Prince's female protege track record..how's he done?

geechiedan

geechiedan

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Sheila E.

Sheila E, daughter of percussionist Pete Escovedo, got her start in her father's band, Azteca and as a session player for George Duke. She was first featured on the 'Purple Rain' B-Side, "Erotic City".
In 1985 Sheila went solo with a band in tow and her debut, 'The Glamorous Life' followed with the massive title hit. Sheila E is one of my favorite proteges as she is one of the last female percussionists to be in the mainstream, you wouldn't see Britney Spears snaring would you?. She has some catchy tunes and her first album without Prince, 1991's 'Sex Cymbal' is her cream of the crop, just hella good.

Notable Songs: What'Cha Gonna Do, Sex Cymbal, Love Bizarre, Sister Fate, The Belle Of St. Mark and of course The Glamorous Life


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Wendy & Lisa

Formerly of The Revolution, Prince's hit band. Best friends, guitarist Wendy Melvoin and pianist Lisa Coleman are FIERCE! They are another favorite of mines as their 1987 self-titled debut features the amazing songs, "Honeymoon Express" and "Waterfall" both moderate hits. Their first outing is their finest as its a blend of rock, pop, soul, funk and even jazz. They returned in 1989 with 'Fruit On The Bottom' with funky "Satisfaction" and then in 1992 with 'Erocia'. The duo are still going strong as they have done session work for the likes of Gwen Stefani and Rob Thomas as well as do movie scores for hit movies Dangerous Minds and Something New. Keep on going W&L!

Notable Songs: Honeymoon Express, Waterfalls, Stay, Blues Away, Satisfaction, Always In My Dreams, Lolly Lolly


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Jill Jones

Jill Jones was probably the one of the best vocalist from the Prince camp as she did hold her own as back-up singer for the Queen Of Blue Eyed Soul herself, Teena Marie. The former "Lady Cab Driver"'s debut features the insanely epic romp, "Mia Bocca" and a great blend of Prince's experiment between orchestra and funk (think Parade & 'Sign 'O' The Times' periods). Jill didn't recapture the magic of "Mia Bocca" but still managed to be one of the proteges that didn't get a fabolous second chance

Notable Songs: Mia Bocca, G-Spot, All Night All Day


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Vanity 6
Vanity aka Denise Matthews went solo after the Vanity 6 break-up. But her cheeky attitude shined through during her solo years, especially on the oh-so-nasty (and wildly embrassing) "Pretty Mess". She redeemed herself with the great R&B dance track, "Under The Influence" off of her 2nd effort, 'Skin On Skin', but that was the end for Vanity as she is now an evangelist

Notable Songs: Under The Influence, Confidential, Romantic Voyage, Skin On Skin, Manhunt, and yes even Pretty Mess

The Hookers changed their name to Vanity 6 (for obvious reasons) and their soft core tunes drenched airwaves. With Denise Matthews at the helm as "Vanity", the trio scored hits with "Nasty Girl", "He's So Dull" and "Drive Me Wild". They only released this one album but what a fun and campy one it is! Denise left the group and went solo, then became a born-again Christian. Then Vanity 6 became Apollonia 6 with the addition of new lead vocalist, Apollonia and well they just live in Prince classic protege infamy

Notable Songs: If A Girl Answers (Don't Hang Up), Make-Up, He's So Dull, Nasty Girl



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Apollonia 6

Apollonia gained attention for duetting with Prince on "Take Me With You" then she got a lead role in the Purple Rain movie and became the lead vocalist for Apollonia 6. After a falling out with Prince over career direction, Apollonia kept her name and struck out on her own with a debut album that didn't generate heat. She went on to star in the TV Drama, Falcon Crest and thus keeps busy still working in music and film

Vanity 6 became Apollonia 6 with the addition of Patricia "Apollonia" Kotero. Brenda and Susan (a former girlfriend of Prince) remained once again in the background while Apollonia cooed her way through their only hit, "Sex Shooter". Flashed in the pan and then gone but still a Prince Protege essential!


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Taja Sevelle

Like Jill Jones, Taja Sevelle had quite a voice on her (think of her as a bluesier Mariah Carey). Taja actually caught Prince's attention by her song writing talents and thus he gave her a semi-hit with, "Wouldn't U Love 2 Love Me". While Taja hit all the right notes with her 1987 self-titled debut, her big hit, "Love Is Contagious" got lost in the shuffle and she became a minor footnote in Prince protege history. Shame since her debut is probably one of the better protege efforts. Taja continued to make good music with 1991's 'Fountains Free' and 1997's 'Toys Of Vanity' but has done more behind the scenes work such as forming Matrix Records (who produced the likes of 'NSYNC and Christina Aguilera) as well as form the charity group, Urban Farming

Notable Songs: Love Is Contagious, Wouldn't U Love 2 Love Me, Why Did You Treat Me So Bad, Popular, Mama 16


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Rosie Gaines
Gossip from Prince's messageboard: If it's the same interview I've seen, she went onto say how frustrated she was that Prince promoted other women proteges instead of her, she was like, when's it my turn? She had an entire album recorded that never came out because of the Paisley Park label going down. No wonder she got frustrated and left.

I remember an interview from 1995.She was pissed that her album,recorded for Paisley Park Records,was never released while other female proteges had no problems getting their stuff released."Because I didn't sleep with Prince,my album was never released",she said.


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Sue Ann Carwell

Sue Ann is considered Prince's first protege as she was apart of an early formation of The Time. She never recorded with him, but she did record with another Prince protege, former Time member, Jesse Johnson. Sue's 1981 debut album was produced by Giorgio Moroder and didn't latch on to the public. By 1988 she got wilder for 'Blue Velvet', which is heavily produced by Johnson. Quite a stellar album if you get your paws on it and Sue Ann even shockingly sings "Rock Steady" better and brasher than the Queen of Soul, Miss Aretha Franklin, not kidding. Sue Ann was yet another Prince protege who could laid down some mean vocal chops

Notable Songs: Fiction, Rock Steady, You're So Precious, Boyfriend, Ooh Oh Oh


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Carmen Electra

Thought Carmen Electra just came out of nowhere when she starred on 'Baywatch' back in the 90's? Nope, we have Prince to thank (or not) for bringing Carmen to the spotlight. Before she became a pin-up, Carmen was Prince's girlfriend and was a female rapper ready to take the world by storm...but of course we all know how that story turned out to be. She released her one and only album in 1993 and it has since gone MIA...for good reason. Probably one of the biggest protege jokes that Prince ever pulled...



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Nona Gaye

Legendary soul man, Marvin Gaye's only daughter, Nona Gaye began her singing career in 1992 and had a hit with track, "I'm Overjoyed" from her 'Love For The Future' debut. Nona touched on her music career ever so slightly by doing a few unreleased duets with her boyfriend, Prince as well as sing backing vocals on track, "Love Sign" during Prince's "Artist Formley Known" days. Since then Nona has had a modeling gig with Armani and has taken up being a actress in recent years. You've probably seen her act in the final two 'Matrix' films, the Mumhammd Ali bio pic, 'Ali' and the drama 'Crash' as well as in Law & Order: Criminal Intent




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Mayte

Mayte Garcia is most known for being Prince's first wife and as being a professional belly dancer (who has taught, of all people, pop tart Britney Spears her moves). Mayte began her career in Prince's New Power Generation group after her mother sent in a tape of her dancing. Prince invited her on the 'Diamonds and Pearls' too and thus her solo career was about to kick off. She recorded a few songs, one being "If I Love U 2 Night" (which since went to Mica Paris on her 1991 'Contribution' album) and then released her one and only album, 'Child of the Sun' in 1995, but it was only released in the European market. Mayte and Prince have since divorced and she has been spotted on TV shows such as 'Psych', 'The Closer', 'Nip/Tuck' and 'Las Vegas'.




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Martika

Former Kids Incorporated singer/actress, Martika released her 1988 debut to a fanfare over song, "Toy Soilders". By 1991, Martika ditched the cutesy pop tart act and went for a more mature sound. What came of that transformation was her collaborations with Prince on her 2nd and sadly, final album, 'Martika's Kitchen'. In this stunning effort, Martika unleashes her 2nd biggest single, "Love Thy Will Be Done" and it's one great balllad, thanks to Prince of course.

Notable Prince Songs: Love Thy Will Be Done, Don't Say U Love Me, A Magical Place, Spirit



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Ingrid Chavez

Known as the "Spirit Child" during Prince's 'Lovesexy' days, Ingrid Chavez was mostly a songwriter/poet that was a long standing protege project with Prince. Ingrid's one and only debut album, 'May 19, 1992' features poetry written by Ingrid spoken over Prince's musical production. There were a few songs on the album where Ingrid sang, but most of the tracks were poems written from 1987-1990 in hopes that Prince would perform them. Ingrid would become Prince's love interest in his 'Graffiti Bridge' movie and she is the first person to record a demo of "Justify My Love", the future 1990 hit for Madonna. Ingrid actually wrote the song with rocker, Lenny Kravitz, but she was left off of the final writing credits...this of course led to Ingrid getting a huge settlement for this stupid mistake.


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Bria Valente
Don't get me wrong: I actually think Brian has a pleasant voice. Certainly better than Vanity or Carmen Electra. But, the album itself just sounds so ready-for-the-elevator that listening to it makes me want to stab somebody in the face.

That being said, Elixer was bundled in a 3-album set that debuted at #2 on billboard, and received a tremendous amount of buzz for an Indie artist (Prince), and Bria was part of that overall experience.


Yet, here we are several years later (4 years now?), and :

1. No acting gigs.
2. No followup attempts
3. No public appreances
4. No public facebook pages (that can be confirmed to be hers)
5. No youtube appearances
Essentially, she fell off the radar. Let's face it, whatever we thought of her talent, she was a hot piece of snatch to many folks--this guarantees a certain amount of publicity just by virtue of the 'beauty' factor.



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Tamar

Reintroduced to early mentor Prince in 2005 following her graduation from the University of Southern California, the music major signed on as a vocalist in his band. After Prince secured a one-album deal with Universal Republic in late 2005, Tamar began working double time contributing backing vocals on Prince's 2006 album "3121" and recording her own Universal Republic debut, which was never released.


over all what do you think of Prince's track record with female proteges...seems to me to be a lot more misses than hits..
 
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geechiedan said:
over all what do you think of Prince's track record with female proteges...seems to me to be a lot more misses than hits..
Click to expand...
If you want to shit on Prince's track record with female proteges as "a lot more misses than hits", first name any three other artists with BETTER track records. Or two. Or one.
:itsawrap::beatyourass:
 
Hotlantan said:
If you want to shit on Prince's track record with female proteges as "a lot more misses than hits", first name any three other artists with BETTER track records. Or two. Or one.
:itsawrap::beatyourass:
Click to expand...

how would that disprove anything I said?

of all of prince's protege's hitmaking speaking..sheila e is the most successful..then there's vanity's one hit..and everyone else seems to be middling to outright flop...:dunno:
 
I think OP makes a valid point. However, the fact of the matter is that several of those protege's got out of the biz due to personal reasons as opposed to be non successful. TBH, Prince usually only puts you in a position for you to "DO WHAT YOU DO". He has never been a "HOLD YOUR HAND" type of mentor/producer. With that said, in that manner, his track record is pretty good.
 
I have never heard of some of these, but where's Rosie Gaines? She and Sheila E were the only ones with any real talent it seems.
 
It's a known fact Prince has put on a lot of his "friends" and "love interests" over more talented qualified people in his circle. And when he's done with them he's completely done with them so they left to fend on their own. Sheila E is probably the lone exception, he's worked with her on numerous projects and I would argue she's the most talented of the bunch you posted.
 
Taja was serious. loved her album.

alot of successful artists have never done anything for other acts besides themselves,
and certainly no where near the amount of artists prince at least helped get to first base.
 
prince-sheila-e-live.jpg


Prince And His Protégés

From the beginning of Prince Nelson’s career in music, he prided himself on being a one man band. With very few exceptions, he wrote, arranged, produced, and performed the music that appeared on his albums. He was famously prolific. As would be the case throughout most of his work with Warner Brothers, he quickly felt constrained by the limitations put on his recorded output. He produced more songs than he could possibly use. Prince needed a front: someone to record and perform his music the way he wanted. These protégés would be expected to follow his lead in all matters.

The tracks would be recorded by Prince, and these men and women would sing their parts. They would have no say in the kind of material they would record. They were to be an extension of Prince and nothing more. Anyone who forgot this would quickly find themselves without a job. These protégés would highlight a fatal creative and personal flaw: that Prince was ultimately driven by an ego that could not tolerate other talent. Today Prince surrounds himself with yet another group of musicians. It is worth looking at how a musician, who could have been the greatest hit producer of his generation, limited himself to those people he could dispose of.

The First Protégés
The only successful acts that can be rightly attributed to Prince, are those people who he worked with in the first half of the 1980s. Even then, only two have seen any longevity: Sheila E. and The Time.

Sheila E.’s 1984 debut album, The Glamorous Life, was co-written and produced by Prince under the pseudonym of Jamie Starr. The title track got to #7 on the Billboard charts. The follow up, Romance 1600, would only feature one of Prince’s compositions, “A Love Bizarre,” which would give Sheila E. another hit. While her career would never reach that level of mainstream exposure, she continued to record albums. Unlike so many of Prince’s protégés she made it past the debut album. Sheila E. had enough talent as a songwriter and musician to be known for something other than Prince.

(Wendy & Lisa who have done great work since their separation from Prince, should not be included. Like Rosie Gaines, they probably got less from Prince than they were giving. They did not need Prince to write their material.)

You then have classic, one-off albums like Vanity 6, Jill Jones, and The Family. All three hoped for fame. All three were hindered by Prince’s overbearing control issues. Vanity would record two more albums after breaking from Prince, before her career imploded. The Family have returned in recent years under the name F. Deluxe. Jill Jones has put out three albums since 2001. Both The Family and Jill Jones were subjected to the litigious hypocrisies of a man who once compared the contract he signed with Warner Brothers to slavery. They survive today as musical acts in spite of Prince.

The Time are the most enduring. The onstage band had a staggering depth of talent. Morris Day was one of the few people who could compete with Prince as a showman. The word “swagger” was probably invented for him. Jesse Johnson could cut it up on the guitar. More importantly, though, The Time featured four severely talented and successful producers in the making.

First: Jellybean Johnson, drummer for the original line-up of The Time and producer for people like New Edition and Janet Jackson. He was responsible for Janet’s #1 hit “Black Cat.” Monte Moir was the keyboardist for the band, and also had a touch for writing and producing, working on “The Pleasure Principle,” also for Janet.

Then we come to the most important of the lot. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are one of the most successful production teams in history. The people they have produced for include Usher, Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men, The Human League, Michael Jackson, and of course, Janet Jackson. They have had nine number one hits with Janet Jackson, the last of which was 2001′s “All For You.” They have had more #1 hits with Janet Jackson alone than Prince has had in his entire career.

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were fired from The Time in 1983 for missing a show due to a blizzard. They had been producing for The SOS Band. Prince claimed in a 1990 interview with Rolling Stone that he did not fire them.

“I’m playing the bad guy,” says Prince, “but I didn’t fire Jimmy and Terry. Morris asked me what I would do in his situation. Remember, it was his band.”

This is hard to believe, given Prince’s history of ire directed at band members and protégés who got creative ideas. Prince had—from the beginning of working with The Time—written, produced, and played every instrument on the albums, in spite of credits to the contrary. When they reformed for the Pandemonium album in the early ’90s, it would be the first time that The Time would play their own parts on a record.

From the same interview:

“Terry and Jimmy aren’t into the Minneapolis sound,” Prince says. “They’re into making every single one of their records a hit. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, we’re just different.”

It was probably an easy thing for Prince to say this in 1990. He was still considered a Big Deal. He was fresh off of a successful soundtrack album for Tim Burton’s Batman and the hit single “Batdance.” A few years later he would be deeply embedded in a feud with his record company. The dispute that began his problem with Warner Brothers and all that name change guff, was a dissatisfaction with the sales of Prince and the New Power Generation. Prince claimed that the Warner Brothers marketing department had failed to sell his album.

The 1990s
Prince had a hard time in the 1990s. Apart from the early high of Diamonds and Pearls and the success of “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World,” he struggled to recapture the overwhelming mainstream acceptance of the ’80s. He struggled and failed. Today, he is still battling popular tastes, not least because of an obstinate refusal to adapt.

Is it conceivable that Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, given the right freedom, could have succeeded with such a talented and popular a figure as Prince? Nine number ones with Janet Jackson and their touch in the 1990s suggest that failure was difficult for them to accomplish. Instead of arsing around and not quite understanding Rap, Prince could have stepped back and allowed someone else to direct his talent.

To think of how few genuine successes Prince has had with outside artists is staggering, given his ability. Prince is still hammering away with his protégés, putting them out there with an album, getting upset when no one gives a shit, and promptly ditching them for a newer face. Do you remember Tamar? Do you even remember Bria Valente? Prince has put out more disposable protégé albums than I care to mention, and most definitely more than I care to hear. It was the ’90s when this kind of thing became the standard. Female protégés had long been sexual partners, true. He had displayed a gift, though, for finding talented people to sleep with. Awful projects like the Carmen Electra album from 1993 and the shameful Child of the Sun by Prince’s then wife Mayte Garcia in 1995, were a sign that talent was no longer required.

Protégés are simply stand-ins for Prince. They are always less than him. If not, as with The Time or Wendy & Lisa, then they cannot be tolerated. Prince does not want collaboration. There are a few established stars that Prince has worked with. Mavis Staples’s Time Waits For No One is a fair listen. That Prince has had such a hard time creating stars is a testament to his ego, which continues to trip up what may be fruitful artistic relationships.

Now!
When Prince returned to the spotlight with 2004′s Musicology, he had several encounters with Alicia Keys, André 3000, and Beyoncé. Here were three talented, super popular performers who owed a vocal debt to Prince. Why on earth did he not work with them beyond award shows? Why isn’t he working with the best talent today? People like The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, and particularly The Dream are where he should be putting his effort. He needs to work with people who can push back.

R. Kelly became one of the biggest hit makers of his generation not just because he was supremely talented. It was also because people knew that he would make them look good. A great producer can’t be self-obsessed. When Kelly launched Aaliyah to great success with Age Ain’t Nothin’ But a Number, he sold her talent. That he had written, arranged, produced, and performed on every song on the album was not the point. The goal was to serve her ability, not to inflate his ego.

Prince has never forgotten that he is the guy calling the shots. Because of this, the only people who will let him call the shots today are inferior talents, overwhelmed by his legacy. Their albums are destined to be nothing more than Ebay curios: rare out-of-print records that are only relevant because they were once attached to Prince. Now, Prince is having some degree of fun by dabbling in selling music online through the mock bootleg fervor of 3rdEyeGirl. The songs are good, particularly “Screwdriver,” but the sense that Prince and his group are detached from the world remains.

Prince may feel better by prattling on about “real music by real musicians”—and encouraging his proxies to do the same—but the sad fact is that there have been dozens of talented R&B, Soul, and Funk people in the last fifteen years. For Prince to fail to compete/work with these people is to refuse reality for a comforting dream. For two decades his protégés have been products of this self-imposed detachment. He has squandered incredible talent and invested in atrocious figures for no other reason than sex or religious affiliation. If Prince is ever to permanently regain his position, then the protégés must show the way.

- See more at: http://popshifter.com/2013-02-13/prince-and-his-proteges/#sthash.bRjJCEif.dpuf
 
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theart0f69 said:
I think OP makes a valid point. However, the fact of the matter is that several of those protege's got out of the biz due to personal reasons as opposed to be non successful. TBH, Prince usually only puts you in a position for you to "DO WHAT YOU DO". He has never been a "HOLD YOUR HAND" type of mentor/producer. With that said, in that manner, his track record is pretty good.
Click to expand...

Well said.
 
If you are an artist, never ever ever ever sign with an artist who is still active

1. They don't want you to outshine them

2. They are too focused on their career to give yours the guidance it deserves

3. They will often thrive on your ignorance pilfering your songs because they think they could do it better...or just cause they want it.

There are far more fails from rookies signed to active artists' labels than hits by a long shot.
 
geechiedan said:
prince-sheila-e-live.jpg


Prince And His Protégés

From the beginning of Prince Nelson’s career in music, he prided himself on being a one man band. With very few exceptions, he wrote, arranged, produced, and performed the music that appeared on his albums. He was famously prolific. As would be the case throughout most of his work with Warner Brothers, he quickly felt constrained by the limitations put on his recorded output. He produced more songs than he could possibly use. Prince needed a front: someone to record and perform his music the way he wanted. These protégés would be expected to follow his lead in all matters.

The tracks would be recorded by Prince, and these men and women would sing their parts. They would have no say in the kind of material they would record. They were to be an extension of Prince and nothing more. Anyone who forgot this would quickly find themselves without a job. These protégés would highlight a fatal creative and personal flaw: that Prince was ultimately driven by an ego that could not tolerate other talent. Today Prince surrounds himself with yet another group of musicians. It is worth looking at how a musician, who could have been the greatest hit producer of his generation, limited himself to those people he could dispose of.

The First Protégés
The only successful acts that can be rightly attributed to Prince, are those people who he worked with in the first half of the 1980s. Even then, only two have seen any longevity: Sheila E. and The Time.

Sheila E.’s 1984 debut album, The Glamorous Life, was co-written and produced by Prince under the pseudonym of Jamie Starr. The title track got to #7 on the Billboard charts. The follow up, Romance 1600, would only feature one of Prince’s compositions, “A Love Bizarre,” which would give Sheila E. another hit. While her career would never reach that level of mainstream exposure, she continued to record albums. Unlike so many of Prince’s protégés she made it past the debut album. Sheila E. had enough talent as a songwriter and musician to be known for something other than Prince.

(Wendy & Lisa who have done great work since their separation from Prince, should not be included. Like Rosie Gaines, they probably got less from Prince than they were giving. They did not need Prince to write their material.)

You then have classic, one-off albums like Vanity 6, Jill Jones, and The Family. All three hoped for fame. All three were hindered by Prince’s overbearing control issues. Vanity would record two more albums after breaking from Prince, before her career imploded. The Family have returned in recent years under the name F. Deluxe. Jill Jones has put out three albums since 2001. Both The Family and Jill Jones were subjected to the litigious hypocrisies of a man who once compared the contract he signed with Warner Brothers to slavery. They survive today as musical acts in spite of Prince.

The Time are the most enduring. The onstage band had a staggering depth of talent. Morris Day was one of the few people who could compete with Prince as a showman. The word “swagger” was probably invented for him. Jesse Johnson could cut it up on the guitar. More importantly, though, The Time featured four severely talented and successful producers in the making.

First: Jellybean Johnson, drummer for the original line-up of The Time and producer for people like New Edition and Janet Jackson. He was responsible for Janet’s #1 hit “Black Cat.” Monte Moir was the keyboardist for the band, and also had a touch for writing and producing, working on “The Pleasure Principle,” also for Janet.

Then we come to the most important of the lot. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis are one of the most successful production teams in history. The people they have produced for include Usher, Mariah Carey, Boyz II Men, The Human League, Michael Jackson, and of course, Janet Jackson. They have had nine number one hits with Janet Jackson, the last of which was 2001′s “All For You.” They have had more #1 hits with Janet Jackson alone than Prince has had in his entire career.

Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were fired from The Time in 1983 for missing a show due to a blizzard. They had been producing for The SOS Band. Prince claimed in a 1990 interview with Rolling Stone that he did not fire them.

“I’m playing the bad guy,” says Prince, “but I didn’t fire Jimmy and Terry. Morris asked me what I would do in his situation. Remember, it was his band.”

This is hard to believe, given Prince’s history of ire directed at band members and protégés who got creative ideas. Prince had—from the beginning of working with The Time—written, produced, and played every instrument on the albums, in spite of credits to the contrary. When they reformed for the Pandemonium album in the early ’90s, it would be the first time that The Time would play their own parts on a record.

From the same interview:

“Terry and Jimmy aren’t into the Minneapolis sound,” Prince says. “They’re into making every single one of their records a hit. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, we’re just different.”

It was probably an easy thing for Prince to say this in 1990. He was still considered a Big Deal. He was fresh off of a successful soundtrack album for Tim Burton’s Batman and the hit single “Batdance.” A few years later he would be deeply embedded in a feud with his record company. The dispute that began his problem with Warner Brothers and all that name change guff, was a dissatisfaction with the sales of Prince and the New Power Generation. Prince claimed that the Warner Brothers marketing department had failed to sell his album.

The 1990s
Prince had a hard time in the 1990s. Apart from the early high of Diamonds and Pearls and the success of “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World,” he struggled to recapture the overwhelming mainstream acceptance of the ’80s. He struggled and failed. Today, he is still battling popular tastes, not least because of an obstinate refusal to adapt.

Is it conceivable that Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, given the right freedom, could have succeeded with such a talented and popular a figure as Prince? Nine number ones with Janet Jackson and their touch in the 1990s suggest that failure was difficult for them to accomplish. Instead of arsing around and not quite understanding Rap, Prince could have stepped back and allowed someone else to direct his talent.

To think of how few genuine successes Prince has had with outside artists is staggering, given his ability. Prince is still hammering away with his protégés, putting them out there with an album, getting upset when no one gives a shit, and promptly ditching them for a newer face. Do you remember Tamar? Do you even remember Bria Valente? Prince has put out more disposable protégé albums than I care to mention, and most definitely more than I care to hear. It was the ’90s when this kind of thing became the standard. Female protégés had long been sexual partners, true. He had displayed a gift, though, for finding talented people to sleep with. Awful projects like the Carmen Electra album from 1993 and the shameful Child of the Sun by Prince’s then wife Mayte Garcia in 1995, were a sign that talent was no longer required.

Protégés are simply stand-ins for Prince. They are always less than him. If not, as with The Time or Wendy & Lisa, then they cannot be tolerated. Prince does not want collaboration. There are a few established stars that Prince has worked with. Mavis Staples’s Time Waits For No One is a fair listen. That Prince has had such a hard time creating stars is a testament to his ego, which continues to trip up what may be fruitful artistic relationships.

Now!
When Prince returned to the spotlight with 2004′s Musicology, he had several encounters with Alicia Keys, André 3000, and Beyoncé. Here were three talented, super popular performers who owed a vocal debt to Prince. Why on earth did he not work with them beyond award shows? Why isn’t he working with the best talent today? People like The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, and particularly The Dream are where he should be putting his effort. He needs to work with people who can push back.

R. Kelly became one of the biggest hit makers of his generation not just because he was supremely talented. It was also because people knew that he would make them look good. A great producer can’t be self-obsessed. When Kelly launched Aaliyah to great success with Age Ain’t Nothin’ But a Number, he sold her talent. That he had written, arranged, produced, and performed on every song on the album was not the point. The goal was to serve her ability, not to inflate his ego.

Prince has never forgotten that he is the guy calling the shots. Because of this, the only people who will let him call the shots today are inferior talents, overwhelmed by his legacy. Their albums are destined to be nothing more than Ebay curios: rare out-of-print records that are only relevant because they were once attached to Prince. Now, Prince is having some degree of fun by dabbling in selling music online through the mock bootleg fervor of 3rdEyeGirl. The songs are good, particularly “Screwdriver,” but the sense that Prince and his group are detached from the world remains.

Prince may feel better by prattling on about “real music by real musicians”—and encouraging his proxies to do the same—but the sad fact is that there have been dozens of talented R&B, Soul, and Funk people in the last fifteen years. For Prince to fail to compete/work with these people is to refuse reality for a comforting dream. For two decades his protégés have been products of this self-imposed detachment. He has squandered incredible talent and invested in atrocious figures for no other reason than sex or religious affiliation. If Prince is ever to permanently regain his position, then the protégés must show the way.

- See more at: http://popshifter.com/2013-02-13/prince-and-his-proteges/#sthash.bRjJCEif.dpuf
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Crazy u put up this thread, I was just having fun this talk with a fellow who plays in my bruhs band and this IS EXACTLY WHAT MY SENTIMENT ON THE MATTER IS SPOT FUKKIN ON!! DUDE TOOK THE WORDS OUTTA MY MOUTH,
 
mangobob79 said:
Crazy u put up this thread, I was just having fun this talk with a fellow who plays in my bruhs band and this IS EXACTLY WHAT MY SENTIMENT ON THE MATTER IS SPOT FUKKIN ON!! DUDE TOOK THE WORDS OUTTA MY MOUTH,
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dude I'm reading this preview on prince
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Prince: Chaos, Disorder, and Revolution

its an interesting read even with the page omissions in the preview I may actually buy the paperback..:yes:
 
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the further away we get from the 80s the more prince just looks like a talented dude of his time rather than ahead of it..
 
The problem here is there were lots of one-hit wonders that we would not even talk about. Prince is one of the greatest of all-time, but that will only get others noted but not famous, and it's almost unfair to remind that they were his bands because there is the comparison undertone. How about Morris Day and the Time? Any of those acts, not being associated with Prince would not have been who they were
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