Prince has newly embraced the Internet

After years of being an recluse, it was as though he never was absent from the Internet. On December 18, 2012, Prince joined Twitter, and began sending tweets from the 3RDEYEGIRL profile.

Prince’s tweets are captivating. They’re full of pop culture allusions, 80s nostalgia, and media savviness. Anyone could spend hours pouring through them.

Even more surprising is that Prince not only understands the world of memes, he seemingly thrives on them. Not only does Prince’s upcoming album cover feature a still from a legendary Chapelle Show sketch on Prince, “Charlie Murphy’s True Hollywood Stories”, he’s also releasing a song based on the well known #ThisCouldBeUsButYouPlayin Twitter meme.

What inspired him? This image macro which was taken from Purple Rain.

We can’t help but think this soon-to-be-released song opens up a world of potential for Prince. If successful, perhaps more meme-based songs could follow. Which makes us wonder: what other memes could work as Prince sings?

These five memes might just work as Prince songs.

1. Chocolate Rain

In this promotional still from Purple Rain, we see a fog that obviously contains purple droplets of condensation. But we clearly see the colour of the fog change on the left side of the picture. Could that be… chocolate?

The connection between purple and chocolate ain’t all that crazy. Not only is purple a well known element in chocolate company Cadbury’s logo, their Dairy Milk chocolate bar is encased in a purple wrapper.

Cadbury isn’t the only chocolate company to use purple in their logo. Both Purdy’s and the Madelaine Chocolate Company are well known for their purple-ness.

Purple and chocolate goes together like… well, Purple Rain and Chocolate Rain.

Chocolate Rain is an R&B song that went viral in 2007, and has since garnered 97 million views on YouTube. It gained so much attention, singer-songwriter Tay Zonday was featured on South Park, and made the front page of the LA Times on August 12, 2007. Tay soon found himself performing Chocolate Rain on Jimmy Kimmel. Perhaps Chocolate Rain is the definitive viral song.

But there’s another reason Prince should sing Chocolate Rain. Where exactly is both Prince and Tay Zonday from? Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Indeed, both Prince and Tay Zonday cut their teeth at legendary Minneapolis nightclubs. Prince regularly performs at the First Avenue, while Tay Zonday frequents The Southern Theater.

The colour purple has historical connections with chocolate?

Two R&B singers from Minneapolis singing about unconventional rain?

If we were conspiracy theorists, we’d think the numerous coincidences mean Prince secretly had a hand in Chocolate Rain.

Chocolate Rain needs to become a Prince song—if for no other reason than the fact Purple Rain exists. (Oh, and if he were to make a Chocolate Rain film, we wouldn’t complain either.)

2. w00t!

One of the oldest Internet memes is 1337 speak, which charts its origins from bulletin board systems in the 1980s. It is a lingo that replaces letters and words with numbers, and often shortens their length. With 1337 speak, the word “you” becomes “u” and “for” becomes “4”.

At the dawn of the Internet, 1337 speak was a means for computer savvy teenagers to identify each other through message boards, and allowed them to speak about socially forbidden topics such as hacking. Eventually, 1337 speak blew up in popularity when it became possible to send text messages with cell phones—where text had to be constricted to 160 characters.

1337 speak later became the basis for memes, such as B1FF, the !1 Phenomenon, and LOLcats. It was also used to parody much Internet-based social phenomena such as the Eternal September.

But do you know who was speaking 1337 before it was cool? That’s right, Prince. He’s been writing in 1337 speak well before modems were affordable. Joni Mitchell recalls receiving 1337 speak fan mail from Prince during the 70s—when he was 15-years-old.

Prince’s 1337 speak is by no means a secret.

He’s employed the lingo in numerous interviews, and many of his songs already make use of it: “When 2 R In Love”, “Joint 2 Joint”, and “I Would Die 4 U”.

Since Prince is well acquainted with 1337, it would be fitting if Prince based a song on one of the most iconic 1337 phrases of all: w00t!

W00t! is a 1337 phrase that expresses excitement and joy. First seen in 1994, w00t! soon found itself through such diverse Internet stomping grounds as IRC, World of Warcraft, and MySpace. The word was so popular that it was added to the 2011 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (with “0” replaced with lowercase “o”).

Dare we say it, w00t! is the kind of word we’d exclaim while in the midst of a housequake, or an interjection while we party like it’s 1337. W00t! could be a killer Prince song.

3. Keep Calm and Carry On

In 1939, the British government printed 2.45 million motivational posters. These posters were meant to bolster public morale in the midst of air attacks over London. However, while the posters were printed, they were never publicly displayed—and they remained obscure until a collection of 20 posters was shown on Antiques Roadshow in 2012.

Since its rediscovery, “Keep Calm and Carry On” has triggered a storm of commercial activity, and has been featured on mugs, t-shirts, and beer koozies.

Just as notable are the parodies

“Keep Quiet and Continue Working”, “Keep Calm and Call Batman”, “Stay Alive and Avoid Zombies”, etc. All feature text in all-caps, with a solid colour background, and a crown or similar variance.

Of course, when we think solid colour background and crowns, one pop culture figure comes to mind: his Purple-ness. Prince’s real name—we’re not kidding—is Prince, and princes are known to wear crowns.

Hence, in keeping with the meme’s intrinsic parody-ness, we’ve decided to “Princify” it.

Of course, “Keep Calm and Carry On” could well be a title for a Prince song, and could particularly work as a slow jam similar to “Adore”. Infused with some down-tempo funk, we imagine “Keep Calm and Carry On” could excite lovers world-wide with some lush, sexy saxophone.

So yes, “Keep Calm and Carry On” could work as a morale-boosting slogan, but it could also work as a slow-and-frisky love song by Prince.

4. Draw Me Like One of Your French Girls

In the 1997 mega-blockbuster Titanic, there’s a memorable scene where Rose (played by Kate Winslet) looks through nude illustrations drawn by Jack (played by Leonardo di Caprio), and asks him to “draw me like one of your French girls”. She then strikes an alluring pose as Jack draws a pencil sketch.

While moviegoers remember this as a delightfully sensuous scene…

The Internet has a way of ruining everything.

14 years later, this phrase made a comeback in public consciousness when it was super-imposed on pictures of dogs, pandas, and daleks—all in comically alluring poses. Anything that can strike an alluring pose can be juxtaposed with the phrase “Draw me like one of your French girls”. This meme has such universal appeal it’s inspired an iPhone app.

Once again, however, it looks like a well-known meme has a connection to Prince. 10 years before the release of The Titanic, the album Lovesexy was released which featured Prince striking a seductive pose in front of a white and purple flowers. The kicker: Prince was drawn like one of those French girls.

When the cover of Lovesexy sits next to a typical “Draw me like…” meme, the similarities are eerie.

“Draw me like one of your French girls” is so fittingly Prince, it makes us wonder why it isn’t yet a Prince song.

5. Now Kiss!

If you ever played with dolls as a kid (and who—ahem—hasn’t?!), then you may recall smooshing them together so they kiss. For many children, this was a rite of passage: an introduction to domestic role-playing, and a simulation of potential adult life.

But while playing “house” with dolls is usually good clean fun, who hasn’t wished to have extended these “kiss-making” powers to other things, such as a Star Wars / Saved By The Bell crossover special or a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich ?

This is one such scenario that the Rage comics meme “Now Kiss!” explores.

Speaking of smooches, “Kiss” was Prince’s third #1 single, and a critical favourite. Both Rolling Stone and New Music Express rate it as amongst the greatest singles of all time. It’s an easy song to love. “Kiss” features a stripped down minimalist sound punctuated by falsetto vocals and a searing guitar solo.