I'm not buying that as the cut and dry "answer" to what was going on in his camp.

Hell...the m.f. was naked on the back of a winged horse on his second album. Prince had zero problem challenging Black people/Black radio up until he truly felt the Pop audience was beginning to move on.

Prince lost confidence in Prince.

He didn't need to chase Black radio, get religious & moralistic in the face of Hip Hop.

He'd always blazed his own trail. And that's what he did best in that initial run.

The bug in his ear to go 'back to' "Black" was put in his ear after "Purple Rain".

I remember his initial hardcore Black audience (and as a Detroiter, I'm well aware of how he was received by Black people back then) being indifferent about "Around the World In A Day", and was personally in shock towards that indifference. He still had singles, but his fanbase had shifted more towards a pop audience, i.e., "white(r)". Yes, the diehards were digging deeper for extended mixes & b-sides. But a lot of the conventional Black audiences were already put off by "Sexy Dancer"/"Do Me Baby" Prince, taking a backseat to "Let's Go Crazy"/"Raspberry Beret" Prince.

Of course he wanted to milk that cow as much as possible.

So by the time he'd committed totally to Blackening up (which he actually really didn't fully achieve until "Diamonds & Pearls") YES...Hip Hop was pretty much almost in full effect as the sound of young (Black) America. Hell, he's taking shots at rappers on "Bob George" and giving Tony M. a whole damn song ("Jughead") between 87-91.

Imagine what would've happened without the success of piggybacking himself onto the Batman franchise in 1989?

He would've been better off ignoring all of that and sticking to his guns, but being the competitive fame/money whore that Prince is he blew a hole in the bottom of his boat when people started telling him "NO", when singles didn't connect on Black charts OR on Pop charts. He threw the Revolution under the bus...as if...those musicians didn't have an influence on his sound (i.e., W&L). The sound that actually connected him with his largest audience.

No musicians he's worked with since have approached the authentic "Prince" sound he pioneered for himself and perfected in the studio with that core of W&L, Sheila, Levi, Fink, Eric Leeds (and let's not forget Alan Leeds as tour manager/historian guru) since they've have been out of the picture. Maybe Blackwell, because he can do on the drums what Prince can't technically...which is 'expand upon Prince's ideas for the better'.
W&L were very involved in that is all I'm saying.

Everything else, he's been competing with his heroes, or trying to be the keeper of the Black music flame as a ruse to keep forcing the "own your masters" issue.

Hell yeah, he shot his wad. He ran off all the people that really helped elevate him.
I mean the ego is AMAZING...but not equal to his actual abilities.

Yeah, Hip Hop/New Jack Swing claimed his spot on the radio, but he'd seriously done himself in by believing his own hype by the time "Efil4Zaggin" dropped in the new soundscan watchdog music business.

He couldn't ride on bluster & mythology much longer.

Prince can be so fascinating 27 yrs ago.

s.blak
I'll Live My Life In Taxicabs