Well I'm not 20, let alone 30, but as for why I'm not into post '88 Prince, the reason is simple. NO 90's music in my opinion truly stands the test of time. The 80's were about fun, extravagence, unabashed funkiness. The 90's aftertaste was just horrible. It was all about fads. Prince surrendered to those fads and desperately tried to keep afloat, but he was outshined by the grunge revolution, then the latin revolution..among others. Once Prince stopped toying with new-wave/synths and sexual themes, I was gone. I don't mind jazz, but I'm not crazy about it either...so basically when the NPG came about, I lost interest.

As for consistancy. Prince isn't less consistent than he was in the 80's. I think it's more about the era the music was made, the freedom that the late 70's and the early 80's allowed. Prince's new stuff isn't sheer crap..it's just different, some folks out there must like it better than the early stuff, I'm sure.

I do like Prince post 88 stuff, and I've been a fan of HipHop since the early 80's, However, I feel all that early 90's rap and attitude was shite! I do feel that's the one musical genre that Prince attempted and failed at! It's just not him. All that cane carrying and attitude from a guy who's 5' 3", wears high heels and make-up, just doesn't work.

But, he's so prolific, instead of 10 average albums in the 90's, I think u could take the best tracks and get 3-4 classic ones!!! And who can match that...Madonna, Springsteen, U2, MJ etc etc!!!

Well Prince had the least glory outta those artists, sadly. His fame dwindled so much..nowadays when I mention Prince, folks are like "Wait, who's Prince? That 1999 guy?"

And yeah, his fling with rap was pretty sad no matter what way you look at it. The man was made to funk (and rock), not rap.

Marrk said:

I completely agree with u

Prince tried to keep up with trends in music but failed to do so. And that's not a shame at all. But he should have worked with other people more, good producers. One of the reasons people like Madonna stayed hot is because she worked with producers who could transform her sound but still make it sound like a real Madonna record in the 9ties, hell even today (tho she's slowing down but with grace and respect). Madonna came from the NY club scene, she always knew what was going on in the pop/dance world and charts. Prince couldn't keep up with the 9ties.

VAMPIRELLA said:

Exactly, he's a traditional musician from the 7ties/8ties era. U can't expect him to be the next big thing.

i remember a reviewer once writing about prince,it was on the org not too long ago, going on about how the failure of if i was your girlfriend as a single meant everything prince did from then on was testosterone, and if you look at it is kinda is, more so than before he meant. he went on about how america couldnt handle a black man fantasising about being a woman so he could be closer to his girlfriend. and if you look post lovesexy its kinda true, he gained two types of song almost, ballads about love adn then sexual songs. thats simplyfying it enormously i know. but still...i think thats where his career went wrong, and i think most people think so too.

prince can only do what he really deep down wants to do, and cannot follow trends. so when he tries too hard, he sucks ass. hence abit of trepidation about musicology album, cos is he trying too hard? we'll see!

speaking for myself i like most of the 90s albums i have. come i love, emancipation is about 50-75% really cool. the vault i love (some of it recorded up to 94!) diamonds and pearls is about two-thirds-75% cool as is the symbol album, perhaps a little more so. its just by princes standards havign an album 75% cool is not up to the albums 100% cool of the 80s, or 90% cool. plus, prince to me in the 80s never released a "bad" song, even if its one im not so keen on. but on diamonds and pearls theres some baaad songs. and i dont mean bad good, i mean bad shit. and i dont mean bad "the" shit style. i just mean shit thats really really bad. and idont mean bad...oh you know what i mean

calldapplwondery83 said:

Is that what you call it?

skywalker said:

I am 30,I like some old hip hop(Public Enemy,Queen Latifah,etc.).
I do like post 88,but not post 91,except for some of the Come album.

Christopher said:

Well, I happen to like all of the above (except for the Pharcyde, whom I hate). But I also like classic Boogie Down Productions/KRS1, Public Enemy, Talib Kweli, Pharoahe Monch, Luda (way underrated), Missy Elliot, Outkast, etc.

I'm 21 and I like rock, and I'm the last person to like hip-hop and rap or whatever. I don't really know how rap fans judge how good a rapper is, but when Prince raps his personality (sly humour, sleaze, being obnoxious and having a superstar's ego etc.) comes through in the music. I don't like all of his raps but I some of them, like P Control and Gett off, are funky and sometimes make me laugh. I don't want to be too harsh on Tony M but he does make me a bit embarassed to be a Prince fan

calldapplwondery83 said:

He'll kick everyone's ass... live; but surely not with his post 88 records. And I think he very much cares about how people perceive him; the whole D&P outfit was an embarassing scream for attention. To see that wobbly bit of hair moving on top of his head... what was he thinking!

The reason why he seems to be doing quite well, and comes accross as being more confident then ever, is that he has found his loophole. He now calls himself "old-scool" and thereby dismisses himself of the burden of being innovative. He consistently refers to james brown, sly and even his band is filled with "retro"-musicians. I've got no problem with that cause I like the music those guys made/make; and it's less embarrising then seeing him try to come up with something new, while an army of young musicians have kicked the experimenting thing miles away from where he is.

Coming back to the main question: He had his peak as a recording artist in the 80's and his time has passed. nevertheless, he's peaking as a live artist and is still one of the most amazing artists that you could possibly see live.
Major turn offs for me were; the JW stuff; organized religion kills more then the A-bomb ever did, braincells being the first victim.
His production became as slick and edge-less as many of the oh-so-boring whining R&B artists, Emancipation being the most horrific example. I was actually insulted when I listened to it the first time... his big "freedomrecord".
TRC was better in that sense but then we got the preaching and biblical stuff.
People who claim to be providers of "the truth" make me suspicious from the start. When they make fucked-up lyrics that they then have to cram into one barr, it really gets to be idiotic. Reffering to "blah blah accurate knowledge of christ... everlasting nooow!". Fourty-five and still serving fairy-tales.
The bann on succing (or however it's written)... I don't need an overdose, as it often happens in rap/hip-hop; but cleaning up lyrics is ridiculous. His songs, his right, I know, I agree... but it's still silly. Tell that to any other sane person and mind the look on their face.

It wasn't post '88 for me. It was Graffiti Bridge in 1990. I quite like the Batman album.

From Graffiti Bridge onwards, there was a strange sheen to his music. It began to sound shiny, plastic and flimsy. It was like a Disney version of Prince. I can't put my finger on it... It definitely isn't the music. Its partly the production. Its the lyrics a lot of the time... There was no playfulness, irony or daring. He sounded neutered.

When he was trying to sound dirty (Gett Off, Come, etc) it sounded like the ramblings of an over-excited 16 year-old.

When he was trying to sound sincere it sounded trite (Graffiti Bridge, Live 4 Love).

When he was trying to sound spiritual, it sounded preachy...

I hated the whole 1991 to 1995 NPG line-up. It never sounded like a band to me. The bandanas were so not a good look too...

Of course there were great tracks inbetween 1990 and 1997, but there were no great albums.

My interest only picked up again with the Newpower Soul album. It really, really is (and was) criminally underrated. After that, it all went weird again.

I wasn't in my 30s in the 90s, but I fell off the Princewagon musically because I discovered so much other music (which, in hindsight didn't stand the test of time AT ALL!). I thought P at that time was uncool, cringeworthy in his attempt to be cool. I still bought all the albums until NPS as they came out, but a lot of them didn't get many listens.
Now I am in my 30s, I don't buy much music (different priorities in life) but I am listening to all those Prince CDs I bought back then, revisiting and enjoying them. In fact, it's the 80s stuff I don't dip into much because of burn-out. I am a bigger Prince fan now than I have ever been in the last 20 years and I am loving the stuff of the 2000s though.

not in my 30s (but soon enough). i don't like prince's lame-O 'gangsta glam' shite. ugh. what a corny attempt at hip-hop...especially after having knocked it so hard with 'dead on it'. give me some beasties or de la and we can talk.