BlaqueKnight said:

True. do think that his current material lacks substance. His earlier ablums were better b/c he was still hunger as an artist with less ego and more motivation.
[Edited 10/1/04 16:52pm]

Damn Blaque Knight you killin' em'. Everything so very well said.

nobody else needs to post here... (Just kidding y'all)

Nuff respect!!!

Harco Pront.

BlaqueKnight...did Prince steal your twinkie?

Your points are well taken, but you sound as if you have a vendetta against the man.
No one is saying that he invented the instruments or perfected them...but he's a
musical craftsman of the highest quality, and for that alone, respect needs to be paid.
These other guys are good...not great. Prince is GREAT. He's proven to be a master artist
in many different respects. If you can't agree on that, then that's the end of this discussion,
because there is no denying that fact.
[Edited 10/1/04 20:15pm]

BlaqueKnight said:

BlaqueKnight, I respect your opinions and I agree that D (along with Saadiq) has his own sound. But Prince is a predominant influence in his music. When he and ?uestlove were in the studion making Voodoo, they openly admitted that they recorded the LP like they were auditioning for Prince. If you caught the Voodoo tour, there were so many incorporations of "call and response" from the Parade tour it wasn't funny... from "punk of the month" to "Jacque (sax player) shut the fuck up" & "Can't nobody, fuck with us". D'Angelo attempted to bring soul back to the forefront of black music. I can't really say he was successful with it because Voodoo fell upon so many deaf ears as a result of the nekkid video.

However D'Angelo was just as influential on Prince because we would have never gotten The Rainbow Children without the influence of Voodoo, its liner notes and Mama's Gun.

fantasyislander said:

I sadly think I do too..

BlaqueKnight said:

which part of "aspects" did you not understand? terence writes in a completely different way so clearly he is not a prince xerox. there is just no denying (or, maybe there is) that when he speaks and writes on his website it sounds just like prince. i could copy things from both websites and post them here while leaving you to decide which comments came from prince and which came from ttd. they are just that similar. sorry but the "coincidence" of ttd changing his name a few years after p changes his is just too much. add to that the whole speaking in mazes phenomenon and he is clearly to influenced by prince.

whatever. why am i even checking back in on this thread?

Revolution said:

U got that right.... Thumbs up on that one

BlaqueKnight said:

Influence vs. wannabe... point taken....

Michael Jackson? no!

Andre 3000? Most definately!

Soulchild82 said:

and you call yourself "soulchild"? you wouldn't know soul if it slapped you in the face! "send it
on" is straight up soul. you know, the soul as produced by the likes of marvin gaye and earth,
wind and fire and such. prince never even touched this genre until "you make my sun shine"
and "the rainbow children". i give you "untitled" for it's even been called a tribute to prince.
and a good one at that. other than that, name one song on either "brown sugar" (which had
no ?uestlove influence) or "voodoo" (and don't bring up those jacked drums for "africa") that
could've been a prince song. there aren't any. why? cause, aside from "untitled", d'angelo
does his own thing.
i do agree he borrowed a lot of stagetricks and some arrangements from prince's parade tour
(as prince had borrowed from james brown's) for his own voodoo tour. but he never even tried
to hide it. it's simple, back in the day prince gave some of the most funky, electrifying shows.
keywords were "funk" and "energy"--i guess that's what d'angelo wanted to bring across too.
he succeeded in my opinion.


so, you give raphael a pass and not d'angelo. why is it that the majority of the orgers always
give raphael a pass? because he didn't do a naked video? because he didn't release that
perfect prince tribute? maybe because he once played in prince's band, and if prince accepted
him..

purpleone said:

HOld up purple one! Don't question my knowlegde of soul first of all and second of all I just said Untitled not the entire Voodoo LP. Send it On is very Prince even tho it is borrowed from a Kool and the Gang groove. I'll agree that Brown sugar has little influence from the roots but is very inflenced by A Tribe Called Quest and the rest of the Native TOunge hip hop groups as well as Curtis Mayfeild, Stevie and Marvin. No one is giving anyone a pass. Just because he is a Prince wannabe doesn't take away any of his credibility nor does it take any away from any of Prince's Children (Meshell, TT D'arby, Lenny Kravitz, Bilal, D"angelo). Its just a comparison. Its has nothing to do with the Untitled video (which was like a nude version of the Scandalous video from Batman). D'angelo is my fav modern soul singer Period(When he feels like making music). he even did She's Always in my hair better than Prince did. Don't take the wannabe thing so negativley. CHill

theAudience said:

Indeed.

HowComeUdontBanMeAnymore said:

I'd like to say a lil bit of both, but I won't front. I been here too long!



As a rule, I say this: those who cite Prince as an influence should be added to the influcence list. That means D'Angelo, Jill Scott, Alicia Keys, Dre3K, and TTD should be on that list. But there is a difference between the influenced and the Wannabes. Wannabes were the throwaway guys and gals in the 80's who openly tried to ape Prince's Minneapolis sound. Georgio, Ready For The World, et al. come to mind.

Influences are artists who derive some of their ideas from Prince, and incorporate some of his sounds, but make music that stands on its own and that you can appreciate separate from prince. Basically all of the artists listed here fir more into the Influence category than the Wannabe category.

I also do want to say this. Blaque and others have made some good points. But they should also recognize that but for Prince's colossal commercial success in the 1980's, a lot of these artists may not have been able to get the opportunity from the biz to do their own thing. They should also recognize that Prince re-interpreted many genres into his own unique sound the way no one since has been able to duplicate, and that scores of artists of all genres are influenced by him. The reality check works both ways.

i almost agree with everything you've said, namepeace. influence and wannabe are two different things and most of the people on these lists have certainly been influenced by p but they've brought something new or, at least, of their own to the table. ttd falls in between the two categories, in my opinion. yes, he has brought his own working style to the music he makes but when he speaks he emulates prince so much that its embarrassing. i've read interviews and seen interviews...he has clearly "borrowed" from prince's public persona. to me, that makes him closer to wannabe than influenced. actually, it just makes him both. he has been influenced by p and p's style but he's taken it one step further to imitation.

namepeace said:

Goodpoints. You are right. Ready For The World should be added to the list.

Revolution said:

Are you really so obsessed with Prince's work that you won't allow yourself to see greatness in other artists? I disagree with you. I think Sananda/TTD is great, not "good". Lyrically, he's exceeds even Prince in my opinion and vocally - he's a monster singer of the highest caliber. Sam Cooke reincarnated. Some of us spend more time actually listening to the artists' works instead of examining media personas. The only point I was trying to make is that some of these artists deserve respect for their own work instead of having people subtlely trying to attribute their success directly to Prince. That's plain bullshit. This does not diminish Prince's work in any way at all, so the defensiveness is unncessary. Because I think other artists should be respected for their own works and be recognized for their own identity, I'm somehow hating on Prince? How obsessed are you, really?

Oh, and a religious change sometimes merits a name change. Cassius Clay=Muhammad Ali for example. Prince changed his name to a symbol for contractual purposes. I think you need to get a perspective on the differences.

BlaqueKnight said:

I agree with your points about TTD/Sananda. He can literally sing his ass off. In the vocal department, he makes P seem like a choirboy. There is no disputing that fact.

Also, I agree with you about your points on name changes. Definitely, one converting to the Watchtower religion does not constitute a name change.

BlaqueKnight said:

You say "obsessed" like it's a bad thing....
To me, Prince is the ultimate musician, the best I've ever heard...I bought quite a bit of music
when I was younger (I've slowed down since...I think you do as you get older). I've always had my ear in tune to what's on the radio etc...Prince, IMO, is heads above everyone else.
I've listened to some of the "greats", Jimi, Stevie, Led Zepp, Beatles, Elvis, Smokey..
No one elses music has touched me like Prince...but those are personal preferences.

I feel that anyone with a little talent can make a great record...look at all of the one hit wonders that we've heard. I appreciate a good song, but Prince is so much more than
that.

We disagree about TTD...I agree he's got a gift for lyrics, but his voice isn't pleasant sounding
to me...it sounds off key. But, again, those are personal preferences, which I think a lot of this thread is about.

UptownDeb said:

Let's not forget his 1993 album, Love's Alright;



Doesn't it have a "Lovesexy/Graffiti Bridge" look to it?

The video for his single Whatsupwitu was also a TOTAL copy of the video for Wish U Heaven...(if anyone remembers it).

kondwanii said:

David Lee Roth. I also believe if Keith Moon were still alive... maybe.

Got that album.....love the second half upto the fake rave cut "one" (which is a good song!.....
[Edited 10/4/04 3:41am]

raveon2tnek said:

Michael Jackson?? Some of the others (actually just about all) are questionable, as far as your proposition goes that they "so badly wanna be prince".

I love P, but why in the hell would any1 with over 40 million in sales of 1 record, wanna b Prince, or any1 else 4 that matter.

I must b the only 1 here, that detested the bikins P wore back in the day. I preferred Michael's getup that he had on in the Dirty Diana vid.

Oh, and i know a couple who named their son, Prince, and they don't even know that there is this musical genius of the same name.

What a dumb thread.

co-sign




ok if I may ignore the MJ thing to address the topic at hand, I doubt that anyone would argue that Georgio was one of the biggest prince wanna be out there. There are other artist that didn't make the list that could have been named. Like RFTW
[Edited 10/4/04 10:07am]

BlaqueKnight said:

Blaque. I know your views as to the factors in Prince's success, but the fact of the matter is that Prince has been one of the most successful crossover artists of the last 30 years, and only Michael Jackson (and mebbe Janet) can boast greater crossover success. But Prince has been more musically ambitious than his crossover contemporaries, ably blending funk, pop, rock, soul and jazz into an impressive body of work. He's made great music and large coin in the process.

Many other artists of color, who are good-to-great in their own right, are doing their own thing and touch on many different influences, including -- INCLUDING -- Prince. And they aspire to have the same kind of success. Prince's success has got to be an impetus (to some degree) for record companies to invest in these new talents. Everybody's looking for the next Prince, MJ, Madonna, Nirvana, 2Pac, whatever. So many of these artists want the KIND OF SUCCESS Prince has had. Wouldn't you? That's a different kind of "wannabe."

For a while, growing up, I drank that Kool-Aid, and thought any black person with a record deal wanted to be Prince. But I eventually realized that Prince had had his influences as well -- Miles, Stevie, Al, Joni and the incomparable Jimi, to name a few -- and used many of their ideas to carve out a niche and identity of his own. Which is what these newer cats are doing.

I love D'Angelo. Maxwell. Van Hunt. TTD. Lenny. Beck. Dre3K. Me'Shell. So many others for what they do. They do stuff and make sounds Prince can't make. But Prince is an influence on these artists. PERIOD. Many of them have said so loudly and publicly.



No argument there whatsoever.

namepeace said:

[color=blue]Enough said. I think you have covered all bases.
[Edited 10/4/04 12:17pm]
[Edited 10/4/04 12:22pm]