20TEN x 2?

Was Prince’s 20Ten inspired by Jamaican act?

Great minds, the maxim goes, think alike.

If that be the case then there may be some mental similitude between US rock/funk legend Prince and Jamaican artiste Bryan Art. It turns out that each artiste has a full-length CD by that title, and not only is the name similar, but the representation of the title, with its mix of numerical and verbal type, is pretty much identical.

Prince’s 20Ten was released on July 10, 2010 through his own NPG Records. In keeping with the star’s modus of bypassing conventional record label accounting and marketing, the album was offered as a free covermount with the UK Daily Mirror and Daily Record (Ireland) newspapers, and in Europe via the Het Nieuwsblad and De Gentenaar publications. It was further released on July 22, 2010 with the German edition of  Rolling Stone magazine and in France through the Courier publication.

The album, the 33^rd studio album in his storied catalog, contains elements of funk, pop, rock and soul music, as is typical for Prince, who also has multiple credits as arranger, composer, producer and performer (playing most, if not all instruments and bringing in the occasional background vocalist).

Bryan Art’s 20Ten, his debut full-length was released on June 1, 2010, with an official album release held the following evening. It had a similar path to market as the Prince disc, coming out on the artist’s own Junction File label in conjunction with Jah Chin. As knowledgeable music fans have come to expect from Art, the disc combines his progressive take on lover’s rock (“Sweeter Love” “Only You”) along with the edgier social commentary of ‘Murda Dem A Play” (the remix features Queen Ifrica) and the upbeat, self-confidence anthem “Get It”.

According to reports, Prince revealed the name of his album when receiving a lifetime achievement award at the 2010 BET Music Awards. He told the Daily Mirror that he chose the title because, "I just think it's a year that really matters. These are very trying times." Bryan Art’s rationale for his title is quite similar, as he previously told the Gleaner "Things always seem like it will happen and it never happen because of procrastination and we just decided that now must be the time. Come what may now is when we are going to release the album. Now is when we going to step up our game. Now is decision time."   

Prince made arrangements to release 20Ten exclusively as a free CD add-on to European newspapers on July 10, 2010, including the UK's Daily Mirror, Scotland's Daily Record, and Belgium's Het Nieuwsblad, and on July 22, 2010 in France's Courrier International and the German edition of Rolling Stone.

Over 2.5 million copies were distributed by Trinity Mirror, the publisher of the Daily Mirror and Daily Record. Prince was featured in the publications, to which he granted his first interview in a British newspaper in over 10 years. The issue of the Mirror cost 65 pence; the album was not available as a  digital download or in retail stores. The publisher released that sales of the Daily Mirror increased by 334,000, and sales of The Daily Record increased by 45,000 copies on the day it included the album.

On October 8, Prince told French radio station Europe 1 that he was reportedly planning on releasing an updated edition of the album called 20Ten Deluxe. It is yet to materialize.

The matter of the similarity between the titles even made it onto Prince’s own online community, prince.org, where several fans have posted links to Bryan Art’s pages as well as reviews posted on online music sites.

For his part, the Jamaican, fresh off a well received appearance at the Jamaica Jazz and Blues festival, says he finds the coincidence interesting, even as he acknowledges the Minneapolis wonder’s stature as a musician. “We definitely know of his works, and we also take note of the fact that he incorporate the symbol that he used to use when he was breaking away from the record company.”