His name is Prince. And he is fonky. At least he was last Saturday night [11/11/00] in Philly, when I caught the "Hit & Run" Tour stop at the venerable old Academy of Music.

Now, stellarfunk is always on The One (whilst meandering into the wildernesses of psychedelia, boogie & Americana). Still, as this column was originally slated to cover George Clinton & the P-Funk, it seemed only fitting to substitute his acolyte from Minnesota when a wrinkle presented itself.

At the Academy of Music, the Artist again known as Prince finally appeared 90 minutes late to wow the mass of blackfolks who (surprisingly) have not abandoned him through his myriad musical quirks and self-mythologizing --- to the point that they camped out overnight and queued up early the day of ticket sales. Gee, one almost thought it was a Dead show..and there were a few errant Phish-heads "in da house," reeling no doubt from Phish's hiatus. Prince and his latest incarnation of the five-piece NPG band certainly supplied the air of Spectacle the Phish partisans are accustomed to.but with a very distinct flavor: to wit, if Phish can play "Getting' Jiggy Wit' It," Prince also demonstrated that an old rocker-roue can learn new tricks by interspersing raps and loops in this 20-odd year retrospective of sorts. Tambourines emblazoned with the "Artist" glyph, as well as glow sticks (and lighters, later, during the arm-waving rock epic "Purple Rain"), flashed throughout the hall's plush, well-appointed four floors. There was a lot of seat-dancing too.

Prince's tardiness receded into faint memory once he launched into seamless, two hour stream of his hits and cherished obscurities, past and recent. "Automatic," "Cream," "Nothing Compares 2 U," "Little Red Corvette," "Raspberry Beret," "She's Always In My Hair," "The Beautiful Ones," "Darling Nikki," "U Got The Look," "Controversy," "Uptown," "Dorothy Parker," "I wanna be your lover," a weird dirge-like take on "Baby I'm A Star," and closer "Gett Off" all made a brief appearance in a spinning medley that accompanied Prince's splits and hip-thrusts and the gyrations of his chick dancer. The only song I recollect getting the full, in-depth treatment was the ever-stellar and profoundly moving "Purple Rain" which also featured some of Prince, the master guitarist, who mostly seemed in hiding during what he termed a "rehearsal" for his mini-tour.

The NPG acquitted itself well enough but without the spark I associate with The (late, lamented) Revolution. The Vodun snakedance twirling of the clean-head drummer's sticks got the most applause and my sister on bass rocked steady, alternating with a bass w/ a bow. Special guest Najee, new school soprano saxophonist, was singularly boring, however. He opened the show from the audience with a single, sustained blast from his horn which was gimmicky but effective. Still, his excessively bright tone and overuse of vibrato reminded us all to well of why he's King of the CD 101 lite jazz scene. One would expect darker, more thrilling accompaniment to a musician of Prince's high caliber.

The evening's biggest disappointment is that Patti LaBelle did not sit in; Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men and another local musician scatted and ad-libbed at the encore while Prince manned the keyboards but it wasn't the same. I'd spied Miss Patti's fingernails from the proscenium box earlier on when she got her tribute from the ecstatic audience. She could have matched Prince's greatness single-handedly. Forgive me but Labelle's swan song, Chameleon (especially the title track) has been my obsessional disc this season. Her angelic voice --- for lack of a better description --- would have elevated Prince's almost pedestrian renderings of greatest hits to a celestial level. Instead, he stuck with the mundane and added little embellishment to the time-worn. "Purple Rain" alone soared into the Metafizzik.although I did heartily enjoy Prince's humping of the riser during "Darling Nikki." Kids, it takes me back..

It was odd to realize how much seminal music a single, purple-robed Pied Piper from Minnesota has contributed to the times. And how he's changed the sound of those times.

But is he absolutely a maverick? A Revolutionary? Perhaps his political diatribe, railing against the US Electoral Process (dubbing himself the president of our Nation under the groove in situ that night), against Napster selling out to Bertelsmann and BET to Viacom augmented his profile in that regard. Certainly, I felt a bursting pride in him when most of the audience faded out in confused and fearful silence and he then launched into a chestnut from the long-forgotten Soul To Soul concert (a landmark Soul revue held in Ghana by Diaspora Blacks for Africans the year I was born, in a country I used to live in.) called "When Will We Be Paid?", a cry for black reparations gifted to him by the divine Mavis Staples.

However great a song-and-dance man, I have never been quite convinced by His Royal Badness. Is what he does miraculous genesis or mere savvy synthesis? D'Angelo et al would have you believe Prince is God incarnate on Earth, blessing the Faithful in stiletto heels. I contrarily think that he might not have gone so far without the untimely demise of Hendrix and the sad, vampiric fadeout of Sly Stone. The great distinction between Prince and Hendrix seems to be that the former managed to capture the black audience that eluded the latter and impact their worldview decisively with elements of psychedelia and experimental rock guitar deemed anathema to blacks during Hendrix' brief prime. On the other hand, it's all-too evident that Lenny Kravitz would be nowhere without Prince and Terence Trent D'Arby R&B stab in the 80s and D'Angelo couldn't have written "Untitled." Prince's cult of Eros has always held a great sway yet somehow I've always wanted more from him.

Prince did show his age a bit, as one recognized how long it's been since the "apogee" of the record cycle between "Controversy" and the Purple Rain soundtrack. He wasn't as flashy or outrageous as in years past and no hint of a codpiece or lace on his person. He evinced a more muted, mature sexuality that may have been more beguiling than before. However, as Music's central to his existence, the challenge he faces is what to do with all his newfound freedom from corporate structures (as he himself underscored citing why he is no longer on the radio).

Starting out on the Good Foot, Prince seems to have finally embraced his Negritude unequivocally. I know most of u Readers here are little concerned with matters of Race, as you belong to the dominant one that controls the culture and keenly, representation. But Prince's coyness about his origins has always been off-putting to this critic. I don't demand that an artist be a BLACK ARTIST uber alles but that they be honest. Yep, artistes are notoriously fanciful creatures but there must be an integrity and essential core of Truth-Beauty in their cultural production. No matter how masterful, at least 50% of Prince's past work has left me, if not cold, then dubious.

Prince the Emancipated Independent now runs so contrary to the mainstream he's become one of the handful of truly alternative artists (also one of the extreme few to have his business practices reflect that rebel stance). He's proven himself capable of genius work for over a score of years. If his future work rivals the provocative steadiness of a gracefully aging Neil Young then he'll become America's most important ARTIST indeed. ..that is as a miscegenated being playing an elastic, integrated form of music. For that is the crux of the millennial West, as much as that was the secret (mandated by the African Presence) essence of America's past. This gift, not just his multi-instrumental prowess, accords Prince value beyond the realm of commerce and the rock marketplace.

Look in the air, there's your guitar.

And the sinuous snake-lines on his strings follow. Prince, heir of George Clinton and successive Funky President-Elect, effects more than Voodoo. His guitar can potentially serve as a beacon of healing Light in a dark, chaotic country.