prince from 88 onwards is pretty erratic. though saying that, graffiti bridge has a lot of his best post-88 stuff, mainly just because its material that was meant to come out in 96 but got shelved. even though his albums have varied a lot since then, hes usually had at least one or two really great songs on each one, even in the 90s, its just that theyve come surrounded by a lot of material thats either terrible has promise that is somehow ruined. .
graffiti bridge has quite a few songs from sign o times, lovesexy era, joy in repetiton, can't stop, we can funk etc.
agreed about always having some good tracks on his albums. but there was a time that even the tracks he didn't put out were better, more exciting and experimental than most people's actual albums.
the black album has some amazing moments on it, it's dense and filthy.
he derided rap on one song not 7, and that's the worst song, funny he derided rap in such a shite song.
there are some brilliant, twisted songs on that, even the funk jam 2 nigs united 4 west compton is great. there were some well interesting things going on in princes head at that time. camille and his whole lady thing, sign o the times which swung erratically from syrupy ballads to the most perverted alien funk on the planet, that was his last great album but lovesexy's ecstacy jesus thing was pretty exciting too.
i liked him cos he was such an alien not black or white or girl or boy, but a horny bugger as well which appealed to express the desires of teenage me.
he could walk in uninvited to any genre and princefy it and make it his, make it stranger in a way only he could.
His drum programming was second to none, weird and off, he always did brilliant 12"s and singles with really good extra tracks, so he was collectable and you felt like delving into his music was an invitation into a closer understanding or something a bit exclusive. He never gave interviews and always seemed very polite and well dressed.
don't really care if pharell or timbo take some ideas or whatever as their own ideas are strong enough to accomadate some of his tropes.