Prince isn't taking a dig at hip-hop/drum machine/electronic music specifically, he's making a dig at the "money first, art second" attitude that's been going around. It just so happens unfortunately that the majority of this music is associated with that attitude. We all know that sex sells, but Prince is trying to make the "music" the highlight rather than the "hype". Like he said on Smiley, hip-hop is very diverse, however if you only focus on one aspect (eg: the "I like bitches with big titties", "Your mamas a hoar" attitude) it begins to degrades the music - even if it is selling well! I got no problem with negative lyrics if it's a statement against a corupt regime. However, if this attitude is encouraged by the regime, what does that say about its society?
[This message was edited Sat May 22 11:33:43 2004 by toejam]

Prince isn't taking a dig at hip-hop/drum machine/electronic music specifically, he's making a dig at the "money first, art second" attitude that's been going around. It just so happens unfortunately that the majority of this music is associated with that attitude. We all know that sex sells, but Prince is trying to make the "music" the highlight rather than the "hype". Like he said on Smiley, hip-hop is very diverse, however if you only focus on one aspect (eg: the "I like bitches with big titties", "Your mamas a hoar" attitude) it begins to degrades the music - even if it is selling well! I got no problem with negative lyrics if it's a statement against a corupt regime. However, if this attitude is encouraged by the regime, what does that say about its society?
[This message was edited Sat May 22 11:33:43 2004 by toejam]

Well, you could argue that Prince is acknowledging there has been a few originators of the hip hop era who were innovative and knew what they were doing, but that there are tons around now who have simply jumped on the bandwagon and taken an easy route to make music. In that sense he's not been totally hipocritical, but yeah....

toejam said:

If you are talking about attitude in the hip hop music scence then you must not forget who was the man in the early eighties walking around on stage in his underwear and making sexuall gestures. And lets not forget he also wouldn't give interviews.....so what I'm saying is when he was on top, he had an attitude as well. I think when an artist is young they do whatever he/she can to get noticed and to get paid, just like Prince did when he was younger. It seems kind of funny to me now how he criticizes those for doing what he once did.

toejam said:

If you are talking about attitude in the hip hop music scence then you must not forget who was the man in the early eighties walking around on stage in his underwear and making sexuall gestures. And lets not forget he also wouldn't give interviews.....so what I'm saying is when he was on top, he had an attitude as well. I think when an artist is young they do whatever he/she can to get noticed and to get paid, just like Prince did when he was younger. It seems kind of funny to me now how he criticizes those for doing what he once did.

But I think you also have to look at the lyric very closely here-- Prince says, "Take your pick, turntable or a band-- If it ain't Chuck D, or Jam Master Jay, you know what? They losin'..."

He's almost acknowledging the contradiction, but, as metalorange says, there were some who were innovative, and thus have Prince's stamp of approval.

toejam said:

If you are talking about attitude in the hip hop music scence then you must not forget who was the man in the early eighties walking around on stage in his underwear and making sexuall gestures. And lets not forget he also wouldn't give interviews.....so what I'm saying is when he was on top, he had an attitude as well. I think when an artist is young they do whatever he/she can to get noticed and to get paid, just like Prince did when he was younger. It seems kind of funny to me now how he criticizes those for doing what he once did.

I took it as saying, take your pick a turntable, or a band. But only pick the turntable if your gonna listen to geniuses like Jam Master Jay, cause if it's most of today's hip-hop with no band, and mostly crap lyrics you plan to listen to, your missing out.

SoSaysEye said:

Right. If I can let me expand on what you're saying. In Prince's opinion he saying it's the turntables vs the band. He's saying if you don't pick ChuckD or Jam Master Jay, the turntables will lose everytime. Now you don't have to agree with Prince's assessment but understand the point he is trying to make there is no contradiction here.
[This message was edited Sun May 23 6:33:16 2004 by adorable2]

adorable2 said:

But didn't Prince have Turntables and Rappers in his Band(I think it was on the symbol album)? And I guess that means he was "losing" when he did that then. And your right, I probably shouldn't have bought it (the symbol album), because it wasn't JMJ or Chuck D

He contradicts himself everytime
[This message was edited Sun May 23 6:56:46 2004 by strawberrydreams]

Dude, you're taking it way too literally. What he's basically saying is that, with a few exceptions, pop music these days is lame. Enough said!

SoSaysEye said:

Right. If I can let me expand on what you're saying. In Prince's opinion he saying it's the turntables vs the band. He's saying if you don't pick ChuckD or Jam Master Jay, the turntables will lose everytime. Now you don't have to agree with Prince's assessment but understand the point he is trying to make there is no contradiction here.
[This message was edited Sun May 23 6:33:16 2004 by adorable2]

yup, stop thinking so much, your gonna hurt yourself. It actually makes sense if you pass through the subject casually, instead of putting everything under a microscope.