Don't misunderstand me. I like Sade and her music.

HOWEVER.....

WTF was Rick thinking when he decided to have most of the tracks on Deeper Still sounding like Sade outtakes?!?

When I think of the music history of the late Rick James, the very first thing that comes to mind is The Funk. But the final album of his life and career is mostly a freaking Sade-like smooth jazz album.

This is about as bad (if not worse) as Prince doing a MTV Unplugged album like The Truth.
[Edited 12/29/08 14:30pm]

I agree....this album isn't the usual uptempo funkfest that Rick usually delivers.It's very subdued.I appreciate it for what it is,but it's a shame that Rick didn't leave us with one more final funk masterpiece.

wasent this released after his death from a collection of unreleased tracks?

that's my understanding from his book.

altho i must admit i still have this album shrink-wrapped...

xperience319 said:

Yeah,it was released after his death.They compiled a bunch of his recordings from the earlier part of this decade.So,in all fairness,we don't know if this is the album he would have released himself.

xperience319 said:

The very fact that Rick was going in that musical direction is disappointing, never mind that those tracks were put on the album.

TonyVanDam said:

where is Vainandy at? I know he would have alot to say

Time and time again,we've seen old school funk artists go this route.Their new albums are less funky than their earlier stuff...containing alot of midtempo "smoothed out" crap Look at the once-mighty Isley Bros.That's why,when I find out that an old school funk band is releasing a new CD,I don't get too excited anymore.I have to take a 'wait and see' approach.

.
[Edited 12/29/08 14:39pm]

SoulAlive said:

I bet he hates this album more than anyone.

TonyVanDam said:

Indeed he does His assessment of this CD is even harsher than yours,lol.

SoulAlive said:

I'm more disappointed in Rick's last output than the Isleys. If you followed their career from the '50s onwards, they always never stuck with one genre all the time, they were always into some different shit. Doo-wop one decade, rock & roll next, Motown the next, then some soul here, some hard rock, then some funk-rock, then disco, then adult contemporary, then weak attempts at hip-hop soul, lol...

It's hard to categorize them. With Rick, it wasn't hard to see that he was a funk man.

vainandy, get yo ass in here!

Who produced the album, Rick James or Sade's band Sweetback. When Sade is not recording, Sweetback produce music for other artists.

SoulAlive said:

I didn't even bother buying it for several reasons

I knew it wasn't gonna be funky especially after Andy's review

AND the cheap ass packaging

bboy87 said:

And the cheap ass sounding song Taste.

phunkdaddy said:

I went to the store and was like "What the fuck is this?"

I mean, I'm used to tacky packaging...I bought Emancipation and New Power Soul...but damn, it looks like they hired a middle school student gave him photoshop and let it be damned

So nobody liked it? I think its one of his best post-Street Songs albums. I love the autobiographical lyrics of "Taste", "Funk With Me" is classic, 'Deeper Still" and 'Secret" are really good too. His voice is as good as ever.

I'm a huge, huge Rick fan but honestly I feel he didn't have a lot left to say after Street Songs. He wrote some great tracks later ("Cold Blooded", "Glow", "Never Say You Love Me") but they were few and far between. He ran the SS formula into the ground, and his attempts to jump on the hip-hop bandwagon were about as good as Prince's. That is to say, terrible.

This record is none of the above, a really pure record of what Rick was up to his final years. At the time of his death Rick was planning an acoustic album and a funk album, i think it's safe to assume this a mix of cuts from both.

As for the art and stuff, yeah, its bad. Originally this project was going to be called "Forever" and released on Sanctuary with mostly different songs (including a duet with Rick James Jr) but it was canceled for unknown reasons, and this self-release (Stone City Records??) is what we get.

The sanctuary stuff is still unreleased, hopefully it will see the light of day when(if?) that Rick James movie is released.
[Edited 12/30/08 1:03am]
[Edited 12/30/08 1:06am]

I haven't heard it, but who produced it, himself or Sade's band Sweetback?

Oh, I'll be back to this thread when I have time to do some typing because I have some major shitting to do on this album. Since my boss is here right now, that has made me constipated to where I can't get it out. If I do right now, she'll be wondering what I'm typing so hard on.

The purpose of my response at this time is so the thread will be placed in the "My Org" section so I can find it later and get back to it.
.
.
.
[Edited 12/30/08 7:55am]

paulf said:

I like a few of the songs.The title track is okay,I also like "Secret" and "Sapphire".



I'd say that 'Cold Blooded' was his last truly brilliant album.The albums that followed were either mediocre ('Glow') or just downright terrible ('The Flag').With his personal life spiraling out of control,he wasn't able to devote himself fully to his music,and it shows.





Agreed.




Yeah,I know about the acoustic album.Rick mentioned it in the late 90s.He said that his friends Rod Stewart and Lenny Kravitz were gonna appear on it.




Last year,I heard that the biopic/documentary was gonna be released,I wonder if it's been cancelled or delayed again? I also heard about plans to remaster some of Rick's classic albums.I wish they would get the ball rolling!

vainandy said:

paulf said:

Well, I liked the album.If you were looking for a hard-driving funk record, then I can see how you were disappointed, but I think that Rick knew he could funk and he wanted to spread his wings and do other music. He said in the past that he hated being catagorized as a 'funk artist' because he felt pigeon-holed, and his music was bigger than that, so even though this isnt the album most of us wanted, just try and appreciate it for what it is, and lets just pray they unlock the vault soon.

This is the absolute worst album that Rick had ever made and is an embarassment to his name. This is exactly why I always say that older artists should stay retired rather than ruin their good name by making something that sounds like pure shit.

A lot of Rick James fans are just like Prince fans, or even Michael Jackson fans. When their favorite artist fucks up, they like to make excuses for them and try to justify what the artist did by saying the artist is "trying something new". Oh really? Trying something new huh? How is making an album that sounds like everything else on the radio these days trying something new? Y'all know me and y'all know I will tell it like it is whether it's Prince, Michael, or even Rick. Just admit it. Rick wanted to make an album he thought might possibly catch on with today's listeners regardless as to whether the music sounded shitty or not. That ain't called "making something new". That's called selling out. As for the arguements about Rick wanting the public to know that he was capable of making something other than funk, hell, we all knew that already. Just look at all the great slow jams he's made over the years. As for trying a new direction, why not rock? He was definately capable of making rock. Or why not house? He could have definately made some funky house. Instead, he chose to go the shit hop route. Oh, his last album wasn't shit hop? Well, he used those same weak sounding type drum machines that the shit hoppers use and drum machines that sound like that are the absolute definition of the shit hop sound. He also stayed at the same tempo they stay at and never passed it. And if it sounds like it would it in with today's radio in even the slightest then it sounds like shit hop and shit hop is unexcusable....period. Trying to beat the enemy may never kill shit hop but joining the enemy will only help shit hop grow. Andy has spoken dammitt.
.
.
.
[Edited 12/30/08 12:15pm]

Andy has spoken

The Isley Brothers have become an absolute disgrace and what's worse, is they were successful with the bullshit. When they are successful after they sell out, there is nothing we can do. However, when it comes to starving artists like The Barkays, we can always show our disapproval but simply not buying their latest efforts and hope they lose their shirts for making such bullshit. It took The Barkays a long time to do it, but they finally sold out on their last two albums. Actually, I heard one particular song from their last album that sounded decent but I still refrained from buying it. The reason is, when an artist sells out, their product does not need to sell. If they are unsuccessful at selling out, they have no other choice than to either release something good as the next album, or stay retired and tour with dignity. We won't never get no jams out of these artists if we continue buying anything they throw out at us because they hope the new crowd will like it. Well, the new crowd isn't going to like their attempts because they are old artists. They need to start thinking about who their real fans are and what they want.
.
.
.
[Edited 12/30/08 12:29pm]

vainandy said:

Once the Isleys started working with R.Kelly,that's when I stopped buying their music.

The last "new" music I bought from them was when they were briefly known as Isley, Jasper, Isley.

vainandy said:

Right on.

vainandy said:

Taste is a kind of song that Ne-Yo and/or Chris Brown could have done and most likely have been a hit for their generation of hip-hop/r&b fans. For Rick to do THAT kind of song on their level is disappointing.

SoulAlive said:

End of.

SoulAlive said:

The nightmare started a lot sooner than that the moment the Isleys' 3+3 line-up broke up and both the Isley Jasper Isley faction and (especially) the elder Isleys faction started doing slow jams full-time and NEVER went back to The Funk ever again.

At least IJI's Caravan Of Love is classic! But the elder Isleys never made another hit in any genre at all.
[Edited 12/30/08 13:29pm]