Michael Jackson's and Prince's 91 turn to "urban" sounds (R&B, rap, new jack swing...) : Dangerous Vs Diamonds and Pearls

I've been wtf-ing since this morning'g coffee.

Come, The Gold Experience, especially Emancipation >>>>>>>>> D&P and MJ's subsequent work. Hell, even most of Love Symbol is.

What DJP said.

Come rules

uh

Come regulations

This is the problem with that album title.

11 minute opening track ftw.

Never got why this was panned other than it confused people by being under the Prince name while he was also recording as the symbol.

I remember "Letitgo" getting radio play

Gold Experience has some cringe worthy stuff too. Like "Now". I guess "Pussy Control" is cool for the lyrics but it's clumsy.

But "Gold" is great.

"I Hate U" is my favorite post-80s Prince song, I think.

"Shy" is also great, as are "The Human Body" and "Black Sweat"

"The Human Body" and "Sleep Around" are excellent dance-floor fillers.

I love Prince forever and consider him to be my favorite musician.

The answer to this is so clearly and obviously Dangerous that I'm amused this is a poll.

― brigadier pudding (DJP), Friday, November 15, 2019 11:47 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Co-sign. I haven't spun Diamonds and Pearls since high school, though I'll still cue up "Walk Don't Walk" now and then.

I really really hated “Diamonds and Pearls” (the song) when it came out.“Love is meant for two.” Oh shut the fuck up, Prince. Is this the album with “7” on it? That’s a good one.

“Black or White” is abominable.

dangerous is too long but its great tracks are great enough to make up for it

i found "heal the world" quite moving but i was a v young child

Is this the album with “7” on it? That’s a good one.

No, the follow-up, Love Symbol, which is much better.

Okay, if the genius website is to be believed the album version of “Diamonds and Pearls” has a rap verse. “D to the I to the A” etc. Yikes. I definitely need to do a deep dive into Prince’s discography one of these days. I tried a couple of his early records and gave up. The self-titled LP was pretty good, though.

That isn't a rap verse

Good ol’ Mr. Snrub

I tried a couple of his early records and gave up

what the

Maybe he was listening to 94 East

And For You isn't his strongest work

No matter what their individual attributes (or flaws), I don’t think it’s possible to have an opinion on Prince based solely on his first four albums.

Ahah that Mr. Snrub post.
I've been listening to D&P over the weekend and it's actually better than I remembered.
Beside the hits there are some typical Prince heavy funk jams, a typical slow jam. It's not that far from his previous stuff.
Unfortunately there's A LOT of Tony M who ruins tracks that would have been OK otherwise.

As for Dangerous, basically, for me the following tracklist would have made a very good album (including tracks I don't love but that are good enough) :

Jam
Why You Wanna Trip On Me
In The Closet
She Drives Me Wild
Remember The Time
Can't Let Her Get Away
Who Is It
Will You Be There (the single version w/o the Beethoven part)

8 songs, around 40min of funky/sexy/paranoid tracks(+ a gospel final).

Dangerous is solid through track 10.

otm

even Heal The World?

over the years I've come to see Dangerous as sort of a bloated masterpiece, I could almost be convinced its his best album though lol @ it being so fucking long

I love "Why You Wanna Trip on Me" so much

my brother and I liked "Who Is It?" cos we liked to imagine Michael Jackson answering the door to that song

eheh. now that's paranoia !

xp that's going straight on my 'Open That Door' playlist

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7kqiCbf7fB27DuvIu7fDao?si=cx1BqaIFQbGF6QH6a1ETKQ

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

The 4 singles on D&P are **miles** better than anything on Dangerous, and the filler is not as boring as the filler on some of Prince's later records. Plus Strollin' is great! It's like a Prince version of a Ringo song.

Thunder has some similarities with Black or White in being great-but-naff-but-great

"Who Is It" and "Remember the Time" >>>>>>>> "Gett Off" and "D&P"

Let's agree to not agree at all

https://media0.giphy.com/media/3Z1My6pLcjNvO/giphy.gif

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

the pearls have it.
wonder how this might've faired in the pre-MJ-is-cancelled era or even before prince died.

"I Hate U" is my favorite post-80s Prince song, I think.

It's absolute genius.

Dangerous is dreadful, right down to the horrible rococo cover art. Black Or White is like a six-year-old's idea of a rock song.

I suspect an American vs Brit divide

Dangerous shits all over this album, and i am a huge Prince stan

Mj has been, in my mind, a paedophile since around the time dangerous came out. I voted how I voted because I dont like that album

Wait WTF

I'm one of those weirdos who actually likes Diamonds and Pearls. I've been convinced MJ was a pedo for at least a decade. These results are still bullshit.

I feel like everyone who voted for D&P forgot what "Jughead" sounds like

nah, it's just that Dangerous is THAT BAD

Except... it isn't

It does have filler but the highs are pretty damn high

I feel like everyone who voted for D&P forgot what "Jughead" sounds like

― brigadier pudding (DJP),

And "Push." And "Live 4 Love."

aw cmon, "thunder" "strollin" "Get off" "Insatiable" and "willing and able" are all tops and i could listen to "money don't matter" all day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmGVAu9lk6I

I EVEN LIKE "JUGHEAD." Dangerous is still a way better record. It's improved with age, too.

IS IT A FRIEND OF MIIIIIIIIIIIINE

This is freakin’ great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2M2FnDdB1I

Love that 'Daddy Pop' 12" mix, esp the vocal ride-out

That part when Prince slides into the crowd at the end of the Arsenio Hall appearance is the greatest moment of either campaign

the title track to "diamonds and pearls" is so lame, maybe his worst song?

i've always liked it! *shrug*

the title track to "diamonds and pearls" is so lame, maybe his worst song?

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, October 23, 2023 3:38 PM (

I know what you mean. Listening to it as an album track in '91 before it became a single, its concession to contemporary R&B sounded like a surrender ("Isn't Mint Condition doing this better?!"). But he needed to reclaim his R&B fanbase, and it worked. And I'm a sucker for guitar solos that are in essence the main melody line.

in other words: I never say, "Lemme play 'Diamonds and Pearls'!" But when I catch it at CVS or on quiet storm I dig it!

it's all about "The Morning Papers"

"Diamonds and Pearls" is certainly one of the worst songs on The Hits 1 & 2. It moves from merely mediocre to true misfire territory when it gets to the trumpet fanfare into the "D to the I to the A to the M" bridge.

I love D&P the track too.

I'm kind of with Alfred - I never think to put it on by itself, but if I ever listen to the album or just a survey of Prince's hits that covers that era, I let it play and enjoy it.

Cream
sha-boogie-bop

The outtakes are excellent pop-inflected R&B jams in the mode of "Daddy Pop" and the live stuff (mostly) smokes.

Yeah, except for "Jughead," the Glam Slam show is really good. (I'm only streaming this, so I haven't seen the additional live material that's on the Blu-ray.) And the three discs of vault items are a great listen.

The album was already mastered well, so the first disc feels redundant if you already have it. The second disc isn't so hot - I never really liked the remixes or B-sides featured on there, especially the ones that heavily feature Tony M, and the single edits feel superfluous.

I still love the House-style mix of Gett Off, the first time i heard it was on Pete Tong's Friday night Radio 1 show and straight after he played the Disco Fever edit of De La Soul's 'Rollerskating Jam..'. Man THAT was an incredible 15 minutes of radio. It's enough to make me nostalgic for the early 90's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bi-xdXFsqk

The only "Gett Off" is "Gett Off (House Style)."

yes.

Fuck, having a good sounding version of prince’s “open book” demo is quite frankly a deeply moving moment

A marvelous reappraisal by Matos: https://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2023/10/27/digging-for-diamonds-and-pearls-in-princes-expanded-reissue

Yeah “Open Book” is definitely the standout of the vault tracks on the SDE of D&P’s…. I’d say the vocals on his demos are some of his best…

Nice that matos singles out willing & able. He’s right that it’s the best track on the album. It seems like the original small group version of it isn’t on here though which is odd to me. It’s even better than the released take imo

That video is incredible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Apk2Qr9yVc

Nice... was expecting Bela Lugosi's Dead to kick in

“alice through the looking glass” blew my mind, wtf

the live show is obv incredible but in particular i lost my shit when he quoted “it” in the middle of “thieves in the temple”

Yes!