As a HUGE Prince fan I am excited anytime I see an interview with Prince given the fact that he rarely does interviews. This article by Dorian Lynskey, Guardian News and Media Ltd that I found on gulfnews.com as retweeted by Grown Folks Music is a particularly interesting read. Check it out.

Prince is running late, and when Prince is running late the prospective interviewer begins to worry. I'm in the otherwise empty upstairs room of a chic Paris restaurant, its walls, carpet and banquettes all (perhaps by chance) a Prince-appropriate purple. As last trains and planes out of Paris are missed, I think of the writer in the early '90s who spent six days rattling around Paisley Park, Prince's Minneapolis nerve centre, waiting for an audience, only to have to speak to him on the phone. Even a relatively modest three-hour wait can make one nervous.

But suddenly there he is, sans entourage, full of handshakes and apologies. Perching himself on a banquette, he looks impeccable. His trousers and chunky polo-neck sweater are as black as his shiny, sculpted hair. His ring, ear cuffs and huge, shrapnel-like neck chain all gleam silver. His skin, uncannily smooth, does not look like that of a 53-year-old. Charisma seems to add a few inches to his height. He orders a cup of green tea. "They don't take MasterCard here," he says with a sly grin. "Only Amex. So I'll have to wash the dishes."

You expect funny peculiar from Prince, one of the few superstars who still enjoys an old-fashioned forcefield of enigma and hence endures the rumours that enigma tends to spawn. Funny ha-ha, however, is more surprising. He often seems mysteriously amused, cocking an eyebrow and pulling a coy, wouldn't-you-like-to-know smirk, but he likes to laugh out loud, too. He is determined to be entertaining.

Baroque explanation

Asked, for example, why he doesn't appear to have aged, Prince embarks on a baroque explanation that takes in an illustration of celestial mechanics involving a candle (the sun) and a sugarcube (the Earth); DNA research; his late father's Alzheimer's disease; the reason he doesn't celebrate his birthday ("If you look in the Bible there's no birthdays"); the importance of study; God's concept of time; and the Purple Rain tour. "Time is a mind construct," he finally concludes, setting his candle and sugarcube aside. "It's not real."

All of this is accomplished in a tone that ranges from preacher to schoolteacher to salesman to stand-up comedian to chat-show raconteur. He very rarely talks to the press ("If I need psychological evaluation, I'll do it myself") and his ban on writers using recording devices suggests a certain paranoia, but he's surprisingly good at being interviewed.

People must be intimidated when they first meet you, I say. Do you try to put them at their ease?

"I do that pretty quick. I'm real easy-going.: He stares at me for a moment. "You're not intimidated, are you?"

Not now, but definitely by your reputation.

"A lot of that comes from other people. The press like to blow things out of proportion so this person becomes bigger than they are. The sooner this thing called fame goes away, the better. We got people who don't need to be famous."

Prince misses the days "when I could walk the street without being harassed and bothered". He remembers the first time he realised he was famous, around 1979. "It happened very fast. I had some old clothes on because I was going to help a friend move house and some girls came by and one went: ‘Ohmigod, Prince!' And the other girl went," he pulls a face, "‘That ain't Prince.' I didn't come out of the house raggedy after that."

Do everything

Prince, along with Michael Jackson and Madonna, was one of the regents of pop music in its blockbuster pomp. Unlike them, he could do everything: sing, write, play, produce, design, make movies, call all the shots. With 1984's Purple Rain, he could simultaneously boast the No. 1 album, single and film in the US. During his imperial phase, it felt like his only competition was himself. "I had creative control," he says proudly. "We had to fight for over a year before I even got signed. So whatever I turned in, they had to accept. They weren't even allowed to speak to me!"

Rumours circled him because he was such a defiantly outlandish presence: the pop star as inexplicable alien, with a sexuality as ambiguous as it was voracious, and so unsettlingly potent that the censorship lobby PMRC was spurred into existence by a single song, Darling Nikki. Did he work hard to make himself as fascinating as possible? "We were very fascinating," he says. "In Minnesota it was a clean slate. It was punk rock. There were a lot of fascinating people around."

He took so many gambles, in terms of image as well as music. Did he ever worry that he might blow it? "All the time. You want an example?"

Yes please.

He chuckles. "You'll have to pay for the autobiography." (There is no autobiography.)

Does he think the atomisation of pop culture since the '80s allows for another star of his stature? He thinks for a moment. "It would have to be manufactured. Michael [Jackson] and I both came along at a time when there was nothing. MTV didn't have anyone who was visual. Bowie, maybe. A lot of people made great records, but dressed like they were going to the supermarket." He thinks flamboyant showmanship is making a comeback but, he adds: "How many people have substance, or are they just putting on crazy clothes?"

What does he make of Lady Gaga? "I don't know," Prince says diplomatically. "I'd have to meet her."

Prince will happily talk about how much he adores Adele ("When she just comes on and sings with a piano player, no gimmicks, it's great") or Janelle Mone, but he won't criticise other artists. "The new pushes the old out of the way and retains what it wants to. Don't ask me about popular acts. Ask Janelle. Doesn't matter what I say. We ain't raining on anyone's parade. I ain't mad at anybody. I don't have any enemies."

Actually he has many, but they're not fellow musicians. He is drawn back again and again to the perfidy of pretty much everybody in the music industry who doesn't make music themselves. There was, of course, that business in the '90s when he went to war with Warner Bros, changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol and marking his eventual exit from the label with a triple CD pointedly titled Emancipation.

"A lot of people didn't know what I was doing," he says, "but it helped some people. I don't care what people think." He's not as angry now. "I don't look at it as Us versus Them. I did. But you know The Wizard of Oz? When they pull back the curtain and see what's going on? That's what's happened."

Now his opponents are no longer the ailing majors, but the people selling or sharing music online. He was one of the pioneers of self-financed website releases; more recently he made lucrative deals to give away albums with tabloid newspapers. But he has no plans to make a new album, even though he has hundreds of songs stacked up. "The industry changed," he says. "We made money [online] before piracy was real crazy. Nobody's making money now except phone companies, Apple and Google. I'm supposed to go to the White House to talk about copyright protection. It's like the gold rush out there. Or a carjacking. There's no boundaries. I've been in meetings and they'll tell you, Prince, you don't understand, it's dog-eat-dog out there. So I'll just hold off on recording."

"I personally can't stand digital music," he says. "You're getting sound in bits. It affects a different place in your brain. When you play it back, you can't feel anything. We're analogue people, not digital." He's warming to his theme. "Ringtones!" he exclaims. "Have you ever been in a room where there's 17 ringtones going off at once?"

Does he have a ringtone?

"No," he says, looking as offended as if I'd asked him if he drove a clown car. "I don't have a phone."

He's equally put out by covers of his songs, Glee's version of Kiss being the latest offender. "There's no other artform where you can do that. You can't go and do your own version of Harry Potter. Do you want to hear somebody else sing Kiss?"

Prince, who headlined the Heinken Open'er festival in Poland last week, bats away an inquiry about the annual Glastonbury rumours. "They use my name to sell the festival," he glowers. "It's illegal. I've never spoken to anyone about doing that concert, ever."

Hardest band leader

Touring is where the money is these days, of course, but it also seems to be where his heart is. He describes himself as a "loving tyrant." I'm probably the hardest band leader to work for, but I do it for love."

His band have rehearsed around 300 songs, from which Prince can choose at whim, which makes playing live more fun than it used to be.

"Purple Rain was 100 shows, and around the 75th, I went crazy," he says, "and here's why. They didn't want to see anything but the movie. If you didn't play every song, you were in trouble. After 75 you don't know where you are — somebody had to drag me to the stage. I'm not going! Yes you are! It was bloody back then. I won't say why but there was blood on me. They were the longest shows because you knew what was going to happen." Now, he says: "If there's a challenge it's to outdo what I've done in the past. I play each show as if it's the last one."

For inspiration he keeps coming back to Sly and the Family Stone, and it was that band's former bassist, Larry Graham, who introduced him to the Jehovah's Witnesses a decade ago. The faith seems to have made him calm and content, albeit at the loss to his songwriting of the anguish, combativeness and transgressive sexuality that animated some of his strongest 80s material.

"I was anti-authoritarian but at the same time I was a loving tyrant. You can't be both. I had to learn what authority was." He puts it another way. "If I go to a place where I don't feel stressed and there's no car alarms and airplanes overhead, then you understand what noise pollution is. Noise is a society that has no god, that has no glue. We can't do what we want to do all the time. If you don't have boundaries, what then?"

Noting my unconvinced expression, he tries to clarify, but gives up with a sigh. "I don't want to get up on a soapbox. My view of the world, you can debate that forever. But I'm a musician. That's what I do. And I also am music. Come to the show for that."

It's been over an hour, and he's starting to look restless. Does he feel most at peace when playing music?

"I can feel pretty peaceful doing other things as well," he says, with what I think might be a saucy look.

Does he ever feel nostalgic?

"I tend to dig some of the art from back then. I like putting it on shirts and bags. The fans dig it. But musically, no. Each band brings different songs out of you."

He keeps playing down his own stardom and doffing his cap to his band or Godor Sly and the Family Stone, but does he ever think, perhaps midway through playing When Doves Cry to 30,000 people: "I'm really very good at this?"

"Well I don't think it," he smirks, raising an eyebrow. "I know it."

Over the past few weeks we have been talking about the decision of The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS) to eliminate 30 categories in the Grammy Awards. Those categories primarily affect Black Music - Latin, R&B, Hip Hop, etc.

It's refreshing to see the fight continuing and you can get involved. First take a look at what is starting to happen:

Here is a formal statement of action from indie soul standard bearer Eric Roberson (pictured) who, for the last two years, has been nominated for Grammy Awards in the Urban Alternative category which has been cut by NARAS.

In honor of Black Music Month, and also in honor of a TRUE Urban Alternative artist and pioneer of this genre, the late Mr. Gil Scott-Heron, we ask that every member of the urban community that agrees with the spirit of this protest join us in a POSITIVE protest against this injustice to the urban community.  This document is a guideline to ensure that everyone involved is on the same page on what we are trying to achieve.  You don't have to stick to this document word for word, but again, to ensure that we obtain our objectives, we ask that you stay true to what we are trying to accomplish.

 Guidelines For A Unified Protest of The Decision of The Recording Academy to Eliminate the Best Urban Alternative Performance Category And The Combining of The Best R&B Album and Best Contemporary R&B Categories

  Phase I

  Objectives:

The R&B Community would like to request that The Recording Academy:

·    Reinstate the Best Urban Alternative Performance category.

·    Reinstate the separation of Best R&B Album & Best Contemporary R&B Album

Statement from the R&B Community:

The R&B community which consists of Urban Alternative, R&B, Traditional R&B, Funk, Neo Soul, Soul, House, Jazz, Hip Hop, Gospel, Spoken Word, etc...have united to speak out against the decision by The Recording Academy to eliminate The Best Urban Alternative Performance Category and the combining of the categories Best R&B Album & Contemporary R&B Album.

Before speaking publicly about this protest please take the time to educate yourself a little about the Urban Alternative genre and the different styles of R&B music.

Some Key Points:

Urban Alternative is a very vibrant and active genre that is the natural evolution of R&B music.  Getting rid of this category stops the growth of the R&B genre.

Artists Important to the Urban Alternative Genre:

Meshell Ndegeocello, Jill Scott, Eric Roberson, Janelle Monáe, Cee Lo, Foreign Exchange, India.Arie, YahZarah, Maiysha, Lupe Fiasco, OutKast, Alice Smith, Bilal, Mos Def, Wayna, Erykah Badu.

Past Grammy winners:

India.Arie, Dobet Gnahorè, OutKast, Damian Marley, Gnarls Barkley, Chrisette Michele, Lupe Fiasco, will.i.am

It is not realistic to think that Urban Alternative music is the same as Alternative music.  Furthermore it is not realistic to think that Urban Alternative projects will have a fair chance of winning in the Best Alternative Album category. 

The Recording Academy failed to include members of the Urban Alternative community when talks began to eliminate this category.  It appears as though there was an agenda in place to not include anyone that would speak against eliminating the category.  We would like to see The Recording Academy include the Urban Alternative community in future discussions regarding this matter.

There is a distinct difference between Contemporary R&B artists (Keri Hilson, Beyoncè, Usher, Trey Songz, Chris Brown, Ryan Leslie, Ciara) and R&B artists (Maxwell, Sade, D'Angelo, Jill Scott, R. Kelly,Anthony David, Kelly Price, Alicia Keys).  We ask that The Recording Academy acknowledge this difference and do the fair thing; separate the categories and let like artists compete against artists that are similar in styles.

         The Recording Academy has a belief that just because there are low entries in a category that the music must not be out there, when in fact the music is out there.  They believe that the music is not relevant anymore when it is.  They believe that because it's not covered in the press, it must not be supported. When artists like Meshell Ndegeocello always sell out concerts and continues to sell her music to her fans.  We believe The Recording Academy has this perception because of the lack of communication between the urban communities, which includes R&B, Hip Hop & Gospel.  There is also the perception that The Recording Academy does not want a relationship with the urban community unless they become "Pop" R&B stars.  We ask that The Recording Academy do a better job of REAL outreach to the urban community.  We also request a commitment from the Chair & President of The Recording Academy to meet with leaders from the urban community to have REAL discussions on the perceptions each other has from both sides and to discuss achieving real solutions towards bridging the gap between the both parties.  

·         The urban community recognizes the great work that The Recording Academy does to help musicians and music professionals.  We applaud the work of MusiCares and The Grammy Foundations.  We appreciate the hard work of the employees, officers and volunteers.  And in no way does this protest desire to discredit The Recording Academy.  But sometimes in a house all the rooms are not in order.  In this case our issue is only with the decision to eliminate the Best Urban Alternative Category and the combining of Best R&B Album and Best Contemporary R&B Album.

·         If you are a member of The Recording Academy we encourage you to continue your membership and become an active member of change.  Get involved and let The Recording Academy know how you feel. There is no need to fear any type of retaliation.  The Recording Academy is your Academy and you have the right to protest actions by The Recording Academy that affect you.

If you are not a member of The Recording Academy you still have the right to get involved with this protest.  This protest is about the continued disrespect and corporate elimination of R&B music.  By creating the Best Urban Alternative Performance category The Recording Academy listened to the efforts of all involved with the creation of this category and gave a voice to a very important musical movement. 

This category put the genre of Urban Alternative music and the artists associated with it on a grand scale.  The creation of this category exposed artists who push the music forward to a wider audience.  Getting rid of this category affects the artists and the whole Urban Alternative community and most importantly all the fans of this music and future fans of this music.  So if you are not a member of The Recording Academy we still encourage you to join this protest.  Once again, we encourage the urban community to join and become active members of The Recording Academy.  If you are hesitant about joining and want to see how this protest is received by The Recording Academy, that's fine too.  We still welcome your support of this protest.

                                       How You Can Help:

• We ask that our "celebrities" that have access to the press spread the word about this protest in every interview that they do. 
• We ask that music professionals including record company executives, musicians, engineers, publicists, managers, producers, writers, and vocalists, anyone that is against the decision made by The Recording Academy, join in spreading the word by any means necessary.
• Take advantage of all media outlets: TV, radio, vlogs, blogs, all social media outlets, etc...
• Word of mouth is key!  Tell your colleagues, friends and anyone connected to the urban community to join the discussion and then join the protest. 
• Speak only about what you know.  If all you know is that you don't like them getting rid of the Best Urban Alternative Performance category then just say that.  Again, we don't want the protest to be about anything other than the objectives stated above.
• EDUCATE YOURSELF ABOUT WHO THE RECORDING ACADEMY IS AND WHAT THEY DO.  www.grammy.com
  

PRESERVE, PROMOTE AND RECOGNIZE OUR MUSIC!

Gil Scott-Heron, one of the most influential artists of his generation, whose mesmerizing spoken word, often politically-charged music such as the seminal "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," would set the stage for new levels of artistic expression in popular music, has died in New York at age 62. Scott-Heron had reportedly become ill upon his return from a trip to Europe. The Chicago-born Scott-Heron began his recording career in 1970 with the LP Small Talk at 125th and Lenox.  The album's 15 tracks dealt with themes such as the superficiality of television and mass consumerism, the hypocrisy of some would-be Black revolutionaries, white middle-class ignorance of the difficulties faced by inner-city residents, and homophobia. In the liner notes, Scott-Heron acknowledged as influences Richie Havens, John Coltrane, Otis Redding, Jose Feliciano, Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Nina Simone, and the pianist who would become his long-time collaborator, Brian Jackson.

Scott-Heron's 1971 album Pieces of a Man used more conventional song structures than the loose, spoken-word feel of Small Talk. He was joined by Johnny Pate (conductor), Brian Jackson on keyboards, piano, Ron Carter on bass and bass guitar, drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, Burt Jones playing electric guitar, and Hubert Laws on flute and saxophone, with Thiele producing again. Scott-Heron's third album, Free Will, was released in 1972. Jackson, Purdie, Laws, Knowles, and Saunders all returned to play on Free Will and were joined by Jerry Jemmott playing bass, David Spinozza on guitar, and Horace Ott (arranger and conductor).

1974 saw the critically acclaimed opus Winter in America, arguably Scott-Heron's most cohesive album to date. It set the stage for a string of albums, made almost annually for the rest of the decade and into the early 80s.

As the 90s came about, Scott-Heron's legacy continued to grow. Given the political consciousness that lies at the foundation of his work, he can also be called a founder of political rap. His early 90s song "Message to the Messengers" was a plea for the new generation of rappers to speak for change rather than perpetuate the current social situation, and to be more articulate and artistic.

In 2001, Gil Scott-Heron was sentenced to one to three years' imprisonment in New York State for possession of cocaine. He was jailed again in 2006. After his release in 2007,  Scott-Heron began performing live again, and continued to make live appearances until the time of his death.

Gil Scott-Heron released his new album I'm New Here on independent label XL Recordings on February 9, 2010. The album attracted substantial critical acclaim with The Guardian newspaper's Jude Rogers declaring it one of the next decade's best records.


Courtesy Soultracks.com

So there's been a lot of comment and well deserved criticism of the decision to eliminate categories from The Grammy Awards. Most of the categories eliminated are predominated by artists of color or represent a form of Black Music.

Recently at an event in New York presented by RhythmAndSoulRadio.com entitled The Rendezvous that features live performances by independent artists that are probably most affected by the decision by the Grammy Committee the topic was mentioned and discussed.

Finally the final performer of the evening, Antonia Jenae, had the best answer to the whole scenario. It6 was succinct and to the point. "Fuck 'Em."

The next question is what awards show do we create or support to make sure we recognize our gifts and contributions. There are a couple already out there like The Soultracks Readers Choice Awards to name one. It's another example of not letting others dictate our greatness but celebrating it ourselves.

In our last post we talked about the growth of independent music and the potential good of it. We also within that post cited the fact that 50% of the Grammy nominees for 2011 were independent artists or represented independent labels.

This past week the Grammy Awards announced a restructuring of the awards and award categories. Read the announcement by following this link:

http://www.grammy.com/news/the-academy-continues-evolution-of-grammy-awards-process

Sounds like a direct result of or retaliation toward the growth of independent music. What do y'all think?

It's now common knowledge that the music business as we have known it is pretty much finished. For music lovers that can be a bad thing or a good thing. Many of the music lover I know seem, to like it and maybe "the music industry" will begin to like it too.

The one thing constant in life is change and the music industry faces lots of change. From artists, who stand to benefit the most from the changing nature of the business because of the freedom they have to share their art directly with the public,
to terrestrial radio stations, to internet radio stations like this one.

For music's sake the changing face of the industry will benefit the fans most. On the business side the competition for listeners , fans and dollars (this is business and money is all important)has and will turn into the "wild wild west". Those who have made their living in the music industry and want to continue and those who are trying to make their living in the industry may now have or take the opportunity to do more unthinkable things than have ever been seen in music to get over because the rules of the game are changing so much and things are so wide open now.

As I write these thoughts, things seem bleak but actually I think music may never be in a better position . Of all the artists nominated for Grammy Awards this year 50% were independent.  

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/12/indie-artists-labels-grab-50-of-grammy-nominations.html

The article is a general statement. What is even more encouraging is the independent artists in the soul/urban community. Whether it be Eric Roberson or Maiysha or Yahzarah(all of whom have been nominated for Grammy Awards) or so many others who are through their music creating a spirit of harmony that says , as Lorenda Robinson of Brown Baby Girl states, "What God Has for me has got my name on it" meaning that that there can be a support of the whole without worrying about what I'm losing because of another's success.

It's another example of soul music leading the way for the entire music industry.

There will be more to add to this post in the coming weeks. Please leave your comments.