IT'S EASY TO poke fun at the man whose birth certificate reads Prince Rogers Nelson, what with his unpronounceable symbol-name and his efforts to depict himself as a "slave" of Warner Bros. Nonetheless, beneath all the overheated theatrics lay a serious struggle that had nothing to with money or vanity. Like every other modern music corporation, Warner Bros. has learned that they can get the biggest return on their investment if they limit their pop stars to one album every one or two years. If, however, you're a prolific talent like Nelson, who creates dozens of songs every year, such an artificial limitation prevents much of your work from enjoying the public interaction that both artists and audiences crave.
As long as the stalemate between Nelson and Warner persisted, there was no way to tell who was right -- were the unreleased tracks inferior efforts better left in the can or were they great songs unwisely repressed? Now that the impasse has been broken -- Nelson has left Warner and started his own label, NPG -- the answer is clear. Nelson's first post-Warner release, "Emancipation," offers three full hours of music on three CDs, and none of it seems extraneous. Instead, every disc contains some of the catchiest melodies and most danceable rhythms of Nelson's career. It's as if a dam had cracked and a flood of pent-up creativity had been unleashed.
"Emancipation" is also Nelson's most R&B-oriented project since 1988's "The Black Album." This time, though, the sound isn't the fattened-up funk of George Clinton but the lean-and-mean minimalism of Mtume and Archie Bell; instead of layer upon layer of instruments and voices, a sleek synth line or a compact guitar riff carry the freight. It helps that up-tempo tunes such as "Right Back Here in My Arms" and "Sex in the Summer" are built around ear-grabbing hooks. The newly married Nelson waxes romantic on ballads such as "Soul Sanctuary" and "Let's Have a Baby."
Perhaps the biggest advantage of the extra elbow room on "Emancipation" is the documentation of Nelson as an interpretive singer. He has often covered other people's songs in his live shows but never before on his own recordings; here he brings something special to the Delfonics' "La La La Means I Love You," the Stylistics' "Betcha by Golly Wow," Joan Osborne's "One of Us" and Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me." THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS PRINCE -- "Emancipation" (NPG/EMI). Appearing Friday at DAR Constitution Hall. To hear a free Sound Bite from this album, call Post-Haste at 202/334-9000 and press 8103. (Prince William residents, call 690-4110.) CAPTION: You-know-who performs royally on the catchy R&B of "Emancipation."