Fight the Power by Public Enemy and Prince being weirded out by the sound of Chuck D's delivery.

Check the article below (hopefully the link works):

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-public-enemy-influenced-prince/

Interested to hear what you all think.

[Edited 6/4/21 15:31pm]

Next article will be on how W&L introduced Prince to George Clinton and Funkadelic. Apparently unlike the rest of the world, Prince hadn't even heard of the Beatles until W&L introduced him. If Prince's music is for grandmothers, what crowd is their music for?

Headline isn't really accurate to what's in the article.

Wendy says she played Fight the Power for him, and it had an impact on him.

Prince would have heard Sugar Hill Gang and White Lines, and the funk tracks before those songs like Fatback Band, so he'd heard Hip Hop. Plus Controversy was in 1981 and that influenced hip hop if anything. But that doesn't mean he'd heard hip hop in a way that felt relevant to the music he made.

Fight the Power was an explosion for a lot of musicians. Politics were mostly out of style. We know Prince liked it and liked Chuck D (and put him on a track in 99).

Prince also knew Spike Lee already. Prince had seen She's Gotta Have It, and flew him out during Grafitti Bridge. He's mentioned in the School Daze diaries because they both used the Oompa Loomba song.

So who played it for him isn't important, it wasn't introducing him to Hip Hop and all this can be true and Wendy's story can still have happened.

There's something a little off about the timeline here. Fight the Power was released in 1989, but didn't Wendy and Lisa leave the Revolutoin in 86? Does anyone know if they stayed in close contact throughout the rest of the decade, to the point they listened to music together?

Hamad said:

They also claimed they introduced him to Joni Mitchell which really blows my mind

paraded said:

There's something a little off about the timeline here. Fight the Power was released in 1989, but didn't Wendy and Lisa leave the Revolutoin in 86? Does anyone know if they stayed in close contact throughout the rest of the decade, to the point they listened to music together?

I was going to raise this point as well. I didn't think W&L were spending much time with Prince by the time Fight the Power was released.

Fight The Power came out in 1989 and everyone black heard it when it came out. Wendy and Lisa were long gone by 1989. Prince was surrounded by black musicians in 1989. It is more likely he heard it from one of them. This shit has to stop.

Hamad said:

No, they actually meant they introduced her music to him. Weird. I don’t think people “hate” W&L per se, in fact I’d argue that that there’re more people who are fans than not - I know I’m infatuated with their music - what I think people are catching up on is their constant history revisionism and how trash they come across as human beings (especially Wendy), and I think that’s what they hate. Ever-since he died, I’ve been noticing a lot of passive-aggressiveness, condescension, self-inflation and total disregard to his music before and after they came, ya know, your typical “Karen” behaviour with the micro aggression overtones. I can’t always blame reporters for how they come across because a lot of times their true feelings get documented without any reporters curating their words (video interviews etc). It’s not enough for them that they were part of greatness, they had to center themselves (i.e. center whiteness) in everything he did when they were part of his roost. You’d be hard pressed to see Sonny T or Michael Bland talk about P’s music before & after they came the same way those girls did. As for calling Prince out on his BS while he was alive - which he was no saint by any stretch of the word - I’d argue that he probably matched their energy and called them out on theirs too, they’re not saints either.

Wendy makes herself look foolish with statements like this.

W&L liked a song, Prince didn't appear to like it. The rest is clickbait journalism and W&L living rent free in your head.

"Centering whiteness"

Sheila E's considerably worse and you can't pull that one on her.

[Edited 6/5/21 6:25am]

Hamad said:

No, they actually meant they introduced her music to him. Weird. I don’t think people “hate” W&L per se, in fact I’d argue that that there’re more people who are fans than not - I know I’m infatuated with their music - what I think people are catching up on is their constant history revisionism and how trash they come across as human beings (especially Wendy), and I think that’s what they hate. Ever-since he died, I’ve been noticing a lot of passive-aggressiveness, condescension, self-inflation and total disregard to his music before and after they came, ya know, your typical “Karen” behaviour with the micro aggression overtones. I can’t always blame reporters for how they come across because a lot of times their true feelings get documented without any reporters curating their words (video interviews etc). It’s not enough for them that they were part of greatness, they had to center themselves (i.e. center whiteness) in everything he did when they were part of his roost. You’d be hard pressed to see Sonny T or Michael Bland talk about P’s music before & after they came the same way those girls did. As for calling Prince out on his BS while he was alive - which he was no saint by any stretch of the word - I’d argue that he probably matched their energy and called them out on theirs too, they’re not saints either.

thank you

I dont care how others feel about Lisa and Wendy, and I dont hate W&L , especially Lisa seems to be down to earth and honest but I´d never pay a cent to see Wendy and the Revolution and I´m glad that she keeps showing her true colors....Prince made great music before and after Wendy and even Joni mentioned seeing him at her concert when he was a teenager so she should think twice next time she opens her mouth. ....never really liked her that much to begin with and I dont care how much or what s contributed,,,

this bullshit needs to stop. ....same goes for Sheila, etc.

jaawwnn said:

Lisa should stop doing interviews with Wendy. The Melvoins make everything look absurd and bullshit.

lavendardrummachine said:

Headline isn't really accurate to what's in the article.

Wendy says she played Fight the Power for him, and it had an impact on him.

Prince would have heard Sugar Hill Gang and White Lines, and the funk tracks before those songs like Fatback Band, so he'd heard Hip Hop. Plus Controversy was in 1981 and that influenced hip hop if anything. But that doesn't mean he'd heard hip hop in a way that felt relevant to the music he made.

Fight the Power was an explosion for a lot of musicians. Politics were mostly out of style. We know Prince liked it and liked Chuck D (and put him on a track in 99).

Prince also knew Spike Lee already. Prince had seen She's Gotta Have It, and flew him out during Grafitti Bridge. He's mentioned in the School Daze diaries because they both used the Oompa Loomba song.

So who played it for him isn't important, it wasn't introducing him to Hip Hop and all this can be true and Wendy's story can still have happened.

This post is telling the truth.

Nowhere in the article do Wendy and Lisa say they "introduced Prince to hip hop". The writer of the article doesn't even say it.

And Wendy and Lisa never say that they introduced Prince to the song "Fight the Power" either. Wendy only says that she played it for him during a trip to Minneapolis after the band broke up (probably when Prince remixed their song "Lolly Lolly" for single release so they were indeed working together at the time) and then described his reaction. That's it.

Everything else is speculation by the original poster and not to be believed.

Kudos on the clickbait thread title.

There's an older interview where someone talked about playing Public Enemy for Prince (This is what the kids are istening to) and seeing his expression just drop. The person even went into how Prince had been taking music into one direction, and this just seemed like an opposite direction.

In my memory, that was Sheila E around the Lovesexy Tour era. But I guess it was Wendy?

Not really surprising. That's what friends do, introduce you to new things, such as films or music. I know mine do.

Either edit the title or lock this sucka up.

Here we go again...they introduced him to JAZZ, and now HIP HOP.

They seriously just need to STFU and have a seat.

[Edited 6/5/21 11:07am]

Hamad said:

Prince is the son of a Jazz combo leader. What do you mean Eric introduced him to jazz/Miles Davis? I’m sick & tired of this “Prince was living under a rock when I found him” narrative these people are trying to push. [Edited 6/4/21 16:41pm]

Exactly. Prince had one of the most encyclopedic musical vocabs of any pop star ever. And PE sampled Prince, I'm sure he was aware of them from jump street.

Hamad said:

No, they actually meant they introduced her music to him. Weird. I don’t think people “hate” W&L per se, in fact I’d argue that that there’re more people who are fans than not - I know I’m infatuated with their music - what I think people are catching up on is their constant history revisionism and how trash they come across as human beings (especially Wendy), and I think that’s what they hate. Ever-since he died, I’ve been noticing a lot of passive-aggressiveness, condescension, self-inflation and total disregard to his music before and after they came, ya know, your typical “Karen” behaviour with the micro aggression overtones. I can’t always blame reporters for how they come across because a lot of times their true feelings get documented without any reporters curating their words (video interviews etc). It’s not enough for them that they were part of greatness, they had to center themselves (i.e. center whiteness) in everything he did when they were part of his roost. You’d be hard pressed to see Sonny T or Michael Bland talk about P’s music before & after they came the same way those girls did. As for calling Prince out on his BS while he was alive - which he was no saint by any stretch of the word - I’d argue that he probably matched their energy and called them out on theirs too, they’re not saints either.

I think you are being reactionary. W&L are simply trying to talk about their musical relationship to Prince. The article doesn't state that they introduced hom to hip hop, nor do they make that claim. I don't believe they say they introduced him to Joni Mitchell's music, either. Lisa has said that Joni is one of the things they bonded over when they met.

Minnesota was a sheltered place compared to much of the country at the time. Wendy and L were the children of very reknown studio musicians, and Eric went to music school and was the younger brother to James Brown's manager, and he had a music career before Prince. I'm sure there's much they showed young Prince that he hadn't necessarily been familiar with before.

This article merely states that they played Public Enemy for him the first time. That's believable and shouldn't send people into a tizzy.