Those of you who watched the Prince tribute on the BET Awards last night would not be wrong for wondering what happened to his many proteges.

To that, I ask one question: WHAT TIME IS IT???

As my man Jason Mewes would say (OK, he’s not really my man), “Morris Day and the Motherfuckin’ Time” are back and preparing a new album for release this year. All of the original members are along for the ride, including super-producas Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and guitar wiz Jesse Johnson. And if you’ve got a soft spot for Jerome, yes, he’ll be part of the reunion as well. This has been talked about ever since the fellas backed Rihanna at the Grammy Awards a couple years ago, and I’m very happy that it’s finally coming to fruition.

One person that may not be part of the reunion is the man who guided them to stardom, Prince. As many of you know, the Purple One wrote, produced and practically performed just about all of the material the Time recorded over the period from 1981-1984, and he also figured pretty heavily in their first reunion album, 1990’s “Pandemonium”. Considering these guys are all wildly talented on their own, I’m pretty sure they’ll be able to cook up a pretty sweet-tasting funk-rock stew on their own. Actually, I’d anticipate that their album will probably be as good or better than anything Prince has recorded in the past, oh…fifteen years.

The folks at Ickmusic were lucky enough to see The Time perform recently in their hometown of Minneapolis, and while it looks like the band has put on a bit of middle-aged spread, they apparently still sounded as good as ever. Funk has no weight restrictions, y’all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BejdCyIIVyw