F.U.N.K. Prince single

NPG Records

single

Don’t you ever mess with me no more.

F.U.N.K. was originally recorded at Paisley Park Studios in 2003 Prince updated with new lyrics one day before it was uploaded to the audio streaming platform iTunes on 8 November 2007. F.U.N.K. was subsequently available as an MP3 download from Prince’s website 3121.com from the 20th of that month as well as simultaneously streamed on a website Prince specially set up under the domain princefamsunited.com.

Coming off the back of legal action he began on 14 September 2007 against Youtube and eBay for not filtering out unauthorised content on their platforms, the threat of legal action also widened to fan-run websites. F.U.N.K. was gleaned from the vault and released with specially revised lyrics sung by Prince as a response track aimed at the online group launched on 5 November named Prince FANS United (PFUnk), set up in protest against Prince’s claims that a number of fan forums breached his image copyright on their message boards. The legal matter was eventually dropped but not without controversy and a degree of harm caused to his relationship with the fanbase.

Considered superior to his other work of the period, F.U.N.K. is reminiscent of Prince’s 80s ‘Minneapolis sound’ and is considered by many one of the best tracks of his post Warner Brothers career.

Performers

Vox / All instr.

Prince

Keyboards

Renato Neto

Backing Vox

Shelby J

Data

Producer

Prince

Label

NPG Records

Distribution

NPG Records

Released

18 years ago on 8 November 2007

Running Time

7:35

US Chart Peak

Did not chart

UK Chart Peak

Did not chart

Orig. Format

Tracklist

1. F.U.N.K. (7:35)

F.U.N.K. single review

Issued in response to Prince Fans United a website setup by fan forum webmasters in protest of Prince’s legal action accusing them of promoting filesharing on their message boards. The situation was in danger of heading to court but the fans dug in. Then out of nowhere Prince released a diss track named F.U.N.K. his funkiest creation of recent years. Laced with biting guitar and silky keyboards in the style of George Clinton’s P-funk, sparked amazement when this dropped on 3121.com featuring vocals recalling Camille, resurrected straight from 1987 – so good some even believed the vocals were from a newly discovered long lost recording. F.U.N.K. is ride and closes out with full paced funk/rock. Dating from 2003, when Prince was working on N.E.W.S and Xpectation then to deliver F.U.N.K. it was a waste Prince was not enthused enough to continue the vibe through to subsequent projects. Too much of a standout sadly. Ain’t nothing like funky music.

F.U.N.K. is rated 5 out of 5 by Goldies Parade.