dsb15's Full Review: The Black Album [Limited] by Prince
I've been a Prince fan for two years, after reading a couple of Prince bio's and learning about all the mess surrounding this record, I wanted my copy right away. But then I learned that it was out of print, so I called up my local record store and asked them to order this record, they told me it was out of print, but that they could find me a used copy on CD. Well, a few weeks later they called me back and said they had found a copy(which looked brand new) for $28.99. So I snacthed up some money and bought that bad boy. I finally had it, I finally had the most controversial Prince record. After all the hype I put this record on and what I discovered was some hardcore Prince funk.
The record starts off with "Le Grind", a heavy Prince funk jam with lots of horns, piano, and drums, the lyrics aren't really groundbreaking, just about sex and partying,(just about all the songs on this album are pretty much about sex and partying). This song is on the long side, and goes on for a little over 6 minutes. Great party jam.
We continue with "Cindy C." ,which is more of the same, a funk jam, about the model Cindy Crawford. Like "Le Grind" this song clocks in at a little over 6 minutes.
"Dead On It", is a song with a corny rap beat that mocks rap and rappers. When this song was recorded in the late 80's rap was becoming the hot new thing, and Prince wasen't digging it, he felt that these clowns were not real musicians and that they were making a mockery of real music(although years later Prince would use rap on his on records, to mixed results).
"When 2 R In Love" is a slow ballad that does not fit on this record, it fits much better on "Lovesexy". But nonetheless it's a nice ballad, a nice slow late night type of ballad. Prince also gives a nice vocal performance on this one.
"Bob George", well, what can I say about what has to be the most strangest Prince songs I've ever heard. Prince talks in a slowed down voice(sounds like the late Barry White) with a thumping beat in the background. The song is stupid to me, Prince never sings in this song, just talks trash about some fool named George. This song is annoying.
"Superfunkycalifragisexy" a strange title, and strange lyrics, Prince sings about squirrel meat. What??!!! Anyway, If you can ignore the lyrics you'll find that this song has a great beat, and is very funky.
"2 Nigs United 4 West Compton", is an instrumental funk jam with some jazzy influnences, sounds like old school James Brown funk. I enjoy this piece.
"Rockhard In A Funky Place", is the last song on the album. A great funk tune about Prince having a hard on.
"The Black Album" was scheduled for release in the winter of 1987, but was shelved when Prince had some sort of religious experience that told him that it was wrong to release such raunchy material(in the years since then he has released way more nastier stuff than this. "Sexy M.F.", "P.Control", "Come".)so he recorded and released 1988's "Lovesexy" instead.
At the end of the day "The Black Album" is just an average Prince album. Nothing special about it. Just a record with some very nice funk jams. Most of these songs were recorded for Shelia E's birthday party, so most of these songs were throwaways.
Hopefully if you're lucky your local record store can order this album. If not, you can always find it on Ebay somewhere.
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