"Long as you motherfuckers know"

Nicki Minaj has been going for *cred* lately, so putting out a lot of real rap. But I think when she raps she's Just Another Rapper. I mean, a strong one, but still. I think what she does better than anyone else is the rap+pop combo. I'm still hoping she'll get back to it... when she realizes I'm right.

I love the little Beyonce reference. Just a little pop of cross-hiphop-feminism.

I'm fighting for the girls that never thought they could win.
Cause before they could begin you told them it was the end
But I am here to reverse the curse that they live in.
Got two bones to pick I'm a only choose one,
You might get addressed on the second album
Which means you can breathe until I motherfucking say so.
To all my bad bitches: I can see your halo

Prince and Kate Bush mash it up

Here's one of my favorite Prince collaborations--with my other 80s hero, Kate Bush.

Bush asked Prince to contribute a few background vocals to a song called “Why Should I Love You”, which she had just recorded in full at Abbey Road Studios. But when Prince received the track, he ignored the intructions and dismantled the entire thing like a crazed mechanic taking apart old cars on his backyard. He wanted to inject himself into the very heart of it, weaving his sound amongst her sound, giving it a new soul entirely. As Koppelman explains, “We essentially created a new song on a new piece of tape and then flew all of Kate's tracks back on top of it… Prince stacked a bunch of keys, guitars, bass, etc, on it, and then went to sing background vocals.” Despite being the lovechild of two of humanity’s greatest music minds, the resulting track is not often mentioned on your average BBC3 pop retrospective presented by Lauren Laverne. It’s startlingly brilliant, with sometimes bizarre, musical depths. (noisey.voice.com)

Not to mention backup vocals by a Bulgarian trio. It's as weird as Kate and Prince. Love it.

Before


After

He liked women

When I told one coworker about Prince, she said "Oh I gues it was an overdose?" Um no. I mean, yes, it might have been an overdose issue with painkillers. But we're not talking cokehead here. Not only because he was a Jehova's Witness, but even in his 20s he didn't drink or smoke or do drugs. Everyone attests to that. Even hiring people for the band, he had rules about that stuff. He did extacy in the 90s, that's all I know of.

Another time, another coworker said: Isn't Prince gay? My French didn't feel up to the full explanation of "No, but he didn't mind if people thought he was, well at least before he was a Jehova's Witness, and he was very much about playing with gender conventions, and you know a man can dress like a woman because really what does that even mean?" I left it to: "No. He was married a couple times."

My third Prince surprise comes when I see some internet comment about him being sexist or a misogynist. No I'm sorry, Prince did not hate women. Yes, he loved to see them in lingerie... but this is a man who performed in bikini underwear and leggings. Who wore assless pants to the American Music Awards.

I couldn't even make a list of the women he's had in his bands, and whose careers he's promoted, and who he's admired, and worked with. It's SOOO LONG. Joni Mitchell used to see him at her concerts when he was 15, and he wrote her crazy fan mail. He adored Chaka Kahn and supported her later in her career. He randomly came across Diane Birch in a hotel and invited her to jam with him:

"I was young, insecure and just starting to sing and write and you saw the thing in me I wanted to be and that was reason enough to believe in myself and go for it. From that day on, my life changed forever. The respect and support you've given to so many female artists is incredible, especially in an industry which is often so crushing to young women. I can't fathom a world without you in it, and thanks to your music, we will never have to live in one."