Ok, I've just read Emancipation, was a 3CD set
"about the Egyptians, the building of the Pyramids"
(page 219, Slave 2 The Rhythm, Liz Jones)

I also remember reading this somewhere else too.
As far as i can remember, the only bit i can remember about egypt in emancipation was the pic in the booklet. is there supposed to be something about egypt in the album i'm missing?
any ideas?

Cheers
[This message was edited Tue Jun 15 13:27:40 2004 by MashedPotatoKid]

MashedPotatoKid said:

im confused on what u are talking about....

leme re-word it

basically what i'm saying is i have read that emancipation was supposed to be about the pyramids and egyptians. after listening to the album i couldn't find anything to do with egypt or the pyramids. did anyone else read this? is there something i'm missing or did prince kinda change his mind or summat?
thanks
[This message was edited Tue Jun 15 13:29:57 2004 by MashedPotatoKid]

yeah, there was some kind of deal about how each disc had the same number of songs and the length of each disc was exactly the same, and this was supposed to be symbolic of some kind of egyptian numerology or somesuch...i'm sure someone has a more specific breakdown...

i'm with u. i remember hearing about all that back in '96. but unfortunately, to paraphrase billy sparks in purple rain,
's egyptology makes sense to no one 'cept hisself!

MashedPotatoKid said:

Consider the source...


Can't this entry be put in the FAQ under "Useless bullshit books about Prince you need to avoid like AIDS" ?

Neversin.

Consider Prince's other jabber around about that time, he seemed to be researching Egyptology.

He said (or alluded) that he and Mayte were reincarnations of Nefetiti and Akhenaten, the Egyptian king who was purported to have worshipped the one God, the Sun, rather than the multitude of God's in Egypt's mythology. For which he was unsuccessfully, or partially erased from official history.

Also Akhenaten was said to have a rather deformed body or head, and forgive me if my memory is sketchy (as it often is) but wasn't there some debate over his sexuality, and his consort being male or female (debatable after his death, since his successor was either his wife Nefetiti (Mayte in this story?) or a male from his council).

This is the father of Tutankhaten?

Prince was fighting WB at the time, and "playing the race card" at the time, so his research of African imperialism fits right in with the use of this historical tale.

I would take it all with a pinch of salt (as usual) and chalk it down along side Prince's official myth regarding the cancellation of the Black album.

B.G.: Your new work, Emancipation, seems to be inspired by the pyramids of Egypt: they are three discs of the same duration. What keeps you fascinated with the subject?

O+>: The way Egyptians were helped by the stars, their faith and mental power when they built the pyramids. To move these stones they had to make a tremendous collective mental effort. Nowadays we wouldn't be able to do it. We are too divided to be able to concentrate on that kind of concern. Very often I wonder about the human nature: Were we, at the beginning, more intelligent and are now becoming idiots, or is it the opposite? I prefer to think that every time we are becoming a little bit more brilliant. We have to create something together.



.
[This message was edited Tue Jun 15 14:47:43 2004 by Universaluv]

Though, naturally because Prince said it, it's confusing & misleading, I think he meant that the structure was based on the pyramids.

There are three great pyramids and three cd's

The pyramids are very precisely built (as are the cd's) being within a second or two of one hour each.

They were constructed by royalty (or slaves, however you want to look at it, it can refer to prince)

Nobody knows why the pyramids were constructed the way they were, but they do have some astronomical connections. Since the universe acts as one big clock, again there is a connection to the time of the discs. 1 hour each, twelve songs each.

The pyramids were built to last a long time. I think Emancipation was meant to be absorbed over a long time, as opposed to something like chaos & disorder, which can be enjoyed over the weekend.

The pyramids were giant tombs. Perhaps Emancipation was how Prince thought he'd be remembered.

I wish he had elaborated on what he really meant, as always, but I think it was something pretty straightforward like that.

andyman91 said:

Actually, I think that's a great explaination.

The history of who bult the pyramids might be under question, but the if Prince followed the official history in his reasoning, what you said makes a lot of sense.

Shame, unlike the Pyramids, that Emancipation was built of shaky foundations

Why do people say Prince played the "race card" when refering to the WB situation.

When Jim Morrison said on stage during a concert that "you all are a bunch of fucking slaves." was that playing the race card ? Hell he was speaking to a large group of White people.

There is no RACE CARD people .You cannot be Black just because you feel like it .Whenever there is a "successful" Black person mentioning misfortune you want to say there is a magical Race Card that comes out of the air like Wonder Woman's magic lasso.
"Put up your Race Card and deflect Racism all yo rich NiGG@$$."


There are 200 rich Blacks in the USA and 20 million catching pure Hell is that a Race Card?
There are 50 million White drug addicts in America but 75% of the prisons are populated by Blacks. Is that a Race Card ?
African imperalism ?WTF ? Africans are almost wiped out by AIDS from something called NSM-200.Is that a race card ?

Some of you really think this a joke don't you.Get the MK-Ultra out your mind and get ready to help all of us out this shit this country is in right now.

BTW ,Prince is about 10 light years ahead of us right now so when he starts speaking in terms you do not understand put it in the back of your minds and forget about it.
[This message was edited Tue Jun 15 21:07:22 2004 by muleFunk]

There's a photo of the Great Pyramid on the reverse of the Symbol album, can't remember seeing a picture in the Emancipation booklet, but there might be.

Of course the Symbol album had some story about Mayte being an Egyptian Princess - which of course she isn't.

Lyrically, I can't think of anything in Emancipation that relates to Egypt.

The first 'emancipation' in history was when the Israelites freed themselves from their Egyptian oppressors (according to the big B), you wouldn't have thought Prince would associate himself with slavers!

The Egyptians "were not or never had been in favor
of setting r people free!"