With his first album having been released in 1978, Prince
has consistently released music spanning five decades, with albums like ‘Purple
Rain’, ‘Sign O the Times’ and ‘Dirty Mind’ establishing him in the 1980s as the
long-running rival to Michael Jackson’s pop throne.
Unimaginative reviews/reviewers relegate Prince’s greatness
to solely the 1980s but to do so discredits songs like ‘I Hate U’, ‘Future Soul
Song’ and ‘Pretty Man’, or full-lengths like ‘3121’, ‘Exodus’ or the three-disc
opus that was ‘LOtUSFLOW3R’. BUT, maybe
there is something to the fact that perhaps Prince hasn’t ingratiated himself
to subsequent contemporary climates (leaving aside his oft-derided foray into
hip-hop in the 1990s). Prince is
definitely no stranger to collaboration but anyone who appears on his albums
ultimately sings what he tells them to sing.
Produced, arranged, composed and performed by Prince
…It’s been the
infamous tagline that’s graced practically every Prince album that’s ever released
and left aspiring artists with a helluva lot to live up to, but it’s that element
of control he’s never relinquished, and if he was ever to do, who better than…The Neptunes.
Since the
late-1990s, disciples of Prince’s blend of funk, rock and soul, Chad Hugo and
Pharrell Williams revolutionized hip-hop and R&B with an inimitable fusion
of genres that made believers of us all.
They introduced us to the hot screaming chick with the crazy hair, they
made N*Sync and Britney Spears ‘cool’ to urban audiences, they proved they were
just as comfortable with hip-hop acts like Jay-Z, LL Cool J, Common and Clipse
as they were with No Doubt and Daft Punk.
Their left-of-centre projects like N*E*R*D and Kenna further demonstrated
their limitless versatility all the way to today where Pharrell’s mind-blowing success
with ‘Blurred Lines’, ‘Get Lucky’ and newly-released album ‘ G I R L’,
spearheaded by the infectious hit ‘Happy’, continually solidifies the team’s
status as mega mastermind producers.
Could it happen?
In short… No. As
already mentioned, it’s a level of control and collaboration Prince doesn’t
indulge in. Apart from frequent horn
collaborators including Maceo Parker, Greg Boyer, Candy Dulfer, etc., even
musical duties on his studio releases are monopolized by Prince – a fact that stretches
all the way back to 1978 and his debut album ‘For You’ with Prince having
played all 27 instruments on the album, so unfortunately, I’d say this is a
closed book.
Prince and The Neptunes are as natural a fit as they come –
and as much of a dream collaboration as I could ever hope for – and the magic
the three of them could create will have me salivating for many years to come.
All isn’t completely lost though so for Exhibit A, let’s
relish in The Neptunes Remix of Prince’s ‘The Greatest Romance Ever Sold’:
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