*They may be without their name, but the band formerly known as The Time is still united as members prepare for the release of their new album, “Condensate” on October 18, 2011.
Speaking with EUR’s Lee Bailey, frontman Morris Day as well as producer (and band member) Jimmy Jam label the turn of events as “freeing” in terms of being under a new name, The Original 7even, and providing a new trail to blaze, despite name recognition as The Time.
The name change to The Original 7even came as a mixed blessing for Day, Jam and fellow bandmates Terry Lewis, Jellybean Johnson, Jerome Benton, Monty Moir and Jesse Johnson as they found themselves unable to use the name they’ve built their careers under. In light of Prince owning the name of The Time, the collective reached a crossroads with the music icon’s refusal to let them use their former moniker.
“Simply, business is business and at a certain point we realized that we’re not going to be able to use the name The Time,” Jam explained. “The decision was made at that point that we could either continue to, shall we say, negotiate or argue or plead or whatever. We decided to go the route of let’s not hold things up because of the name. Let’s embrace the opportunity to move forward in a new era, with a new outlook, with a new album and that’s what we did. We think the name reflects exactly who we are. We are the Original 7even and that basically, for me, covers it.”
The change to the Original 7even came after members explored different names to call themselves. Ultimately, the Original 7even provided a good fit for the group, Jam noted. Despite Prince not letting the group use the name The Time, Day sees the move as a positive.
“The good thing about it was in a way he pushed us out of the nest, so to speak, because we had to rethink this whole thing and I think we approached it differently,” he stated. “I think it’s more interesting because now there’s something more to talk about because we changed the name…we approached the whole project differently, as the Original 7even versus being The Time. So in a way, he forced us to think outside the box and expand this whole thing. And I think it made the project even greater.”
History aside, Day and Jam hope fans as well as Prince enjoy “Condensate” and appreciate the effort that went into their latest creation.
“We hope that he enjoys the music. We hope that he’s proud of us for what we’re doing. And we think he will be,” Jam said. “We think he will love the record and I think he will sit back and whether he admits it or not he will go ‘I taught them well.’”
To celebrate the release of “Condensate,” on Tuesday (Oct. 18), the Original 7even will hold a screening and Q&A session for its new documentary at the Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles in LA Live. The 80-minute documentary, which will be available Tuesday in a fan pack with the album at Best Buy, will center on the history and formation of the group as well as feature members discussing popular stories involving them over the years. Tickets for the screening are $10 and are available for 200 people.
On Wednesday (Oct. 19), fans will be treated to the Original 7even’s debut live performance at Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles at LA Live. Tickets for the event are on sale now.
The video for the group’s latest single, “#Trendin,” which is slated to premieres this week on Centric. You can check it out below or at the band’s website: www.theoriginal7ven.com.
Written by By Chris Richburg / chris_richburg@hotmail.com
After all those years fighting against his “slave owner” label Warner Bros., it seems pretty ‘douche-y’ and hypocritical for Prince to pull this with The Time. What possible benefit could holding the name hostage from the group have? If it’s something personal, so what! Business is business… let ‘em perform and take a percentage. If it is business, again, what’s better– owning a name making no money, or having that name make you some on the road?
This doesn’t make sense either way to me. But whatever named they’re called, Morris and the crew are still my boys!
Personally, the story sounds like spin to me. Due to all those years fighting with the ‘slave owner’, there is always the possibility Prince does not actually ’100% own’ the name ‘The Time.’ The Time was established during the Warner Bros. era and WB owned almost everything Prince created, and was the label for The Time as well. If nothing else, there is probably some legal issue with WB could actually be the culprit.
That was one of my first impressions as well, “spin”. But it’s not very smart on Prince’s part to let people go on thinking he is a hypocrite. I’m curious to know if The Time are allowed to perform all the songs they are known for, even though Prince wrote the majority of them? Also, Prince or whomever is up to all this deviltry, can’t take away Morris Day’s name ( or can they, nowadays?), so why wouldn’t they call themselves Morris Day & The Original 7ven, because it’s gonna be pretty tough to get re-recognized and sell lots of music without some tie-in to the original band name. I’ve seen it happen with my favorite band WAR, and they have been fighting this same fight for years now. The Time has only just begun to see how this will affect them, and although they may have made concessions to call themselves the Original 7ven, they will ALWAYS be Morris Day & The Time to this fan.
I agree, MyPhilosophy. But I’m also beginning to feel a whole lot difference about ALL of ‘em who ‘merely’ seek out their Black base to use as stepping stones but really don’t give a damn.
MyPhilosophy and Shoelover, Count me in. I can’t believe that Prince would treat them this way. I was first made aware of it by Tom Joyner. He mentioned that Jesse Johnson told him when they were on the Fantastic Voyage cruise, they had changed their name to 7even because of Prince owning the name “The Time”. Wow, what pettiness. I guess he’s an angry little man!
Prince has screwed up what could have been a bigger dynasty then what he has now. Under his wings he could have been associated with Alexander O’neal, The S.O.S. Band, Cherrelle,Janet Jackson all because he couldn’t take Jimmy Jam amd Terry Lewis working with other artists. He booted Alexander O’neal from the time because of his skin color and he didn’t want to pay him right. Hell even Wendy and Lisa are writing songs for tv shows now.
Alexander O’Neal released an album back in March of this year titled, Under the Covers.
Prince is starting to act like a pint size prick.