Were Michael and Prince friends?

NatureCriminal7896

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Even though the two was both different and had their own things both of them was both talented awesome artists.

some fans think they had a rivalry because Prince turn down the BAD duet but i really don't see it that way. i just see two different people doing their own stuff. i think it would been nice if they did do some songs together.

Imagine Prince playing the guitar while Michael singing Dirty Diana :) or the one that everyone wanted the BAD duet. :)
 
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Re: Was Michael and Prince was friends?

They weren't BFFs, but there was a mutual love and respect between both men. They would visit with each other during studio sessions, a show here or there, and have private conversations. Mike would send James Brown and Sly Stone concert tapes to Prince and he would share them with his band. Prince never badmouthed MJ publicly during his struggles, and he wouldn't allow it within his circle, either. He was very hurt when MJ died, and knowing what we know now, Prince felt too close to MJ's situation to publicly speak on the circumstances surrounding his death.
 
Re: Was Michael and Prince was friends?

While it seems like Prince tended to speak well of MJ (though he was reportedly salty about being called out by MJ during that James Brown performance and thought MJ made him look bad), I can't help but feel like MJ badmouthed him to some extent, there's stories how he looked down in spite with Purple Rain and was quoted as saying things like "I don't like how Prince treats women" or "Prince is a meanie for playing the guitar to my face." I know some of this stems from tabloid reports, but it doesn't seem far-fetched at all.
 
Re: Was Michael and Prince was friends?

They respected each other that's for certain. I think they used the media to further their own careers, by going along with a rivalry that neither really commented on, which was genius.
I'll always have respect for Prince as a person for not kicking Michael when he was down in the mid 2000's. When he said "everyone should just wait it out, maybe he knows something we don't. We've all got to come back home." Prince was also a genius and I love a lot of his music
 
Re: Was Michael and Prince was friends?

Someone from The Revolution (I think Wendy, it was years ago I read it) said that Mike was around during the filming of the Under The Cherry Moon movie and that Mike & Prince played ping pong. There's a rumor that Prince recorded his own version of Bad and that it's in his vault. That has never been confirmed though. There was a story that Prince visited Hayvenhurst during the early 1980s and that he tried to get LaToya to date him. There's also the story that Papa Joe did not like the idea of Janet working with the guys from The Time at first as he thought they would have her doing songs like Prince.
 
NatureCriminal7896;4256753 said:
some fans think they had a rivalry because Prince turn down the BAD duet but i really don't see it that way. i just see two different people doing their own stuff. i think it would been nice if they did do some songs together.

SmoothCriminal1995;4256820 said:
They respected each other that's for certain. I think they used the media to further their own careers, by going along with a rivalry that neither really commented on, which was genius.

Prince never really wanted to collaborate with MJ on a song.

Aside from Prince’s rejection of the ‘BAD’ song as a duet, Prince also emphatically turned down MJ’s proposal to participate on the ‘We Are The World’ charity song.

Also, if Prince really respected MJ, then one has to wonder why he made such a negative lyrical reference towards MJ.

I am talking about the negative, rather insulting, reference in his ‘Life 'O' The Party’ song (from his ‘Musicology’ album in 2004) aimed at MJ’s plastic nose surgeries.

It appears that Prince always felt envy of MJ’s big commercial success & fame.
 
Re: Was Michael and Prince was friends?

After all the stories I have heard and read, Yes! I i definitely believe they were friends. Even Prince said right before playing DSTYGE, "I'd Like to do this one for my friend". Sure they were not best friends, but prince has stuck up for MJ more then MJ's so called closest friends, especially during his darkest days.
 
mj_frenzy;4256951 said:
Prince never really wanted to collaborate with MJ on a song.

Aside from Prince’s rejection of the ‘BAD’ song as a duet, Prince also emphatically turned down MJ’s proposal to participate on the ‘We Are The World’ charity song.

Also, if Prince really respected MJ, then one has to wonder why he made such a negative lyrical reference towards MJ.

I am talking about the negative, rather insulting, reference in his ‘Life 'O' The Party’ song (from his ‘Musicology’ album in 2004) aimed at MJ’s plastic nose surgeries.

It appears that Prince always felt envy of MJ’s big commercial success & fame.

I agree with Prince was jealous of Michael
 
mj_frenzy;4256951 said:
It appears that Prince always felt envy of MJ’s big commercial success & fame.
Why would you say this since Prince often put out albums & singles that weren't really that commercial like Around The World & Lovesexy? A lot of stores in the USA wouldn't even stock Lovesexy because of the cover and some record stores put it behind the counter. Also some people at the time, especially guys, didn't want to be seen buying or owning a record with such a picture and also the same with Dirty Mind era bikini/stockings outfits. :rofl: Same for singles like If I Was Your Girlfriend. The mid-1980s was the beginning of hip hop really taking over and the late 1980s was the start of more street oriented rap such as Geto Boys & Ice T and the idea of "keepin it real". You think the average person who was into street cred would buy an album with a naked dude on it? Hip hop got into R&B with New Jack Swing which started to make the old traditional suit and tie R&B singers such as Luther Vandross, Billy Ocean, & Freddie Jackson lose popularity. It also began to put out to pasture the androgynous look of the early to mid-1980s and Prince was that.
 
mj_frenzy;4256951 said:
Prince never really wanted to collaborate with MJ on a song.

Aside from Prince’s rejection of the ‘BAD’ song as a duet, Prince also emphatically turned down MJ’s proposal to participate on the ‘We Are The World’ charity song.

Also, if Prince really respected MJ, then one has to wonder why he made such a negative lyrical reference towards MJ.

I am talking about the negative, rather insulting, reference in his ‘Life 'O' The Party’ song (from his ‘Musicology’ album in 2004) aimed at MJ’s plastic nose surgeries.

It appears that Prince always felt envy of MJ’s big commercial success & fame.

Do you mean, you think?
Why are you that certain?
 
DuranDuran;4257145 said:
Why would you say this since Prince often put out albums & singles that weren't really that commercial like Around The World & Lovesexy? A lot of stores in the USA wouldn't even stock Lovesexy because of the cover and some record stores put it behind the counter. Also some people at the time, especially guys, didn't want to be seen buying or owning a record with such a picture and also the same with Dirty Mind era bikini/stockings outfits. :rofl: Same for singles like If I Was Your Girlfriend. The mid-1980s was the beginning of hip hop really taking over and the late 1980s was the start of more street oriented rap such as Geto Boys & Ice T and the idea of "keepin it real". You think the average person who was into street cred would buy an album with a naked dude on it? Hip hop got into R&B with New Jack Swing which started to make the old traditional suit and tie R&B singers such as Luther Vandross, Billy Ocean, & Freddie Jackson lose popularity. It also began to put out to pasture the androgynous look of the early to mid-1980s and Prince was that.

Despite several of Prince’s releases (dispersed throughout his career) which might indicate that he did not want commercial success, in essence Prince always wanted commercial success.

Take his ‘Purple Rain’ project in 1984, for example.

Both the album & film showed Prince’s desires for achieving commercial success (especially considering the big budget invested on the ‘Purple Rain’ film).

Also, some of his very successful records (like ‘Diamonds and Pearls’, or ‘Sign o' the Times’, among others) clearly show that commercial success was always on his mind.

Additionally, when he signed the big deal with Warner Bros. Records in 1992, it was clear that he aimed again at commercial success.

We should not forget also that Prince almost always supported his albums with extensive touring on many venues, which also shows his desires for increasing his commercial success even more.
 
mj_frenzy;4256951 said:
Prince never really wanted to collaborate with MJ on a song.

Aside from Prince’s rejection of the ‘BAD’ song as a duet, Prince also emphatically turned down MJ’s proposal to participate on the ‘We Are The World’ charity song.

I don't think that's true at all. If Prince never wanted to collaborate with MJ then he wouldn't even have attended the meeting at hayvenhurst to discuss it in the first place. Also prince sent "Would you like to love me" to MJ for him to record on and put on Bad, that is also a form of collaboration.

I personally think that Prince truly wanted to collaborate with MJ not just be featured on of his songs, like bad, cause that was set up for prince to lose the "Battle", no matter how you look at it and it would be a bad look for . Especially considering prince's ego at the time.
 
Re: Was Michael and Prince was friends?

I just can't see the two fitting together in a song. At least no vocal duet. Maybe Michael singing, Prince doing the music.

Btw, could someone please fix the grammar in the title of this thread? It hurts..
smilie_ugly_003.gif
 
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mj_frenzy;4257160 said:
Despite several of Prince’s releases (dispersed throughout his career) which might indicate that he did not want commercial success, in essence Prince always wanted commercial success.

Take his ‘Purple Rain’ project in 1984, for example.


Both the album & film showed Prince’s desires for achieving commercial success (especially considering the big budget invested on the ‘Purple Rain’ film).


Also, some of his very successful records (like ‘Diamonds and Pearls’, or ‘Sign o' the Times’, among others) clearly show that commercial success was always on his mind.

Additionally, when he signed the big deal with Warner Bros. Records in 1992, it was clear that he aimed again at commercial success.

We should not forget also that Prince almost always supported his albums with extensive touring on many venues, which also shows his desires for increasing his commercial success even more.
Right after Purple Rain, he released Around The World In A Day and refused to release a single or film videos for it until Warner Brothers insisted he do it. People around Prince said he would lose interest in a project very quickly and want to go on to the next thing. Warners turned down many of his projects because they said he would saturate the market and the albums would cancel each other out. Also I doubt a guy that was only interested in commercial success would change his name to a symbol which resulted in comedians and the media making jokes about him for years. Or putting out instrumental funk jazz albums as Madhouse. He might have gotten a hit if he made Kenny G style smooth jazz instead. Prince also made flop movies like Graffiti Bridge & Under The Cherry Moon. I'm not sure that a lot of people in the 1980s were interested in paying to see a black & white movie at the theater. The plot of Graffiti Bridge didn't make a lot of sense. A lot of Prince's music was too weird to become mainstream hits like a song about incest (Sister). Batman sold because anything involved with the 1989 Batman movie was popular. Other than Purple Rain and 1999/Diamonds And Pearls, most of Prince's other albums were not huge sellers, and he did not get consistent hit singles like a Whitney Houston or Phil Collins.
 
Re: Was Michael and Prince was friends?

In the 70s, Prince wrote a song called "Wouldn't You Love to Love Me?" and he re-worked in in the mid 80s for Michael and the Bad album because he declined the offer to sing on Bad. Michael didn't end up using it (I'm not sure if he recorded it) so Prince gave the track to Taja Sevelle in the end. The demo that he sent to Michael is on the new album "Originals" which comes out in June.
 
Re: Was Michael and Prince was friends?

They weren't close but there wasn't any animosity between them either. They would just see each other here and there in the industry and had more of a professional buisness type of relationship. Musically Michael had a lot of respect for Prince just as he did for Michael.
 
Plus don’t forget MJ and Prince we’re originally both gonna do the Batman soundtrack with MJ doing the hero ballads and prince the funky up beat songs course it didn’t go down like that mainly cause MJ/Prince were on different labels Michael being Sony and Prince Warner Bros so idk how that would’ve managed out
 
Re: Was Michael and Prince was friends?

Prince and Michael? I really don't think we will really know the truth about it.. it's surpasses the point of clarity between myth and reality there. Any answer you are going to get here is mixing personal opinion with educated guessing..

There will never be a conclusive answer, we will always imagine what it was and what it wasn't.
 
MichaelD;4257148 said:
Do you mean, you think?
Why are you that certain?

Themidwestcowboy;4257175 said:
I don't think that's true at all. If Prince never wanted to collaborate with MJ then he wouldn't even have attended the meeting at hayvenhurst to discuss it in the first place. Also prince sent "Would you like to love me" to MJ for him to record on and put on Bad, that is also a form of collaboration.

I personally think that Prince truly wanted to collaborate with MJ not just be featured on of his songs, like bad, cause that was set up for prince to lose the "Battle", no matter how you look at it and it would be a bad look for . Especially considering prince's ego at the time.

Apart from these two cases (‘BAD’ song, ‘We Are The World’ song), there is also a third case in which Prince showed that he did not really want to collaborate with MJ on a song.

It took place during the ‘HIStory’ recording sessions, when MJ called Prince to work together on a song, but Prince eventually did not want to begin working with him.

DuranDuran;4257177 said:
Right after Purple Rain, he released Around The World In A Day and refused to release a single or film videos for it until Warner Brothers insisted he do it. People around Prince said he would lose interest in a project very quickly and want to go on to the next thing. Warners turned down many of his projects because they said he would saturate the market and the albums would cancel each other out. Also I doubt a guy that was only interested in commercial success would change his name to a symbol which resulted in comedians and the media making jokes about him for years. Or putting out instrumental funk jazz albums as Madhouse. He might have gotten a hit if he made Kenny G style smooth jazz instead. Prince also made flop movies like Graffiti Bridge & Under The Cherry Moon. I'm not sure that a lot of people in the 1980s were interested in paying to see a black & white movie at the theater. The plot of Graffiti Bridge didn't make a lot of sense. A lot of Prince's music was too weird to become mainstream hits like a song about incest (Sister). Batman sold because anything involved with the 1989 Batman movie was popular. Other than Purple Rain and 1999/Diamonds And Pearls, most of Prince's other albums were not huge sellers, and he did not get consistent hit singles like a Whitney Houston or Phil Collins.

The change of his name to a symbol was a temporary move by which he wanted to get a specific message across (that artists are the ones that should have ownership of their master recordings, not the companies).

He knew also that this name change would not really have a negative impact on his commercial success, in fact in Europe he increased his commercial success even more during that period (in 1993, for example, his concerts in Wembley Stadium in London became sold out in no time).

Also, when certain of his albums did not perform commercially well, then he always wanted to find the reasons for that (like, when his ‘Love Symbol’ album did not sell well, he blamed the Warner Bros. Records for not promoting it adequately).

Prince also wanted to please his fan base too, as he said it was a sophisticated fan base that expected the unexpected from him, so this explains why some of his music may appear not commercially strong enough.

Also, with certain films, like the Graffiti Bridge one, he wanted to create a cult following as well (a practice that even Madonna exercised with some of her films).
 
Re: Was Michael and Prince was friends?

At the Grammys in 1988, Prince was in the audience and after Michael's performance of TWYMMF and MITM, he stood up and clapped with the rest of the audience, you can see it on the video of that performance.
I don't know if Michael ever saw a performance by Prince.
 
I believe MJ went to a Prince show in 07 or 08 in LV. I though I read that someplace. When I listen to 2bad with headphones on I hear a voice singing background and it sounds like Prince to me. I’m sure it’s not but dang it sure does sound like him.
 
mj_frenzy;4257297 said:
The change of his name to a symbol was a temporary move by which he wanted to get a specific message across (that artists are the ones that should have ownership of their master recordings, not the companies).

He knew also that this name change would not really have a negative impact on his commercial success, in fact in Europe he increased his commercial success even more during that period (in 1993, for example, his concerts in Wembley Stadium in London became sold out in no time).

Also, when certain of his albums did not perform commercially well, then he always wanted to find the reasons for that (like, when his ‘Love Symbol’ album did not sell well, he blamed the Warner Bros. Records for not promoting it adequately)
Diamonds & Pearls was successful because Frank Dileo was working with Prince. Notice that the music videos from that album had higher production values than Prince's usual cheap looking videos. Frank wasn't involved with the symbol album. Also the general public wasn't checking for a gangsta Prince when there was the real thing with Geto Boys, Snoop Doggy Dogg, NWA, Nate Dogg, etc. They were selling lots of albums at the time. Coming out with a gun microphone and putting out records like "Gold N-word" and thinking that radio would play a song like Sexy MF with the cursing chorus. Then the 1970s James Brown sound was long out of style in the New Jack Swing era. Even James himself had released a New Jack Swing record. That 3 Chains O'Gold movie did not help. Doing stuff like this probably did not help him win the hip hop audience either. :rofl:
mankini_zpszymbuddg.gif
tumblr_inline_pr5d8zcSZA1r0ccqj_540.gif
 
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mj_frenzy;4257297 said:
Apart from these two cases (‘BAD’ song, ‘We Are The World’ song), there is also a third case in which Prince showed that he did not really want to collaborate with MJ on a song.

It took place during the ‘HIStory’ recording sessions, when MJ called Prince to work together on a song, but Prince eventually did not want to begin working with him.


Also, with certain films, like the Graffiti Bridge one, he wanted to create a cult following as well (a practice that even Madonna exercised with some of her films).

That's a rumor about him turning down a collaboration for HIStory because as Brad Sundberg said nobody heard the phone conversation that he and MJ had. Prince worked with Madonna and somehow MJ was beneath him?? Oh please. As I said before I'm sure prince would have collaborated with MJ on Bad had it been a fair match.
 
Re: Was Michael and Prince was friends?

At the Grammys in 1988, Prince was in the audience and after Michael's performance of TWYMMF and MITM, he stood up and clapped with the rest of the audience, you can see it on the video of that performance.
I don't know if Michael ever saw a performance by Prince.

MJ saw a couple of Purple Rain concerts in LA IIRC
 
Themidwestcowboy;4257381 said:
That's a rumor about him turning down a collaboration for HIStory because as Brad Sundberg said nobody heard the phone conversation that he and MJ had. Prince worked with Madonna and somehow MJ was beneath him?? Oh please. As I said before I'm sure prince would have collaborated with MJ on Bad had it been a fair match.

It is not a rumour.

It was one of those type of meetings that MJ used to make while working on an album during the sessions.

MJ ordered his managers to contact Prince.

Prince came, they discussed in person, but in the end Prince stood up & walked away, turning in that way down for one more time a MJ’s offer for a possible collaboration (on the ‘HIStory’ album, this time).

DuranDuran;4257350 said:
Diamonds & Pearls was successful because Frank Dileo was working with Prince. Notice that the music videos from that album had higher production values than Prince's usual cheap looking videos. Frank wasn't involved with the symbol album. Also the general public wasn't checking for a gangsta Prince when there was the real thing with Geto Boys, Snoop Doggy Dogg, NWA, Nate Dogg, etc. They were selling lots of albums at the time. Coming out with a gun microphone and putting out records like "Gold N-word" and thinking that radio would play a song like Sexy MF with the cursing chorus. Then the 1970s James Brown sound was long out of style in the New Jack Swing era. Even James himself had released a New Jack Swing record. That 3 Chains O'Gold movie did not help. Doing stuff like this probably did not help him win the hip hop audience either. :rofl:
mankini_zpszymbuddg.gif
tumblr_inline_pr5d8zcSZA1r0ccqj_540.gif

But it is very common for commercially successful artists (or bands) to decide at some point to experiment with a different music genre.

Even Duran Duran did that with their ‘Medazzaland’ album in 1997, when they experimented with electronica/ambient music.

Prince in early ‘90s did the same but with rap/hip-hop, after having enjoyed commercial success with some of his previous releases (including his ‘Batman’ album in 1989).

He did not really want to become tougher than the real thing (that was already out there), or to create a gangsta personality that would replace that real thing.

It was just part of his multi-faceted musical personality, to try new things for a given period of time, something not unusual in his fans' eyes.
 
mj_frenzy;4257410 said:
But it is very common for commercially successful artists (or bands) to decide at some point to experiment with a different music genre.

Even Duran Duran did that with their ‘Medazzaland’ album in 1997, when they experimented with electronica/ambient music.

Prince in early ‘90s did the same but with rap/hip-hop, after having enjoyed commercial success with some of his previous releases (including his ‘Batman’ album in 1989).

He did not really want to become tougher than the real thing (that was already out there), or to create a gangsta personality that would replace that real thing.

It was just part of his multi-faceted musical personality, to try new things for a given period of time, something not unusual in his fans' eyes.
Duran Duran was kinda electronic music already, so it wasn't changing their image. Prince wasn't just doing rap, he was trying to have a gangsta image, which is about street cred and "keeping it real". It's not like he was doing Kid & Play, Technotronic, C+C Music Factory, Betty Boo, Tone Loc, or Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. There's nothing about Prince that's street or gangsta. He's a guy with a lot of makeup and high heel boots and sings in falsetto. Look at how Prince dressed and how the average rapper dressed during that era. Most rappers wore just ordinary clothes that the audience wore. Like Run DMC & Adidas sneakers and LL Cool J's Kangol hats & track outfits or NWA's LA Raiders caps & t-shirts. They did not wear a buttless yellow outfit like Prince.

MC Hammer tried to go gangsta too and it did not work that well for him either, which is kinda ironic since it's been said that Hammer was really a street dude, although that wasn't his music image. If Prince was really trying to get in the hip hop world, then he would have gotten a legit rapper. Not Tony M, TC Ellis, or Carmen Electra. Hip hop is not like getting some pretty girls to make a group that he could control like Vanity 6. A lot of people did not take Tony M serious.
He wasn't even Vanilla Ice level and Ice became a joke to the public after it was found out he wasn't from "the streets" like he claimed. Vanilla Ice's debut album sold over 10 million copies in the US, the next one flopped pretty bad. Then there was that incident with Suge Knight where Ice was hung from a balcony. Prince did not fit in with all that. The rap world was serious, not just entertainment. Look at what happened to Tupac & Biggie Smalls and also that big fight at the Source Awards one year.
 
mj_frenzy;4257410 said:
It is not a rumour.

It was one of those type of meetings that MJ used to make while working on an album during the sessions.

MJ ordered his managers to contact Prince.

Prince came, they discussed in person, but in the end Prince stood up & walked away, turning in that way down for one more time a MJ’s offer for a possible collaboration (on the ‘HIStory’ album, this time).

Ok i'll take your word for it. It still proves to me that prince was interested and very open to collaborate with MJ. Why else would he even entertain that idea and agree to business meetings with him? It's a shame because I think it would have been good.
 
Re: Prince & hip hop

Duran Duran was kinda electronic music already, so it wasn't changing their image. Prince wasn't just doing rap, he was trying to have a gangsta image, which is about street cred and "keeping it real". It's not like he was doing Kid & Play, Technotronic, C+C Music Factory, Betty Boo, Tone Loc, or Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. There's nothing about Prince that's street or gangsta. He's a guy with a lot of makeup and high heel boots and sings in falsetto. Look at how Prince dressed and how the average rapper dressed during that era. Most rappers wore just ordinary clothes that the audience wore. Like Run DMC & Adidas sneakers and LL Cool J's Kangol hats & track outfits or NWA's LA Raiders caps & t-shirts. They did not wear a buttless yellow outfit like Prince.

MC Hammer tried to go gangsta too and it did not work that well for him either, which is kinda ironic since it's been said that Hammer was really a street dude, although that wasn't his music image. If Prince was really trying to get in the hip hop world, then he would have gotten a legit rapper. Not Tony M, TC Ellis, or Carmen Electra. Hip hop is not like getting some pretty girls to make a group that he could control like Vanity 6. A lot of people did not take Tony M serious.
He wasn't even Vanilla Ice level and Ice became a joke to the public after it was found out he wasn't from "the streets" like he claimed. Vanilla Ice's debut album sold over 10 million copies in the US, the next one flopped pretty bad. Then there was that incident with Suge Knight where Ice was hung from a balcony. Prince did not fit in with all that. The rap world was serious, not just entertainment. Look at what happened to Tupac & Biggie Smalls and also that big fight at the Source Awards one year.

Prince wanted to approach the rap/hip-hop world in his own way, which was more of a lighthearted way.

With his gun microphone at that time for example, Prince wanted sarcastically to show that for him trying to rap was like shooting himself in the face.

The way, also, he raps on certain songs from that period proves his rather humorous approach to that genre.

Prince never said that he wanted to be exactly like the real thing, nor did his fans have such expectations from him.

That explains also why, during his rap period, he did not want to conform stylistically to the real thing (by not wearing the clothes that an ordinary, real rapper does).

The commercial success of some of his previous releases gave him also the luxury to experiment for a while (mainly for fun) with that genre.
 
Re: Prince & hip hop

Prince never said that he wanted to be exactly like the real thing, nor did his fans have such expectations from him.
But the singles with rap elements (My Name Is Prince, Sexy MF) did not become big hits in the USA. It was the songs that didn't have rap that were more popular (Cream, 7, Diamonds And Pearls, The Most Beautiful Girl In The World). They became Top 10 hits on the Hot 100 in Billboard. Insatiable & Gett Off were Top 10 hits on the R&B chart. Gett Off is the only song out of these hits that might have hip hop elements, but it did not become a big pop hit. If you go to a Prince fansite, many do not think much of Tony M or Prince's rapping. But a lot of people posting on those sites do not like hip hop at all though. They don't consider rap "real music by real musicians" as they like to say. They're like "Prince plays several instruments and can make his songs by himself and rap is just some guys talking over somebody else's record and they can't play an instrument to make their own music". They say Jughead is probably the worst Prince song. It's also unlikely that many hip hop only fans rate Prince's rap songs. Like a rap fan is not likely to give the rapper on Black Or White a high rating.
 
Re: Prince & hip hop

But the singles with rap elements (My Name Is Prince, Sexy MF) did not become big hits in the USA. It was the songs that didn't have rap that were more popular (Cream, 7, Diamonds And Pearls, The Most Beautiful Girl In The World). They became Top 10 hits on the Hot 100 in Billboard. Insatiable & Gett Off were Top 10 hits on the R&B chart. Gett Off is the only song out of these hits that might have hip hop elements, but it did not become a big pop hit. If you go to a Prince fansite, many do not think much of Tony M or Prince's rapping. But a lot of people posting on those sites do not like hip hop at all though. They don't consider rap "real music by real musicians" as they like to say. They're like "Prince plays several instruments and can make his songs by himself and rap is just some guys talking over somebody else's record and they can't play an instrument to make their own music". They say Jughead is probably the worst Prince song. It's also unlikely that many hip hop only fans rate Prince's rap songs. Like a rap fan is not likely to give the rapper on Black Or White a high rating.

People who do not like rap/hip-hop at all are expected to say that.

But, there is also the other side of the coin: in a sense, rap is also real music with the rappers being real musicians who use their mouth as a musical instrument.

So, it depends on the definition that one gives to real music/real musicians.

Also, many of the rappers just decide to focus on rapping, so we do not really know if they cannot play a real musical instrument to make their own music.
 
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