I’m sure everyone has heard of the trend that’s going on where producers are remixing Jay-Z’s Black Album. This trend was started by DJ Dangermouse’s The Grey Album, which took the lyrics of Jay-Z and remixed the music from The Beatles White Album. In March, a producer by the name of K12 decided to do his own remix using music from one of his favorite albums, Purple Rain; and thus The Purple Album came to be. By chance, a L.A. Radio DJ got hold of a few cuts from this Purple Album and started playing it on his show. The response was so great that K12 decided to put out this limited edition CD about three weeks ago (Check out thepurplealbum.com to hear it for yourself). Currently The Purple Album is being played on several radio stations in L.A., San Francisco, and Atlanta as well as receiving quite a bit of attention, not to mention that this is the first Jay-Z remix to my knowledge that received airplay. My question to the forum is this: Is Prince status as a Pop Icon parallel, or dare I say greater than, that of The Beatles? Why would mainstream radio be more accepting to playing a remix that contain Purple Rain than that of The White Album? Did Prince bridge the gap to a younger generation after his stellar Grammy Performance with Beyonce (I mean, honestly, when was the last time you seen a Prince video on MTV before “Musicology”?) and could The Beatles still have a strong influence on the MTV generation? Personally I admit to being bias to Prince because I never could get into The Beatles (though I do respect their place in music history), but I’m curious to the opinion of others on this topic.

bkrafty said:

What album did he mix Purple Rain with? You didn't say. Was it also Jay-Z? Does it always have to be Jay-Z, is that the rule?!

If you mixed Purple Rain with the Orange Sponge album you'd get the Brown But Moist album.

These 'mashes' are illegal unless they get the okay from the artists involved - They were gonna sue DJ Dangermouse, but Jay-Z has given his approval, so I heard. Don't know about the Beatle's, though, they tend to try and sue the ass off anyone, just like Prince I suppose. So I'm surprised they're playing it on the radio from a legal standpoint.

I suppose you could argue that this is bringing old and new together and creating something relevant to the current generation, but you could also argue it is a lazy way of creating music, not as creative as making completely new music. But I think there is going to be craze for this 'mashing' for a while at least.

To answer your question - it is all about whether the mix is any good that it becomes popular, I guess. And when you're starting with songs as good as those on Purple Rain or the White album, then straight away you're onto a winner.

But I expect the main reason Purple Rain was picked was purely because it was a colour album and there can't be that many really good albums named after a colour.

metalorange said:

i listened to the samples and i am afraid it's the latter !

These forums are pretty fun to me....but I think I have to get work on stating my questions better. I wanted to know if people think Prince has bigger appeal to a the younger generation (The MTV generation) than the Beatles. The Purple Album was just a case-and-point of how I see a different reaction with the younger crowd than the Grey Album. Explaining how I see this "reaction", I should clarify that I'm speaking from a DJ's point-of-view. So know that we've cleared that up...who's bigger? Wait....didn't come out right!

metalorange said:

"If you mixed Purple Rain with the Orange Sponge album you'd get the Brown But Moist album."

Hilarious insight!! Anyways, this guy mixed Purple Rain with Jay-Z's The Black Album, and right now he is the only hip hop artist being remixed for three reason: 1. Supposedly The Black Album was Jay-Z's final album 2. He's the only artist right now that has an acapella album out. 3. After DJ Dangermouse received his 15 minutes of Fame and counting, everyone is trying to milk the cash cow. Now as far as the suing goes, you actually got it backwards. The Beatles, actually the publishing company for the Beatles which is EMI, took action against Dangermouse not Jay-Z. It was Jay-Z's idea to "leak" an acapella album so that this "mash-up" could take place which I think is genius because no matter how many mash-up albums come out, the one common factor is....you guessed it...Jay-Z. Here's another thing to laugh about; The same publishing company that took action against Dangermouse (which btw..was just a Cease and Decease Order...he never was sued or anything like that) are in talks with signing his hip hop artist and him on board with them. Funny world we live in, huh? You're absolutely right about this mash up thing having two sides; Creative as well as Lazy. I think that the producer doing these Mash-ups have to have the ability to make there own original music. I think you can only get your name out there once by doing a cool Mash-Up. After that, you'd better be able to fly off your own talent or.....