Publication: The Boston Herald [US]
Date: February 2, 1999
Section: Arts & Life
Page Number(S): 39
Length: 831 Words
Title: "Free Verse; The Artist Launches Attack To Become New Master Of '1999'"
Written By: Larry Katz

Get ready to party like it's 1982.

That's when Prince first released "1999," the pre-millennium dance anthem that will likely be this year's most played song. Get ready to hear it over and over again. It will be unavoidable. And it will make many millions of dollars.

Which is why a new edition of the song - "1999 - The New Master" - is being released today by NPG Records, the label owned by the song's creator, the Artist Formerly Known As Prince.

To most of the world, this will look like a shrewd business move. To the Artist, it's another blow for freedom.

The original "1999" was the title song of a double album released by Warner Bros. The song was a dud as a single, until it was re-released after Prince scored his first Top 10 hit with another song from the album, "Little Red Corvette." The second time around "1999" made it to No.12.

With its got-to-move groove, catchy keyboard riffs and male-female vocals by Prince and members of his yet-to-be-formed Revolution, "1999" became a party staple. But it wasn't until last year that the song's renewed money-making potential became evident. Last fall, Warner Bros. released "1999" as a single.

The Artist was not happy. He had spent many months in the early '90s strutting around with the word "slave" scrawled on his cheek to protest what he believed to be the repressive terms of his contract with Warners. Now, nearly five years after what he termed his "emancipation," here was Warners exploiting him and his music again. Of course, Warners has every right to release a "1999" single. They own the master. They just have to pay the Artist his cut as writer and performer of the song and keep the rest.

With "1999 - The New Master," the Artist strikes back with a version he owns entirely. It's not only a new "1999," it's an expanded one. Released under the name Prince and the Revolution, it contains seven newly recorded versions totaling 35 minutes in length. That's a whole lot of "1999."

Prince, as it seems permissible to call him on this occasion, is too savvy a musician to radically mess with a song that already works. He wisely retains all the elements that made "1999" irresistible in the first place. At first, you might even think "The New Master" is the old master.

But any such illusion only lasts until we're hit with the first of several raps. As on his recent albums, Prince uses rap to signify that, at age 40, he's still hip and happening. After that, he adds a Latin piano-percussion break.

The opening track is followed by a brief recitation by actress Rosario Dawson, a diary entry from the day before Thanksgiving 1999. "There are as many black males and Latinos in jail as on the streets," she laments before indulging in some apocalyptic speculation and concluding, "open your mind, there's not much time."

Then comes a stripped-down version of "1999" dominated by voices and percussion. Next, a hip-hop version featuring rap veteran Doug E. Fresh warning that "armageddon is headin"' as he anticipates the collapse of society in the 21st century. Singer Rosie Gaines scats and wails through the subsequent track, which is dominated by a bass groove.

The opening version of "1999" is reprised before the final cut, a vocal-only "1999" with contributions from former Sly and the Family Stone bassist Larry Graham, whose new album was just released on NPG. As on the original "1999," the last sounds heard are chilling: a child's voice asking "Mommy, why does everybody have a bomb?" followed by an explosion.

Back in 1982, Prince's worries about nuclear destruction were connected to Cold War tensions and President Reagan's military buildup. In 1999, the tension feels millennial. Will our next New Year's Eve party be our last before Judgment Day? Prescient and still potent, "1999" asks that we consider the possibility while we dance the year away.