Thread by @AishaStaggers

#PurpleAvengers, "come out and plaaaaaaay!"

So what does this soundbite from the 1979 film "The Warriors" have to do with #Prince and ##DMSR? You'll see...

Let's play "7 Degrees of Separation: The Prince D.M.S.R. Edition!
#PrinceTwitterThread #1999THREAD

https://twitter.com/PrinceThread/status/1634864522996637698

The fifth song from Prince’s 1999 album, D.M.S.R., is as much about content as it is about connections and branches on the R&B/ Hip-Hop music family tree. It can be explained in a game I play when I listen to my playlists.

It’s called 7 Degrees of Separation: The Prince Edition. It’s like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, but with more context, and tons of music history. And it’s about Prince - what else do you need, right?

I can connect ANYONE to Prince. So in this thread, I analyze D.M.S.R. for context. Then, we will play the game and I am going to connect Prince directly to those you know he’s connected to like (of course) Jill Jones, Teena Marie, Rick James, Shock G, Eve, and more.

I will also connect him to Wu-Tang Clan, SWV, The Neptunes (Pharrell and Chad), Nas, Big Pun, DMX, Mase, De La Soul, Fat Joe, Tupac, and a few more indirectly - with a few harmless jabs thrown at one artist I can not name because in writing this...

I realized I don’t know what his name is this year (and it’s not the Ye that shall not be mentioned). Because this thread is going to be “delirious”-ly long, I will also tweet out an unrolled version. Let’s get started.

Despite never being released officially as a single (it did get some airplay on R&B radio, late at night when the kiddies were asleep because it was the 80s and ‘sex’ was a dirty word), D.M.S.R.- which stands for DanceMusicSexRomance - has been written about extensively.

At the dawn of the century, Jon Pareles did a review of "1999" that was published on Dec.13, 1999, in The New York Times in which he said about the song "1999":

“Prince's response to impending destruction was to seize the day and night, stoking a party with ''D.M.S.R.''
nytimes.com/1999/12/13/art…

The Dance/Music/Sex/Romance blog called the song “Prince’s calling card - a four-word (four-letter!) summation of everything he and his music were about.” princesongs.org/2019/07/12/d-m…

On Aug. 28, 2016, just four months after Prince’s passing, Dan Poliak of Into the Popvoid described D.M.S.R. as “deeply funky and deeply sublime.”

He went on to say, “but for me, D.M.S.R. is the one. For starters, there’s the title. DanceMusicSexRomance is the definition of Prince’s music: it’s what he does, and what he’s always been all about..."

"Then there’s the rhythm guitar line, as funky as they come: it starts out as slinky as a snake, and propels the beat forward, leading the listener on to the dance floor of Prince’s dreams..."

"where he is king and we are powerless to resist. And like many of his greatest songs, the lyrics are both sexy AND hilarious.”
intothepopvoid.com/2016/08/28/pri…

500PrinceSongs.com lists D.M.S.R. #26 on the list of 500, stating, “D.M.S.R. is the Minneapolis Sound par excellence. A synth and drum machine manifesto to all those about to follow in his funksters.” (More about those synths later) 500princesongs.com/26-D.M.S.R./

The song itself is an all-inclusive invitation and everyone is welcome to the party, no matter what you look like, what you wear (or don’t), or who you love.

As we live in a world that is growing less inclusive, despite being more diverse, D.M.S.R. was 40 years ahead of its time. In this day and age, we need more of that and less of the nonsense.

There's even a bit of humor when he, in a very abstract manner, denotes the cultural clapping tempos (the one and three or the two and four).

The part that stands out to me for the purpose of this thread is the part where it seems like it is relatively quiet and the party has settled and then Prince starts making his own connections.

“Jamie Starr is a thief; It’s Time to fix your clock; Vanity 6 is so sweet; now you all can take a bite of my purple rock, can we stop?" He has now introduced us to his crew which he believes is poised to take over the world.

These name-checks of both The Time (which invokes the image of Morris Day on the cover of The Time’s, “What Time Is It?” album, also released in 1982) and Vanity 6 (“so sweet” is a total juxtaposition to the bad girl image displayed in their 1982 video for “Nasty Girl”)...

All of whom appeared with him on the Triple Threat Tour. (Shameless plug here - I will be discussing V6 at @polishedsolid’s 40th Anniversary of the Triple Threat Tour conference on March 31:

https://twitter.com/polishedsolid/status/1619908265705639936?s=20

).

This part reminds me of my favorite part of Teena Marie’s Square Biz where at the end she name-checks her crew like Prince did his own: Rick James, a woman named Jackie, and Jill Jones (@jilldjones can you identify Jackie for us?).

We can discuss his cheeky way of calling himself, Prince (aka Jamie Starr), a thief. But it is the last of these wherein he has defined the beginning of his purple reign and the crew he was bringing along with him for the ride. He ends this break with the question, “can we stop?”

It was a call waiting for a response that didn’t come for another 12 years or so when my generation of Hip-Hop responded with “I thought I told you, that we won’t stop!”

The song ends with bandmate Lisa calling frantically for help to possibly shut down the party because they were going to “tear the roof off the sucker (quoting George Clinton).”

This call for help at the end is the antithesis of Rick James’ song ‘Mr. Policeman,’ featuring Teena Marie, where a police siren can be heard and Mr. Policeman saying, “hold it, stop, stop or I’ll shoot.”

Prince has created in this song a utopia where he assures the people that being different, and just being who they are is okay. It’s about fun and those who would otherwise fear the police no longer have a reason to because, in his world, the “police ain’t got no gun."

Rick, however, was grounded in reality and spoke to police brutality in the 70s and 80s. His idea of fun in a world "below the funk" and filled with this harsh reality was to “pass the joint.”

So why the mention of Rick James in a thread about D.M.S.R.? It has to do with those synths in the intro and throughout the song. Teena Marie told a very interesting story about them.

I will start that story with re-imagined lyrics from her song, “It Must Be Magic,” which happens to feature background vocals by Lady Cab Driver, Jill Jones:

“Prince went to Wonderland (aka The Light It Up Tour) to sing what he could sing, met the King of Punk Funk and he stole all Prince’s things” - not ALL of his things, just his synthesizers.

According to Teena, Rick, after losing night after night to Prince on the Fire It Up Tour, got his revenge by stealing Prince’s synthesizers at the end of the tour, using them on the Street Songs album (which was released in 1981).

He then sent them back to Prince with a “Thank You” note when he was done. So petty!

This was right around the time Prince began recording “1999.” And that is why if you listen to "Give It To Me, Baby," and "D.M.S.R." in a side-by-side comparison, the synthesizers sound very much alike.

I did this the first time when I was 10. To this day, I can’t think of one of the two songs without thinking of the other.

D.M.S.R. has been sampled in five songs, four of which are Hip-Hop songs, and numerous times on Hip-Hop EPs, which is the stamp of approval in Hip-Hop.

It was also sampled in the remix for Prince’s own “Love Sign,” which was produced by Hip-Hop legend Shock G of Digital Underground.

The Love Sign remix was released in 1998 on “Crystal Ball,” the song was originally released in June 1994 as a promotional single, after having been recorded in the spring, according to Prince Vault.

A video for the original version of "Love Sign" was directed by Hip-Hop artist turned movie star, Ice Cube.

This interpolation of D.M.S.R. in this song reminds me of the interpolation of Wu-Tang Clan’s C.R.E.A.M. in the remix for SWV’s “Anything (Old School Mix)."

That song was featured on the soundtrack for the film Above the Rim and released in March of 1994, around the time the remixes for Love Sign were recorded.

These are some of the connections, I feel, have made it possible for D.M.S.R. to have such a long-standing influence in the Hip-Hop and R&B realm. But they aren’t the only connections to be made.

To see examples of other connections, I think it’s time we play “7 Degrees of Separation: The Prince Edition.” So, "let's go crazy" with it.

This game is a mental exercise I use to test my music history knowledge and to see how many direct and indirect musical connections I could make between Black artists across genres. It can be done with anyone, as I've done so, but the first time, I started with Prince.

Differing from the original Six Degrees of Separation, the object of this version is to connect as many artists as we can to Prince starting with this one song off the top of your head.

But there is a caveat which is that it must circle back to what you started with - in this case, D.M.S.R. - by the very end AND you win by connecting the most artists to Prince.

My personal best is 96. But I took some liberties here to edit for space and time so there are upwards of 50 or more here. But you can start anywhere and come up with the same results or different ones - that’s the fun of this game.

There will be a recap of a few things already mentioned, but for the purpose of showing other perspectives, they are necessary.

Keep in mind this is all off the top of my head, no cheating, no Google, and has all been in my head over the course of 40 years as I add to my wealth of music knowledge. It is also the first time I have written it all down 😬.

At some point you.may ask, "Aisha, where are you going with this?" But don’t worry, it all circles back to Prince and DMSR.

"Are you ready?"

For this edition, the road to D.M.S.R. begins with a question about Prince and P-funk I saw on a fansite. The author of that post pointed directly to D.M.S.R as an example. I would say he got recognition from the one person who truly mattered...

The Godfather of P-Funk George Clinton who worked with Prince in the 1990s along with Chaka Khan who covered Prince’s “I Feel For You” in 1985 and whose Hip-Hop doppelganger, Nicki Minaj, performed with Prince in NYC in November of 2011 and got a personal shout out from him.

Now Prince didn't start out doing P-funk in his early recordings, but neither did George Clinton.

In the 1960s, pre-Parliament, George Clinton was a staff writer for Motown. Motown was the label of Marvin Gaye at that time and in the 70s and 80s, that of Rick James and Teena Marie, whose records Jill Jones performed on.

Prince opened for Rick James on the Fire It Up Tour, and he met Teena and Jill on the Dirty Mind Tour. It really isn’t clear if Rick harbored hard feelings for Prince because he ended up dating Vanity whom he first saw at the American Music Awards where she accompanied Rick...

Or because he felt Prince was coming to replace him as the newest funkster. But likely for a myriad of reasons, Rick James stole Prince’s synthesizers to record 1981’s Street Songs and returned them to Prince with a "Thank You" note.

This was right about the time Prince was gearing up to record songs for 1999. One song Prince recorded for that album, "D.M.S.R.," has synths that are eerily similar to Rick’s "Give It To Me Baby" from his 1981 Street Songs.

In 1998, the Crystal Ball album featured a remix of Love Sign featuring Nona Gaye, daughter of Marvin, labelmate of Rick, who played a similar kind of trick on Rick James that Rick played on Prince in 1981.

He told him that Motown founder Berry Gordy gave his artists a million dollars and a car when they earned a #1 song. It was a lie.

When Rick went to claim what he thought was his, Gordy was perplexed. Marvin was listening outside the door, laughing. His daughter Nona would later appear on Prince’s “Love Sign” - the original and the remix.

The Love Sign remix featured an interpolation of D.M.S.R. about 19 seconds in. This is very reminiscent of SWV’s 1994 remix of Anything featuring Wu-Tang Clan which includes an interpolation of Wu’s C.R.E.A.M.

C.R.E.A.M. is a song that, like D.M.S.R., has a title made up of letters that stand for Cash Rules Everything Around Me. Just as D.M.S.R. stands for DanceMusicSexRomance (no spaces intended).

In an interview some years back, Jill spoke about being recognized by Wu’s RZA in a bar. He saw her and said, “You’re Jill Jones!” But Jill says pretended she wasn’t by speaking in a French accent because she was at a point in her life where she wanted a break from the industry.

The interpolation of C.R.E.A.M. is a nice break in the song’s underlying sample of "Get Up and Dance" by Freedom.

To the untrained ear, the Anything remix sample could be mistaken for Treacherous Three’s “Body Rock,” a song Mariah would later sample in 1997’s “Honey.” Mariah’s “Honey” remix featured the artist at the time I believe was known as Puff Daddy and Mase.

It also begins with Mariah saying the artist we used to call Puffy’s signature mantra, “I thought I told you that we won’t stop.” Ah, an answer to Prince’s “can we stop” in D.M.S.R. According to Mariah, Prince told her he loved the song.

SWV’s "Anything" was produced by Brian Alexander Morgan who also produced Nas. Nas wanted to work with Prince around the time of his conflict with WB, but Prince declined because Nas didn’t own his masters and he wanted that for him.

It was something he would continue to tell artists, but he was especially concerned about Black artists, like himself, whose superstardom could be easily exploited without ownership of their intellectual and artistic property.

Nas never did circle back to Prince, but in 1999, he did a song produced by the artist I will now call Puff. “Hate Me Now” was the song that, for me, signaled the end of 90s Hip-Hop. I think it was this image of Nas in a fur coat that did it for me.

In 2021, Shock G broke down Nas’ rapping style along with those of other “Notorious” rappers, including Tupac .

Prior to producing the Love Sign remix, Shock G was a member of the group Digital Underground, known best for "Humpty Dance," of which Tupac was a member, making his first debut as a rapper on the group’s song, “Same Song.”

Tupac would later have a run-in with Big Pun’s Terror Squad of which Fat Joe, was a member. Fat Joe worked with a lot of cats named Prince, but never The Purple One so he (Prince) didn’t see this incident.

It was witnessed by none other than Wu-Tang Clan whose members include "The RZA, the GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon the Chef, U-God, Ghostface Killah and the Method Man,' who can be seen starring in the 50 Cent produced drama, Power Book II: Ghost alongside MJB.

The original of the Power franchises featured Naturi Naughton, formerly of 3LW, who played Lil Kim in the Biggie biopic, "Notorious" - much to Kim's chagrin.

It is possible through Shock G’s immersion in Hip-Hop that he was inspired to use the interpolation of D.M.S.R. by the way Wu-Tang’s C.R.E.A.M. was used in the "Anything" remix.

It was very popular when it was released in March 1994 on the soundtrack for the film Above The Rim along with “Afropuffs” by Lady of Rage who was discovered by Dr. Dre former member of NWA with Ice Cube, director of "Love Sign."

While he may have been inspired by the SWV song, Shock G did later perform at a concert in 2015 where SWV, who now has a reality show with all the members of Xscape (including Tiny), was also scheduled to perform.

The original version of "Anything" appeared on SWV’s first album. Their second album, It’s About Time, contained the song “Use Your Heart,” which was released as a single in 1996 and written by a then-little-known producer named Pharrell Williams.

Pharrell would later partner with Chad Hugo to become The Neptunes. The Neptunes would later produce “Come Close” for Common with a feature from Mary J. Blige, or as I call her: MJB.

Both Mary and Common performed separately with Prince, separately, but only one of them choked trying to freestyle. Can you guess which one?

In 1999, Arista, who distributed Prince’s Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic, commissioned The Neptunes to do a remix of Prince’s The Greatest Romance Ever Sold. On his own, Pharrell later produced “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke featuring T.I. who's the husband of Tiny from Xscape.

Pharrell and friends were later sued by the Marvin Gaye estate (which would include his daughter Nona) because it was found that it matched Marvin’s 1977 song, "Got To Give It Up" -which had vocals by his then-wife (and Nona’s mom) Jan - nearly note for note and the estate won.

Now, the artist I guess was still Puff Daddy in 1999, would later do a song featuring Pharrell and produced by The Neptunes. The title is sometimes written as "D.I.D.D.Y.," but unlike D.M.S.R., it’s just a spelling of the name he was going by at the time.

That hook was performed by Pharrell in the style of De La Soul’s Jimmy. Now, personally, I would have gone with their remix for Buddy that features Q-Tip “from a Tribe called Quest”...

Tip performed his song “Vivrant Thing” with Prince on guitar at the House of Blues in 2008 and in 1997 co-wrote Mariah’s "Honey" with the artist who borrowed his name from Puff the Magic Dragon.

The Buddy remix also features The Jungle Brothers, Queen Latifah, and Monie Love, who recorded two songs written by her then-labelmate, Prince for her second album, "In A Word Or 2."

But, D.I.D.D.Y, aka the guy I wish would just pick a name and keep it, who had his own distribution deal with Arista for his Bad Boy label back in 1999 was also considered to do a remix of The Greatest Romance since he was quite a popular producer in the 90s.

He is best known for his remixes that used samples from classic R&B “hits from the 80s,” which he, himself, owned up to in 1997 on Mase’s “Feel So Good.” Prince declined. And can you blame him, it’s PRINCE!

But being the petty brotha he was, Prince did his own "Adam & Eve remix," featuring rapper Eve who was a member of the Ruff Ryders crew along with DMX who had a conversation with Prince two albums into his own career that he shared on Drink Champs before toasting Prince’s memory.

To add insult to injury and to possibly prove to the artist also formerly known as P. Diddy that he could do his thing better than him, Prince went full-blown Rick James Thank You Note level petty...

... and played a riff of the guitar from the 1994 “Flava In Ya Ear Remix” by Craig Mack featuring The Notorious B.I.G, LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes, and Rampage which was produced by the artist I think is currently known as Brother Love or maybe Caresha’s (Yung Miami) Boo Thang.

But true to then-Puffy’s form, “Flava” contained samples of LL’s Jingling Baby (1989) and he, himself, performed Daniel Patrick Kelly's "Warriors, come out and play" from the 1979 film, The Warriors. Coke bottles and all.

So he really wasn’t just taking from the 80s, the 90s, too, were fair game. Which just makes Prince’s shade that much more justified. And you can feel it in the many pictures of the two together where Prince is like, “step away from my greatness.”

Still, since that sleight of hand, it seems like the artist Janice Combs originally named Sean John (Dammit, what IS his name now - if you know put it in the comments) has been playing catch up with Prince through his many name changes over the last 30 years.

Even Prince went back to Prince after a while, Sean.

And this brings us back full circle to D.M.S.R. as we wrap up this thread. The Facebook group, DMSR Live, held an album launch party for Diddy in January 2011. The group, of course, takes its name from Prince’s D.M.S.R., the fifth track on the 1999 album.

And there you have it, “7 (or more) Degrees of Separation: The Prince Edition.”Now, this thread could go on forever. You can even find links to yourself if you really go down the rabbit hole. There were a lot of connections I didn’t place here.

Some because of the number of tweets they would bring and others because I didn’t want to stray too far away from DMSR - but they all link back to Prince either directly or through his associates, and/or to DMSR.

So, to conserve space (and your time) or because you just want to see more, here is a link to a supplement of connections I left out in editing: docs.google.com/document/d/1ZA…

Rest in Music and Power Prince, Rick, Teena, Marvin, Jan, Shock G, Big Pun, DMX, The Notorious B.I.G., Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Craig Mack, Trugoy The Dove of De La Soul, and Tupac. I bet heaven sounds amazing!

This is the end for me. Up next @PrinceTheeEncore takes on Prince's, "I'll do anything you ask" song "Automatic."
#PrinceTwitterThread
#1999THREAD

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