Psychoanalysis: What Is It? [Tommy Boy]

Performer: Prince Paul
Engineer: D. Nakamura; Dan The Automator; Prince Paul
Distributor: Alternative Dis. Alliance

Notes: Personnel: Prince Paul; Therapists, The Flipper, Del Rio And The Squid, Scully B, The Mic, Man Scientist, Omega Man, Jason X, The God Sincere, Scotty Hard, Mista Wells, Smile-Lee, Nephew Mike, Who, Popmaster, Automator (vocals); Astacio Arnovick (guitar); D. Nakamura (violin, cello, keyboards). Personnel: Dan the Automator (vocals, violin, cello, keyboards); Omegaman, Jason X, Ilmatic Motion, Flipper, Mic, Smiley G, Scotty Hard, Spectre (vocals). Audio Mixers: Dan the Automator; Prince Paul. Recording information: Newkirk's House, Queens, NY. From George Clinton and De La Soul to Ornette Coleman and Frank Zappa, a lot of great artists haven't hesitated to be self-indulgent. It's a question of how self-indulgent an artist chooses to be, and on Psychoanalysis (What Is It?), Prince Paul is much too self-indulgent for his own good. Known for his membership in the group Stetsasonic and for producing De La Soul, Queen Latifah, and others, Paul has an impressive resume. But this unfocused, incoherent CD wasn't his finest hour. Though it contains a few worthwhile rap tunes (including "Psycho Linguistics" and "J.O.B. -- Das What Dey Is"), Psychoanalysis isn't a rap album so much as a collection of soundbites, samples, and dialogue played over tracks. Overall, the album is pointless and serves no purpose other than Paul's desire to amuse and entertain himself. He may have gotten a few laughs out of it, but listeners will be left out in the cold and find themselves asking if there is a point to all this. ~ Alex Henderson

Spin (1/98, pp.116-117) - 8 (out of 10) - "A Monty Python-like collection of twisted satire and bent skits that gleefully dissects the sorry state of current B-boy culture....For what is essentially a `comedy' album, PSYCHOANALYSIS gives hip-hop fans a thorough working over..." Entertainment Weekly (10/31/97, p.108) - "...Flitting across dance-music styles with giddy abandon, Paul crafts bumptious Technicolor jams..." - Rating: B+ CMJ (11/24/97, p.3) - "...Paul's at the vanguard of today's experimental hip-hop resurgence, so listen up." JazzTimes (2/97, p.86) - "...explores the bizarro outer limits of the B-Boy mindset....a prime candidate for repeat play." The Source (9/96, p.156) - "...Prince Paul psychoanalyzes our taut aural horizons and points where we would have been six years ago had fistfuls of dollars not been waved under the noses of musical idiot-savants." Option (11-12/96, p.123) - "...the genius of this record is its ability to mock everything, yet still make you wonder if you really should be laughing....it's hard to say just what the hell this is--hip-hop or comedy....you won't likely find another album this weirdly idiosyncratic..."

Producer/DJ Prince Paul debuted at the age of 17 with Brooklyn-based hip-hop band Stetsasonic. The inventor of the album skit, Paul produced De La Soul's first three LPs and his influence is strongly felt--from the diverse sample sources to the playful, story-telling approach. Prince Paul went on to produce for a wide range of artists from the world of hip-hop and beyond--3rd Bass, Big Daddy Kane, Vernon Reid, Princess Superstar, and Chris Rock are but a few--and famously collaborate with the RZA (Gravediggaz) and Dan the Automator (Handsome Boy Modelling School). His off-kilter solo debut, PSYCHOANALYSIS: WHAT IS IT? (1997), explores Paul's experiences with therapy while 1999's A PRINCE AMONG THIEVES is a singular opus--a hip-hop opera with MCs as character actors.

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