I THINK THIS WAS POSTED PREVIOUSLY. But do you think Rick was right or wrong on this one?

http://rnbdirt.com/rick-j...-fan/1613/

Rick James Not Much Of An Alicia Keys Fan

[Edited 3/10/12 19:04pm]

Lawd..well he ain't lying.

Lawd..well he ain't lying.

This guy had tons of shade to throw.

I like some of Alicia's music but she was extremely overhyped so I can understand where Rick was coming from. She is an ok singer and musician but as a songwriter I think she is lacking, particularly when you stack her up against the legends she was constantly compared to around the time of her debut album.

I have her CD but I bought it a year after it came out. I thought she was getting way too much credit for knowing how to play Fur Elise and a scale at the VMA's And I pointed out the scale thing too back then. She is talented, but there are better singers, songwriters and players. They just needed a new r&b singer and needed to stick her behind a piano to disguise that and make her "different" yet appealing to mainstream.

Having that said, I really thought her second album was good and used to play it a lot

I remember this interview. He said there was a new female singer he had discovered that was 100 times better than Alicia.

I put Alicia right up there with India Arie (remember her?). Easy on the eyes and a lot of sex appeal but the music does NOTHING for me. At least with Erykah and Sade they're giving me the whole package.

SPYZFAN1 said:

I remember this interview. He said there was a new female singer he had discovered that was 100 times better than Alicia.

I put Alicia right up there with India Arie (remember her?). Easy on the eyes and a lot of sex appeal but the music does NOTHING for me. At least with Erykah and Sade they're giving me the whole package.

Definitly Agree With This.

I never thought Alicia Keys was much of a singer... very average and sometimes below average. I always appreciated the fact that she tried to gear her music towards a more adult audience unlike her peers. With all that being said, she does have alot of good songs that I do like but their are better singers, songwriters, musicians etc who have the WHOLE package like you said.

mjscarousal said:

SPYZFAN1 said:

I remember this interview. He said there was a new female singer he had discovered that was 100 times better than Alicia.

I put Alicia right up there with India Arie (remember her?). Easy on the eyes and a lot of sex appeal but the music does NOTHING for me. At least with Erykah and Sade they're giving me the whole package.

Definitly Agree With This.

I never thought Alicia Keys was much of a singer... very average and sometimes below average. I always appreciated the fact that she tried to gear her music towards a more adult audience unlike her peers. With all that being said, she does have alot of good songs that I do like but their are better singers, songwriters, musicians etc who have the WHOLE package like you said.

Well i feel Rick's words mainly are coming from a place of "i got an artist thats better", though i can agree with him about the first album, i hated it, and i thought it was overhyped, but again, she wasnt doing the hype, the machine was, if you hear 24/7 that you are this amazing artist before you even had an album, it would get into your head at some point. I wish Alicia, would have gone the route that Norah Jones went, meaning played clubs for a few years before getting signed, granted NORAH is on Blue Note and Alicia is on Clive's label which shits out money. Of course there are better singers,performers, players etc.... but thats promoting problems and label shit, its not alicias problem that say rachelle ferrel cant get played because her label doesnt push her, thats the business that they are in, and the business, SORRY to say that Rick and prince and others in the video age where your looks and videos took over, they built the beast, deal with it.

scriptgirl said:

Lawd..well he ain't lying.

Alicia's strongest skill is music composition, versus lyric writing, or even singing.

lastdecember said:

mjscarousal said:

Definitly Agree With This.

I never thought Alicia Keys was much of a singer... very average and sometimes below average. I always appreciated the fact that she tried to gear her music towards a more adult audience unlike her peers. With all that being said, she does have alot of good songs that I do like but their are better singers, songwriters, musicians etc who have the WHOLE package like you said.

Well i feel Rick's words mainly are coming from a place of "i got an artist thats better", though i can agree with him about the first album, i hated it, and i thought it was overhyped, but again, she wasnt doing the hype, the machine was, if you hear 24/7 that you are this amazing artist before you even had an album, it would get into your head at some point. I wish Alicia, would have gone the route that Norah Jones went, meaning played clubs for a few years before getting signed, granted NORAH is on Blue Note and Alicia is on Clive's label which shits out money. Of course there are better singers,performers, players etc.... but thats promoting problems and label shit, its not alicias problem that say rachelle ferrel cant get played because her label doesnt push her, thats the business that they are in, and the business, SORRY to say that Rick and prince and others in the video age where your looks and videos took over, they built the beast, deal with it.

But Prince and Rick werent popular because of their looks. Even Michael in the 80s wasnt vastly popular because of how he looked although he was handsome it was mostly for their music.

I didnt find anything wrong with Ricks comments. To be quite honest, I wish ALOT more legends and artists in general were more honest about artists of today instead of giving generic responces on them or opinions people expect for them to say for T.V. Its refreshing when an artist gives an honest perspective and critique.

To me, Alicia is just okay all around, shes always been that way to me. Ive always found artists like Norah, Erykah, Jill, etc to be more talented and overall has better music.

NOW if someone was to ask me who was more talented between Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Ashanti, Rihanna etc... then Alicia definitly gets my pick in a category of artists who dont have that much raw talent.

Like you said their are always going to be better artists but I was mostly directing that to artists that are her peers that didnt or dont get that much credit for their music.

Wasn't like he didn't have a point.

This from the guy who tried to make Eddie Murphy a musical star!

HonestMan13 said:

This from the guy who tried to make Eddie Murphy a musical star!

That is a good point...

Why did Rick James end up so bitter? He had a lot of talent, but his career didn't last. Ok, but don't take it out on others.

I have mixed feelings about Alicia Keys. Her first album is just ok. But over the course of her career, she has proven to be a great song writer, when she's on. Her best songs are among the best of her generation. Only problem is that she has a lot of just average songs. But those high points are really high.

controversy99 said:

Why did Rick James end up so bitter? He had a lot of talent, but his career didn't last. Ok, but don't take it out on others.

I have mixed feelings about Alicia Keys. Her first album is just ok. But over the course of her career, she has proven to be a great song writer, when she's on. Her best songs are among the best of her generation. Only problem is that she has a lot of just average songs. But those high points are really high.

He was full of self-pity, too much ego, and envy. Rick was a big ole hata w/ a "why me" complex. He very openly resented everybody he deemed unworthy who got more success than he did. His book was very revealing of these aspects of his character. Not a good look, tho refreshingly human in terms of an autobiography.

HonestMan13 said:

This from the guy who tried to make Eddie Murphy a musical star!

Yes, but he nearly pulled it off! Eddie actually did OK in terms of the charts...for a hot minute!

brooksie said:

HonestMan13 said:

This from the guy who tried to make Eddie Murphy a musical star!

Yes, but he nearly pulled it off! Eddie actually did OK in terms of the charts...for a hot minute!

My point is he's lashing out at musicians with talent when he was promoting a comedian with some sly/tongue in cheek lyrics.

HonestMan13 said:

brooksie said:

Yes, but he nearly pulled it off! Eddie actually did OK in terms of the charts...for a hot minute!

My point is he's lashing out at musicians with talent when he was promoting a comedian with some sly/tongue in cheek lyrics.

I knew what your point was...did you see my other post? I said what I did about Eddie because Rick did in fact get some success off their collab. Whatever Rick's faults were, he was quite a good producer and proved it by getting a hit off whack ass Eddie. Rick laughed all the way to the bank after "Party All The Time".

His cracking on Keyes was quite typical of him...people he deemed unworthy of respect/success were fair game to him, esp. if he felt they were overhyped like Keyes and Prince.

BobbyDrake said:

I THINK THIS WAS POSTED PREVIOUSLY. But do you think Rick was right or wrong on this one?

http://rnbdirt.com/rick-j...-fan/1613/

Rick James Not Much Of An Alicia Keys Fan

Posted on June 20, 2002 by rnbdirt

Karu F. Daniels of EURweb.com chatted with R&B legend Rick James. Amongst his headline grabbing comments were those on Alicia Keys. “She calls her album, ‘Songs In A Minor,’ and all of the songs are in E and D,” he explained. “I don’t think she knows her grammatic skill, personally. I think she’s ‘The Gong Show.’ When she did the Donny Hathaway song in front of millions of people and fu**ed it up, that just goes to show you right there what’s going on…What about Rachelle Ferrell, or Lalah Hathaway? What about all these serious bitches that can really sing? Alicia Keys? Because Clive Davis eats the best See’s Candies and gives the best whatever, and wants to show Whitney [Houston] that she ain’t sh**, yeah, he’s going to put his effort in Alicia Keys.”

[Edited 3/10/12 19:04pm]

Damn I miss Rick James so much! He was and still is right.

All this "hater" bullshit talk.

Need I remind ya'll of the infamous "Adore" performance?

Harlepolis said:

All this "hater" bullshit talk.

Need I remind ya'll of the infamous "Adore" performance?

Prince was all " " during that performance. Even more so than he was with Trey. And he was acting funny with Shelby lol

Trey was "trying" to no vail. God bless his nasal nostrils.

I remember when Alicia came out in 2001. I remember the hype machine. You couldn't go anywhere without seeing her. I remember when she and clive were on oprah and oprah was praising her to the skies. Blech.

Harlepolis said:

All this "hater" bullshit talk.

Need I remind ya'll of the infamous "Adore" performance?

No bullshit. He'd had his day, so why shit on someone else's?

BobbyDrake said:

I THINK THIS WAS POSTED PREVIOUSLY. But do you think Rick was right or wrong on this one?

http://rnbdirt.com/rick-j...-fan/1613/

Rick James Not Much Of An Alicia Keys Fan

Posted on June 20, 2002 by rnbdirt

Karu F. Daniels of EURweb.com chatted with R&B legend Rick James. Amongst his headline grabbing comments were those on Alicia Keys. “She calls her album, ‘Songs In A Minor,’ and all of the songs are in E and D,” he explained. “I don’t think she knows her grammatic skill, personally. I think she’s ‘The Gong Show.’ When she did the Donny Hathaway song in front of millions of people and fu**ed it up, that just goes to show you right there what’s going on…What about Rachelle Ferrell, or Lalah Hathaway? What about all these serious bitches that can really sing? Alicia Keys? Because Clive Davis eats the best See’s Candies and gives the best whatever, and wants to show Whitney [Houston] that she ain’t sh**, yeah, he’s going to put his effort in Alicia Keys.”

[Edited 3/10/12 19:04pm]

I died laughing at this. All of this started to hit me in recent years and the deal was done when she was doing all of that off key yelling at Whitney funeral

TonyVanDam said:

BobbyDrake said:

I THINK THIS WAS POSTED PREVIOUSLY. But do you think Rick was right or wrong on this one?

http://rnbdirt.com/rick-j...-fan/1613/

Rick James Not Much Of An Alicia Keys Fan

Posted on June 20, 2002 by rnbdirt

Karu F. Daniels of EURweb.com chatted with R&B legend Rick James. Amongst his headline grabbing comments were those on Alicia Keys. “She calls her album, ‘Songs In A Minor,’ and all of the songs are in E and D,” he explained. “I don’t think she knows her grammatic skill, personally. I think she’s ‘The Gong Show.’ When she did the Donny Hathaway song in front of millions of people and fu**ed it up, that just goes to show you right there what’s going on…What about Rachelle Ferrell, or Lalah Hathaway? What about all these serious bitches that can really sing? Alicia Keys? Because Clive Davis eats the best See’s Candies and gives the best whatever, and wants to show Whitney [Houston] that she ain’t sh**, yeah, he’s going to put his effort in Alicia Keys.”

[Edited 3/10/12 19:04pm]

Damn I miss Rick James so much! He was and still is right.

I miss him to... he was SO REAL

MadamGoodnight said:

scriptgirl said:

Lawd..well he ain't lying.

ditto

I've lurked this board for over 2 years and this has been posted multiple times and it turns into an Alicia predictable bash session (much like 90% of artist brought up on this board who came out after 2000). Yawn. Who cares what Rick James' thinks. Alicia is and will continue to do (when her album comes out this year) her thing and is unbothered.

Alicia Keys could use her vocals to better fit her strong suite and IMO needs to reach out to others besides herself and Krucial Keys to help her with songwritting (tends to lag) but she has talent. The one thing I appreciate about her is her composition of her live performances, sometimes they are the same but a lot of times she switches it up.

There's a reason some artist are more popular than others. Some singers have boring personalities, aren't maketable, or music isn't simple enough for the general public. Not everyone is molded to be successful in terms of albums sold, singles success etc. Sometimes it's just the way things fall into place.