A Prince Among Men

There's a long, sad history of concept albums in pop. There's a shorter, happier history, too, but for every Ziggy Stardust there's three or four Tarkuses: messy, stupid, dull "statements" that don't say anything. It's not surprising that people have shied away from full-length song cycles of late. For the first half of the nineties we became increasingly obsessed with 'authenticity,' either in the form of grunge anger or keepin' it real hip-hop style; since then over-programmed radio and increasingly profit-centric record companies have sucked the wonder out of one hit wonder, putting out album after album with one blow-up single and a bunch of garbage. The more attention an album requires -- deserving or not -- the less likely it is to get it.

Which makes it a perfect time for A Prince Among Thieves.

Written, produced, arranged, scored, and "hustled" by Prince Paul, the man who brought you Stetsasonic and the first three De La Soul albums, Prince is a cross between Menace II Society, Airplane, and Sweeny Todd -- the world's first hip-hop musical. Or at least the first one worth listening to. Packaged like a movie soundtrack, complete with fake film stills, the thirty-five tracks are almost evenly split between narration, dialogue, and songs, all from a movie that, as of yet, doesn't really exist. [Just you wait, though: Chris Rock's already bought the screen rights.]

If you're thinking it's either ambitious or stupid, you're right on both counts. Paul's actually weaved together a coherent narrative -- albeit one he pieced together from twenty different sources -- which is punctuated with moments of sheer (and almost definitely intended) idiocy. The Prince Paul spin right now is pretty consistent: he's the Inventor of the Hip-Hop Skit (see Spin's feature article, Rolling Stone's review of Prince, and many more), first realized on De La's first record.

Sure, that fits with this project - the longest series of skits Paul's ever done -- but what most people miss is more crucial: Paul's probably the only hip hop producer who ever sounds like he's having fun. There's a sneaky bounce to a Paul track, even the dark ones -- you get the sense that instead of making him proud, building the perfect beat actually makes Prince Paul happy.

You can hear it all through Prince, from Kool Keith's track as Crazy Lou the weapon dealer, to the obligatory Biz Markee cameo, to the climax "You Got Shot." As gloomy as the moral can get there's always the sense that Paul's behind the boards smirking.

Does it make sense to make a meta-concept album? Not only is there a narrative that runs through the record, but it's a fake narrative -- snippets from a whole that doesn't exist. Paul's typically been on the opposite side from the mainstream, and Prince doesn't take him any closer. What's amazing -- aside from the fact that he can sustain the joke through the whole record -- is that the record, even distilled down to just the hip hop tracks, is so good.

Prince Paul, so contrary, he won't even make a bad concept album.

ben@smug.com

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