i rarely hate in public but damn...
just compare "lolita" to van hunt's "hot stage lights" and the sadness/completeness of the evaporation of prince's relevance is on full display. same basic concept, completely different experiences... prince=boring and predictable, van=funky and his. and of course there could be no van hunt or d'angelo or meshell or almost anybody else dealing in popular music without prince, but i aint talking about the past, i am talking about what happens to artists when they start listening to the radio before they write a song. and of course, in this mediocre form, prince is now super popular and commercially viable.

scoop jackson blames the demise of the pistons on rasheed's hair; i blame prince's demise on larry graham.
grrrrrrr
kt

Kt, I don't know about Larry Graham. I just haven't understood to much of Prince's music since Sexy MF. I guess he just doesn't listen to his inner self like before. If he started out as a freak, he should show his true self. Or maybe he locked him in the vault.

No, now he is Brother Nelson. He was at the big Jehovah's Witness Convention last year at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. He may have had to tone down lyrics or whatever in order to comply with the religion. They are pretty strict on what is acceptable and what is not.

ya know, for me it's not even about whether he curses and gets freaky on his records anymore ...and, for me its not about why he does or doesn't do that type of thing...i just genuinely don't care what religion, doctorine or rules a musical artist chooses to follow, as long as...now here is the key point for me...as long as THE MUSIC is creative & interesting and unpredictable and feels like it has some semblance of sincerety and truness of inspiration flowing through it. The inspiration can come from many angles...uplifting, anger, frustration, hope...any and all of that and more...i don't care what emotion or energy it is that inspires an artist to create a certain tune, as long as i can FEEL that sincere emotion in their creation.

THATs where Prince lost me a long time ago...regardless of what religion he believes, and what rules his religion has, most of his MUSIC hasn't had that true 'inspired' feeling for years...at least not consistently, at least not for me anyway.

and his Production work on his songs has been VERY bad for the most part.

That said, I will say that i did actually enjoy The Rainbow Children record though. I thought that was a well done album...felt like there was a sincereness to it...it felt like he 'felt' something when he created that one. And even though i'm not a Jehovahs Witness myself, i can still appreciciate a well crafted expression of an artists interests, opinions...even if i don't agree with them (again IF they are presented in an interesting, unique, creative way)
Plus, the production on TRC was nice as well.

But most of the other stuff...uggh....just ehh...patchy, uninspired and inconsistent...

its crazy though because, like KT said, much of his stuff that i'm bored with is selling like hotcakes to the general generic population...so go figure.

but for me...it's just not doing anything. Most of it doesn't make me question, doesn't make me curious, shock me, sooth me, move me, or inspire me. Yeah maybe there are a few spots here and there that make me go...'hey P you may have been onto something there'..i'm talikng a song here, and a song there....but then usually i'm slapped right in the face with another uninspired, corny, badly executed tune right behind it.

so yeah...i'm all for an artist moving on and not reliving the past...as long as you (A) still accept the past a a legitimate part of you (B) if you choose to 'move on' to a new path you 'move on' to your new path with the same type of creative devotion, conviction and respect for the artistry and craft that you had on your previus roads. Do that and i'll be along for journey as well.

but hey, guess that's why i'm such fan of meshell's stuff huh?

u guys iz crazy.

3121 is slammin'.

musicology was slammin'.

p is at a new peak in creativity thanks to his acceptance of his self and his views pertaining to religion. give the man a fighting chance. listen 2 'fury', 'get on the boat', 'love', even 'black sweat'... these productions r SOLID, entertaining, creative, and inspiring.

as with me'shell, prince is simply a human being. an exceptional human being, still simply a human being.

the cool thing about every single one of p's records is that at least a handful of the tracks are guaranteed 2 be enduring & timeless.

take "the gold experience", u guys would go "ugh! that "concept album" with the weird internet operator voice was silly n borderline annoying. what was he thinking?" but then simply select "billy jack bitch", "shhh..." and "i hate u", even "gold" on its own... SOLID, entertaining, creative, inspiring.

prince is not a singles artist, an albums artist, or a mainstream artist. he is THE artist. he treats each individual track as if it were a canvas. in comparison 2 bashir he is just as prodigious... i could live without 2 or 3 tracks from each me'shell release (deutoronomy:niggerman, a tear n a smile, body, love song #3, trust as examples) but u don't see me here bashing because i'm salty she isn't on a major label anymore or blaming my incompatibility with her music on the way that she has chosen 2 find her light. "bitter" continues to be the only me'shell album that i can play from beginning 2 end n stay captivated. "purple rain", "musicology", "chaos and disorder" are the only prince albums that i can go all the way 4, as well.

also, it takes a dynamic artist 2 consistently release album after album.

let it happen. breath it in, and experience. we should be thankful that we have these inspirational artists that continue 2 deliver new material consistently.

Prince doesn't need to prove himself anymore to have my love (neither does Stevie for that matter). Still, I do feel things would have been better without Larry because I dug Emancipation, even with the filler, but I haven't really appreciated anything since.

There are some signs of hope for a bright future. 3121 is better than Musicology, so at least he's going in a direction that appeals to my musical tastes.

Van Hunt's cool too. I love that 80's throwback song "Last Dance" (that the name?). I also think he can sound a lot like Rick James, so maybe Dave Chappelle can use him.

speaking of dave chappelle...

Hey JD

I guess it just comes down to personal tastes (and we know how subjective those can be). So i'm cool with agreeing to dissagree. Thats the spice of life after all.

For me though some (not all) of the Prince tracks you listed as slamming, i actually just didn't care for... so go figure. Its all about what moves you and we know we're all different and can be moved by very different things...so again i'm not trying to convince you that the tracks you like suck, and doubt you could convince me that the tracks I like suck. We like what we like. Its cool.

Understand too that I too have been a prince fan from day one really (i actually got his first album as a Promo before it was even released to the public for sale because my ma worked at a Country radio station at the time so they gave her all the soul promos to keep

I too can usually find a few gems and/or would be gems in his recent records amidst the other tunes. I'm not saying he doesn't have 'it' in him anymore...i'm saying he DOES have it in him, but (in my opinion) he just doesn't seem able to, or willing to, cultivate and explore it FULLY and unabashedly ...like he used to. To me, for most of the 90's and 2000's, moreso than not, you can HEAR him intentionally trying to be 'current'...at least thats what it feels like to me anyway. I always thought that when he was his best, he wasn't trying to be anything...he went more by instinct....gut...raw creativity and passion. His records felt like that to me. Now, while some songs do still have signs of that spark (how can anyone not find "Black Sweat" irresistable?), a lot of them do just feel to me like they are trying to too hard to be 'modern styled hits'. again this is just my opinion based on how the albums make me feel on a whole.

I understand what you're saying about bashing...i hear ya, and i try to avoid that mostly...but sometimes whats called bashing can also be constructive criticsm (not that I assume he's listening to me mind you ). And in the end, my 'bashing'(or constructive criticism) is really my own frustration that his stuff isn't moving me on the level it used to. Maybe he's running out of creative mojo. Or maybe he doesn't trust his creative mojo like he used to. Or maybe its just that MY tastes have changed and evolved in a different direction than his creative mojo is going. Whatever the cause, his albums just aren't hitting me through & through like they once did. Hey...it happens. (Same thing even happened with me and Stevie Wonder. Thats not bashing either, thats just telling it like it is )

Again i must point out that i couldn't care less about what religion he chooses. I just don't care. Thats a personal thing in my opinion. So I'm not salty about that stuff at all. And that has not had ANY affect on my own abilty to appreciate a good groove when i hear one, or a tired one.

(heheh...the only thing i may still be salty about is the lame lawsuit that mr p tried to slap against my boy m years back...yeah, i STILL got a bit of a grudge against him for that crap...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: derek,

i can't even fathom "body" or "love song #3" being on anyone's "would gladly do without" list. wow. i need to hear each of them weekly, at least.

then again, i know that i connect with certain songs (especially several of meshell's) on an emotional level more than anything else, so...yeah...considering that no one's living my life or feeling what i'm feeling, of course no one else will connect in the same way. or at all.

whatever rocks your world....i guess the most important thing is that something does.

quote:

Originally posted by groove thang:
i can't even fathom "body" or "love song #3" being on anyone's "would gladly do without" list. wow.

Thank you!