Good analysis, although he doens't mention that Justin's "Until the End of Time" also bites the lyrics from Adore.


http://www.nymag.com/arts...index.html


The Pop Music Review
The Men Who Would Be Prince
Justin Timberlake and OutKast both drape themselves in Prince’s purple robes—but only one finds a true fit.
By Ben Williams

For musicians, Prince is like the East Texas oil field: a vast source of natural energy that, if not quite limitless, runs deep enough to last another few decades. There are at least seven Prince incarnations available for appropriation—late-nineties crooners like Maxwell, for instance, picked up on Prince, the Soul Man, while Diddy has clearly fallen under the influence of Prince, the Ceaseless Changer of Names. The most timeless, however, are the Sex Fiend and the Protean Genius, and it is these that inspire Justin Timberlake and OutKast, respectively, on their new albums, FutureSex/LoveSounds and Idlewild.

Timberlake has an agenda, and he has helpfully titled his first five tracks—“FutureSex/LoveSound,” “SexyBack,” “Sexy Ladies,” “My Love,” “LoveStoned”—to make it clear. The music is equally frisky. Produced by Timbaland, these songs update the early-eighties Minneapolis sound: tense drum machines, high-pitched synth squiggles, and staccato funk bass lines. The ballad “Until the End of Time” steals outright the thumping, backward- processed Linn drums from Purple Rain’s “The Beautiful Ones.” And with “Losing My Way,” about a crack addict, Timberlake has even thrown in a piece of social commentary as unconvincing as “Sign ‘o’ the Times.”

He’s also been working on his pickup lines. “All I need is a moment alone / To give you my tone / And put you out of control,” he swears on “FutureSex/LoveSound.” And midway through “SexyBack,” he groans, “You see these shackles baby I’m your slave / I’ll let you whip me if I misbehave.” Male singers have a couple of ways to sound sexy. If blessed with elastic vocal cords, they can soar, dip, flutter, and break in a manner that serves as both an analogy for rapture and a metaphor for technical facility and self-control. Or, if blessed with a personality, they can work with knowingness, insinuation, and—most crucially—humor. Prince deployed both tactics; Timberlake has chosen the first. Unfortunately, his voice is neither deep enough for lines like “Daddy’s on a mission to please” nor hysterical enough for “I’ve got sexy ladies / All over the floor.” And so we are reminded that this is the same man who fumbled Janet Jackson’s bustier at the Super Bowl.

In upping the sexual ante, Timberlake is running away from himself, as the best song on the album, “My Love,” makes clear. With its stabbing techno riff, crunched-together mouth-popping noises, and wailing opera singer, the track is an obvious sequel to “Cry Me a River.” And working with lines like “I can see us holding hands / Walking on the beach our toes in the sand,” Timberlake’s small but fervent falsetto sounds so much more sincere—and exposes him for what he really is: a nice boy who’s better at being sappy than sexy. Part of what made Justified so enjoyable, after all, were charming asides like the ending of the opening track “Señorita,” when he asked “guys” to sing one verse and “ladies” to sing another.

The knock on Timberlake has always been that he owes his success to his producers. Timbaland obviously helps him out here again, but his touch is no guarantee of stardom. (If it were, then protégées like Kiley Dean and Nicole Wray would be household names.) At the very least, it can be said that Timberlake has excellent taste. If he hasn’t yet invented a persona intriguing enough to live up to his music, give him credit for being one of the few white men still brave enough to make black music.

Outkast pulled off the reverse move with “Hey Ya!,” making hip-hop that sounded and (in the clever video) looked like the Beatles. That single was so all-conquering that many people failed to notice that The Love Below, the André 3000–produced album on which it appeared (the other half of OutKast, Big Boi, turned in Speakerboxxx), was a half-baked mess. Like so many Prince albums, The Love Below was a concept suite about sex and spirituality that wore its eclecticism on its sleeve, dabbling in cabaret, psychedelia, and drum and bass. André spoke often of his desire to break free from the strictures of rap, and in return, critics hailed him as a Renaissance man. (Never mind that OutKast’s earlier, supposedly more limited albums are funkier and funnier than anything they’ve done lately.)

The problem with being a Renaissance man is that it sets the bar awfully high. Too high even for Prince, in fact, who aced the test of eclecticism on Sign ‘o’ the Times but stumbled when he started filling subsequent albums with competent but uninspired takes on techno, reggae, and ballroom dancing. The game is to sound casually brilliant, as if your merest tossed-off invention arrives fully formed in the world; the danger is formlessness (if you’re not a strong songwriter) or pastiche (if you are).

Formlessness was the problem on The Love Below, and it’s been addressed on Idlewild, the companion to a Prohibition-era movie starring André and Big Boi. The album is filled with piano-driven tunes that signify vaguely as jazzy—the obvious parallel is Under the Cherry Moon, Prince’s own jazzy movie—and while it’s no Parade (the soundtrack to Cherry Moon, and one of Prince’s best), it is entertaining and surprisingly consistent. Far better, in fact, than the movie would suggest—movie musicals need to be filled with showstoppers, but OutKast have put some of the album’s least catchy tunes onscreen. Why, for instance, doesn’t Idlewild conclude with “Mighty ‘O’,” a rave–meets–Cab Calloway track that summarizes the retro-futurism the band is trying to pull off here?

So far, Idlewild has absorbed the criticism that should have been leveled at their previous album. André 3000 needs to get back to rapping, goes the refrain; the band has lost touch with its hip-hop roots. Certainly, André’s wan singing on “Hollywood Divorce,” one of the best tracks here, pales next to the controlled fury of Lil’ Wayne’s guest verses. And Idlewild doesn’t have the highs of The Love Below,let alone Aquemini. But it’s far from a full-blown implosion. Like Prince in the nineties, OutKast may be condemned to a future of overlooked albums that are much better than you think.
[Edited 9/18/06 19:40pm]

Thanks for posting.

someone else posted this article so I'm gonna paste what I said on that thread on this thread as well:

I agree with this article, pretty much. I, too, don't find Mr. JT convincing in the least as Mr. Too Sexy. He just doesn't have it like that for me. And, the only song I half-way liked on his CD was "My Love."

Andre, for me, succeeds at least at being sexy. The article mentioned "Mighty O" but I want to know why "Afterparty" or whatever that song is sang with Angel Davenport wasn't put on the CD.

NO ONE can b like Prince-plain and simple...

Excellent thread, Gary. Good article.

blackguitaristz said:

Thanks, although props go to antoher orger who, I later learned, posted it before me (I did look though, I just didn't look hard enough!)

I wrote a brief letter to the editor about the lyric bite too; we'll see if they publish it! (My brother once got his letter published)

Haven't I seen this before?

http://www.prince.org/msg/8/202350


(can't hurt to post it again!)

Here's my thing; I've never had a problem with current artists "biting" off of Prince or being "influenced" by him. Prince is someone to be influenced by. If u need to bite, then bite from one of the best. Hell, Prince himself has bitten off of others before him countless times. That's the way it's always been and will always be. It's a natural progression. P couldn't be upset cuz Andre from Outkast is showing his love for him. No different than James Brown could be upset because of P showing his love for him.

blackguitaristz said:

I totally agree with this sentiment. But here's the question. Prince bites off James, but still sounds like Prince. Outkast bites off Prince, but still sounds like Outkast. Who does Justin sound like?

blackguitaristz said:

compliment.

What impressed me the most about this article was the clarity of the author's analysis of Prince and his legacy, particularly his comments about Prince's largely overlooked work in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

NDRU said:

A fake ass wannabe with an identity crisis.

Last time around he was trying to be MJ. Now it's Prince.

Note to Justin: Figure out who the hell YOU are and find YOUR voice then come holla at us.
[Edited 9/19/06 13:33pm]

SexyBeautifulOne said:

why do you hate justin? he hasn't raped or beaten anyone unlike your fav artists; grow up!

the new Justin album is a mess and this article is as well.....saying Outkast's Love Below is a half-baked mess? yeah right....

mikek1 said:

I don't hate him. I just don't like him. Last time I checked, that's my prerogative.

As for my favorite artist raping somebody, you must be trying to refer to Tupac whom, for your information, I DON'T BELIEVE raped anybody! What the hell has this got to do with what we're talking about?

I have no problem when others are influenced by Prince,probably I will like it.
Even better when articles as this keep telling the younger generation where the new stars
got their inspiration.
[Edited 9/19/06 14:23pm]

SexyBeautifulOne said:

I have to agree. I mean, I understand that everyone is influenced by someone else, but I just don't get any idea of who Justin is musically outside of his current influence. If I like his influence, then I like the song. I kinda feel Justin gets over because of the void in male pop stars....he's "sexy" by default or something. If Usher doesn't have a CD out, Justin's record is almost guaranteed to sell well.

cheyenne said:

Thank you! Usher and Andre may have gotten over emulating MJ and Prince but at least they're consistant with it. I can respect that because they're being true to who they are, while showing respect or giving props, if you will, to their influences.

Justin on the other hand, comes off to me as a pure fucking opportunist capitalizing on what he thinks will sell based mostly on what's or who's most profitable at the moment, AND there's the fact that in my eyes, he punked out like a little bitch when he should have stood up for Janet. HE WAS JUST AS RESPONSIBLE for what happened as she was.

In other words, I just ain't feelin' his fake ass, plain and simple.

See featured item http://www.prince.org/msg/8/202846