It appears as though artists these days are more inclined to actually wrest away creative and financial control of their music from the "evil" record labels, especially when they are as well-known as the Artist Formerly Known as Prince.
The release of "1999: The New Masters" (NPG Records), brings back memories of the album that fully broke Prince Rogers Nelson into the mainstream. The lack of direction of his music leads to the inevitable question: where to go for an artist who has seemingly already reached the pinnacle of his career?
The string of successes from 1982 to 1987 placed the Artist at the top of the music world. His only rivals in sales and popularity were Madonna and Michael Jackson. Critics and fans alike generally recognize the double album "Sign O' The Times" (1987) as his last creative high point.
After that, the machine began to show cracks and various groups began to naturally point fingers. Without a doubt, the media scrutinized his conflict with Warner Brothers.
The Artist finally severed relations with WB after the quiet release of the excellent "Chaos and Disorder." The mere fact that this album sold only 100,000 copies reflects the Artist's lack of influence with the mass audience of the nineties.
This can be attributed to poor marketing or the over-saturation of the market (from 1978 to 1998, the Artist has released an overwhelming 25 albums).
The rise in popularity of masculine artists such as Ice Cube, Big Daddy Kane and 2 Live Crew in the late eighties created a backlash to the Artist's sexual and racial ambiguity which contributed to his loss of fans in specific demographic groups.
During these times of tension, he went as far as performing with "Slave" written on his cheeks to protest the autocratic policies of Warner Brothers. Unfortunately, after "Emancipation" came out, EMI, his new label went out of business, and the Artist decided to start his own independent label, NPG records.
"The New Masters," The Artist's third album off his label, begins with the "New Master Mix," a mix that retains the Revolution, but adds a few things such as the Larry Graham bass thumping on every beat and other sounds here and there.
This song in particular sounds as if the Artist spent more time thinking than actually mixing. Fortunately, the second song features spoken-word artist Rosario Dawson, who performs her piece over the music line of Little Red Corvette.
This track is definitely the strongest and most interesting mix of all the featured songs. Unfortunately, it is far too short running only about 79 seconds.
The remainder of the songs, aside from the New Master Mix, features Larry Graham (the bass virtuoso from Sly and Family Stone and Graham Central Station), rapper/producer Doug E. Fresh and vocalist Rosie Gaines from the New Power Generation.
One song is a deep house mix which starts off with Rosie knocking on a door and singing, "I want to party."
It comes off as a clichd attempt to give the listener a feeling of fun and games. Her voice is undoubtedly powerful; however, a better song could have been used to feature her voice in a better way.
There is also "Keep Steppin'," a funky, fresh mix that features a rap duet of Doug and the Artist.
The third track on this EP is the "Inevitable Mix," a fast, break-neck song that Doug E. raps over.
The final song is an acappella version of "1999" which is meant to showcase Rosie's talents. Prince and the Revolution's voices seem to be heavily filtered which sounds rather interesting but not ground-breaking.
All in all, this EP loses its luster after a few listenings. Although the Artist used this EP to showcase talents, the "New Master" also seems to display his not-so-stellar mixing abilities.
