I'm gon check this new Rick James out tomorrow, goin through it wit no expectations.

jackson35 said:

I agree,the comparsions are pointless and silly.I'm a fan of both artists and I get sick of seeing them pitted against each other.Prince is great and so was Rick.Yes,it's true that Prince is more diverse and went in many more directions than Rick did (musically),but Rick was an incredible funk artist.'Street Songs' is one of the greatest funk albums ever.At one point,Rick was hotter than both Michael Jackson and Prince.For many years,Rick stayed loyal to the funk and for that,he should be applauded.

Frederick96 said:

'Cold Blooded' was his last GREAT album,but 'Glow' (from 1985) wasn't bad....there are some solid jams on that album.It was downhill after that.

Frederick96 said:

is there at least a decent slow jam on it? I really liked "Don't Ever Tell Me You Love Me" from 'Urban Rapsody'.He's always been capable of making excellent slow jams.

lastdecember said:

Yeah,we all know that Rick had many "issues",no need to revisit all that.But that still doesn't change the fact that he was,at one time,a very creative,successful artist.He made his mark.He has left behind some of the funkiest jams of all time ("Mary Jane","Bustin Out","Give It To Me Baby","Ghetto Life","69 Times",etc).His classic slow jam "Fire And Desire" gets more aiprlay now than it did in 1981.He produced a girls group (Mary Jane Girls) and succeeded,something that Prince also tried to do,without much success ("In My House" was a bigger hit than anything by Vanity/Apollonia 6).

"Rick James got pigeonholed into just doing funk"

Why is this considered a bad thing? Did James Brown do anything other than funk? What about George Clinton? Contrary to popular belief,some fans want their favorite artists to stick to what they do best.In the 80s,there were already enough R&B artists trying to "crossover",watering down their music for the masses.Sometimes,it's not a bad thing to keep things funky.

There is a nice slow jam...Do you wanna play with Howard Hewett And Johnny Gill
that is nice. That's the best slow jam,

SoulAlive said:

Amen, brother.

I never saw Rick trying to branch out into anything other than funk until the "Urban Rapsody" album in the 1990s when he "branched out" into making an album of either all midtempo songs and ballads with no funk whatsoever. That's not branching out though, that's simply selling out and doing what the rest of the R&B artists of the 1990s were doing.

As for branching out in the 1980s, true enough beginning with the "Glow" album, he had faded out most of his signature Stone City Band sound but Rick was still doing what he had always done, which was funk. The funk just wasn't as strong as it was on the earlier albums.

I think Rick could have branched out into other things such as rock if he wanted to. I know he was very cabable of doing rock. Whether or not he would have been successful at rock is another story. However, I'm GLAD he didn't branch out into other things because someone who remained true to funk should be given an award above all other awards.




I can't argue with this statement at all because you are absolutely right in this part of your post. Out of all his faults, Prince did continue making funk into the 1990s and 2000s when funk became complete extinct and all others abandoned it. Prince deserves major props for that. Rick should have done the same. Instead of making a sellout shit hop sounding album, Rick should have come back throwing down hard funk and telling today's shit hop generation to kiss his motherfucking ass if they didn't like funk because he was making the album for his fans....which are funk fans. Instead of trying to beat the dead asses, he turned around and joined them.

Rick had a huge crossover success with "Super Freak" and turned around and still remained true to his funk fans with another funky album that followed it, "Throwin' Down". Very few funk artists that have a crossover smash come back with strong funk on the next album. They usually sell out, water their music down, and try to please their new found pop fans. Rick should be awarded for staying true to funk and only funk.....well until this shit hop bullshit recently.

People talk about how great it is that Prince is so diverse but I see that as one of his faults. Prince was much better when he was funk/rock and funk/rock only. I wish he had never branched out into his far out artsy/fartsy stuff. The stuff was still good but the earlier stuff when he was far less diverse was 10 times stronger. I see diversity as taking up recording space where more funk could have been.
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[Edited 5/23/07 16:53pm]

I didn't expect to hear any funk on the album but I didn't expect the whole entire album to sound shit hop sounding just like all the rest of today's artists.



I don't give shit hop any tries. Shit hop is something I don't tolerate, period.

It's far from "Garden Of Love". "Garden Of Love" at least had the funky jam "Big Time", the decent jam "Mary Go Round", and a slow jam, which I eventually grew to love "Don't Give Up On Love". This new album has no funk whatsoever and, most importantly, "Garden of Love" had no shit hop influence whatsoever. Shit hop is inexcuseable. I would tolerate Shitney Houston before I would tolerate shit hop.
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[Edited 5/23/07 17:03pm]

I would say that his last funky song was "So Tight". It wasn't nearly as good as Rick's earlier work but it was still funky.

I don't know whats wrong with some of you people, I too was a rick james head before prince came along. I bought the cd off itunes and I like it, just being able to hear something new from this enormous talent Is enuff for me. Most people expect an artist to sound the same when they were big time. Let me ask you this? are you the same person you were 10, 15, 20 years ago? Artists are people too, they change, they grow, and yes the music changes too, I'd rather not rip the departed Rick but embrace being able to hear some of his last music that he made....Nuff Said R.I.P SuperFreak

You also have to remember that Rick hated being called just a "funk" artist. He said that in a interview before he passed. He said he had elements of everything in his music and didn't want to be labeled a funk artist.

But I agree when he funked he funked hard.

i8ubfr said:

We understand where you are coming from. Rick had already experimented with other styles and the new single deeper still is cool it is just that the rest of
the material is lame and who knows maybe if he were still alive some of those tracks may not have even made the album. Rick james core fans weren't expecting another street songs or throwdown album but at least we were looking for a few funk tracks. Rick is dead and gone so we will never know what direction he was going musically.

Nope. Back then, I liked funk and funk only. Now I also like rock. I've always liked hard music and that part of me hasn't changed at all. The only change in me is that I expanded the boundaries and started liking other types of hard music. I didn't go backwards to the days of classical music and start liking weak slow music like so many other people do when they get older. I plan on shaking ass when I'm 80 and using a walker. The only way I won't be shaking ass is if I become paralized.
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[Edited 5/25/07 12:28pm]

I got my copy of this thursday and it's kinda what I expected, mid-temo/slow grooves. It's obvious he was looking to get on the radio with this CD, I'm surprised only the title track is getting airplay.