The Time

The Time (now The Original 7ven) is an American funk and dance-pop ensemble who are close Prince associates and arguably the most successful artists who have worked with him.

In 1981, Prince had built The Time out of an existing Minneapolis funk unit, "Flyte Time" and featured the lead singer and childhood friend, Morris Day.

The band released four albums during the course of their main career. Their music featured jammy, rock-infused 1980s funk, and light and humorous in tone. The band had numerous hits including "The Bird", "Jungle Love", "777-9311", "Get It Up", "Gigolos Get Lonely Too", "The Walk" and "Cool" during the early 1980s.

The band would be featured in Prince's Purple Rain film. The Time rode the wave of popularity created by the movie and hit singles "Jungle Love" and "The Bird" and were household names in 1984.

Day would leave the band to pursue a solo career in 1985 after a successful acting turn in Purple Rain. Soon thereafter, the band disintegrated as other band members would go on to other projects.

In 1990, the original seven members of the band reunited for the Graffiti Bridge movie and soundtrack, as well as a new album, Pandemonium. A song off this album, "Jerk Out" would become their highest selling single and the album featured more input from the band than any other Time album. Infighting within the band would caused them to disband once again.

Several members of The Time reunited in 1995, added a few new recruits and have remained together since. This version of the band can be seen in the Kevin Smith film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and tours frequently as "Morris Day and The Time".

A 2004 album attributed to Morris Day called It's About Time contains a few new tracks written and performed by Day and a number of live performances by The Time.

The Time would reunite at The 50th Grammy Awards in February 2008 to perform "Jungle Love" with Rihanna.

In September 2011, the band announced a name change to The Original 7ven and a new album Condensate to be released a month later with the single "#Trendin".