Back to 1992’s Love Symbol album for today’s track, “The Continental.” Man, there’s a lot going on in this song. Right out of the gates a heavy drum beat, loud electric guitar, a DJ scratching, and a horn section blaring. At times it feels like there are at least a dozen background vocalists behind Prince’s voice. He’s singing some parts in a screeching falsetto. In other spots he’s sort of rapping, sort of speaking. The lyrics are nonsense about Prince’s sexual prowess. It’s kind of chaotic, but I actually enjoy it for the most part.
Then at about the 3:10 mark things calm down and “The Continental” settles in to a smooth groove. Prince does some more spoken word work, repeatedly asking, “baby, how you wanna be done?” The guitar and harmonies are nice. Then at 4:40 something terribly regrettable happens…a “rap” verse courtesy of Carmen Electra. Electra attempts her finest sex kitten voice laying out in some detail exactly how she’d like to be done. Apparently it involves a lot of rolling around, because it felt like every other line was her on top, then him on top, then her again, then him, etc. It was confusing, actually. It ends with her saying, “Roll me over till you’re back on top, then I want you to kiss me until I make you stop.” That’s how a freaky sexual encounter with Carmen Electra peaked in 1992? Kissing her until she tells you to stop? That’s some hardcore PG rated shit. So, not only is her flow as mediocre as everyone expected, but her story was just barely too nasty for Nickelodeon.
Despite Electra’s inclusion and some straight up stupid lyrics, I enjoy this song, especially the chill part up until the “rap.” Sorry, but I refuse to refer to that verse as a rap. It’s a “rap.” I’m going to say that the good and bad cancel each other out on this track. I wouldn’t go out of my way to hear “The Continental” and on the rare occasion I hear it, my reaction is typically, “Oh yeah. I forgot about that one,” but it’s not bad. How’s that for an endorsement?
mookiefantana 