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Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958), known from 1993 to 2000 as (or informally, The Artist Formerly Known as Prince or "Tafkap"), is a popular and influential American musician. His music has spanned myriad styles; though his early material was firmly rooted in R&B, funk and soul, he has constantly expanded his musical palette throughout his career, absorbing many other genres including new wave, pop, rock, blues, jazz and hip hop. The distinctive characteristics of the early-to-mid 1980s work which brought him to superstardom (including sparse and industrial-sounding drum machine arrangements, and the use of synthesizer riffs to serve the role traditionally occupied by horn riffs in earlier R&B, funk and soul music) became known as the "Minneapolis sound," which proved heavily influential. He has a reputation as a workaholic, having released over a thousand songs both under his own name and through other artists, and is known for having composed and recorded many more songs that remain unreleased. Regarded as a perfectionist, Prince has a reputation as being somewhat difficult to work with, and for being highly protective of his music. He writes, composes and produces most of his music single-handedly, and plays most of the instruments on his albums. He also is a well-known songwriter for other artists, and some of those songs have topped the charts as well. Critics and colleagues have referred to the quality of Prince's work and its versatility as being indicative of musical genius.
Uptown: Early Years Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Mount Sinai Hospital on June 7, 1958 to John L. Nelson and Mattie Shaw. John L. Nelson played in a jazz trio The Prince Rogers Trio, hence Prince's birth name. There are a number of myths regarding Prince’s ethnicity and gender, some spread by Prince himself. The most pervasive is that he is the child of a black father and white mother, a myth later bolstered by the film Purple Rain, starring Prince himself. Prince's parents are, in fact African-American, his mother of African-American, Indian and Caucasian lineage, specifically (noted in a 1985 Rolling Stone interview with Prince). And according to an April 28, 1983 Rolling Stone article, Prince's father is of Black and Italian ancestry, and his mother "is a mixture of a bunch of things." After the birth of his sister, Tika Evene in 1960, Prince's parents gradually drifted apart. Prince’s parents formally separated and he had a troubled relationship with his stepfather causing him to run away from home. He lived briefly with his father, who bought him his first guitar. Later, Prince moved in with a neighborhood family, the Andersons, and became friends with their son, Andre Anderson (later called André Cymone). Prince and Anderson joined Prince’s cousin Charles Smith in a band called Grand Central, formed in junior high school. Initially his involvement was just part of a mainly instrumental band that played clubs and parties in the Minneapolis area. As time went by and Prince's musical knowledge broadened he found himself dictating the arrangements to the rest of the band. Before long he had become the band's frontman. By the time Prince had entered high school, Grand Central evolved into Champagne and started playing original music already drawing on a range of influences including Sly Stone, James Brown, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. In 1976, he started working on a demo tape with producer Chris Moon in a Minneapolis studio. He also had the patronage of Owen Husney, to whom Moon introduced him, allowing him to produce a quality demo. Husney started contacting major labels and ran a campaign promoting Prince as a star of the future, resulting in a bidding war eventually won by Warner Bros. Records. They were the only label to give Prince creative control of his songs and offered him a contract. Controversy: 1975–1980 Pepe Willie, husband of Prince's cousin, was an influential presence in Prince’s early career. Willie acted as mentor and manager, along with Husney, for Prince in the Grand Central days, and employed Prince in the studio for his own recordings. In 1977, Willie formed 94 East, a band with Marcy Ingvoldstad and Kristie Lazenberry. Willie enlisted the talents of Prince and Andre Cymone as session musicians for their studio recordings and in 1986 released the re-recorded tracks (except for Prince and Cymone’s parts) from 1975–1977 as Minneapolis Genius. In 1995, the original recordings with Prince and Cymone were released by Willie as 94 East featuring Prince, Symbolic Beginning. Prince’s first album for Warner Bros, released in 1978, was titled For You. The majority of the album was written and performed by Prince, except for the song Soft and Wet (Music by Prince; Lyrics by Prince and C. Moon). Tommy Vicari was the Executive Producer in For You. Starting with For You, one can read in all of Prince’s albums the now ubiquitous legend: Produced, Arranged, Composed and Performed by Prince. Prince spent twice his initial advance recording the first album, which sold modestly, making the bottom reaches of the Billboard 200, while the single “Soft and Wet” performed well on the R&B charts. In the album For You, Prince used Prince’s Music Co. for publishing his songs. By 1979, Prince had recruited his first backing band with Cymone on bass, Gayle Chapman and Matt Fink on keyboards, Bobby Z on drums and Dez Dickerson on guitar. Prince intentionally enlisted a multi-racial, mixed-gender group, much like the backing band of one of Prince’s most salient influences, Sly Stone. He recorded his second, self-titled album still mostly on his own, which made the Billboard 200 and contained two R&B hits in “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?” and “I Wanna Be Your Lover.” These two R&B hits were performed on January 26, 1980 on the TV show American Bandstand with his first backing band. For his second album, Prince used Ecnirp Music - BMI for publishing his songs, which he would also use for the album Dirty Mind. Prince first attracted attention for the colorful clothes he put on his 5 ft 2 in (1.6 m) frame. He wore high-heeled shoes and boots, and when questioned by the press, he remarked he liked the way he looked in them. In his early years, he liked to dress provocatively. He also was known to strongly flaunt and express his sexuality while on stage and in his music, which had people questioning his sexual orientation early on. This bought him some trouble as an opening act for The Rolling Stones’ two Los Angeles Coliseum shows in 1981, where he was infamously pelted with garbage whilst wearing underwear and a trenchcoat and subsequently booed off the stage. 1999 & The Revolution: 1980–1984
Purple Rain: 1984–1987 Purple Rain (in conjunction with the film of the same name) sold over thirteen million copies in the U.S. and spent twenty-four consecutive weeks at the top of the Billboard 200. The film, while dismissed by humorist-critic Joe Queenan as “sexist, juvenile, and moronic,” grossed over $80 million in the United States alone. However, Purple Rain would prove to be Prince’s biggest cinematic success. Two songs from Purple Rain, “When Doves Cry” and “Let's Go Crazy” would both top the U.S. singles charts and were hits around the world, while the title track would go to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Simultaneously, Prince held the spot of number one film, number one single, and number one album in the U.S. Prince won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for "Purple Rain", and the album ranks in the top 100 of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list , released in late 2003. When she overheard her twelve-year-old daughter, Karenna, playing “Darling Nikki,” Tipper Gore founded the Parents Music Resource Center, which has spurred the use of “explicit lyric” stickers and imprints on album covers. Prince went on to direct and star in two more movies: a romantic comedy entitled Under The Cherry Moon (1986) and a Purple Rain sequel entitled Graffiti Bridge (1990.) The soundtrack albums for both films were big hits, and Under the Cherry Moon spawned a chart-topping single, "Kiss." The films themselves, however, were met with public indifference and critical derision. In 1985, after the U.S. Purple Rain Tour, Prince gave up live performances and making videos on the release of Around the World in a Day, which went to the top of the U.S. album charts for three weeks. Prince’s ban on videos ended as the album stalled in the charts with a video for “Raspberry Beret” which reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1986, Prince released the album Parade as a soundtrack to the film Under The Cherry Moon. The album went to number three on the Billboard 200 album chart and number two on the R&B album charts. The first single, “Kiss,” would top the Billboard Hot 100. At the same time, “Manic Monday” by The Bangles reached number two on the Hot 100, which Prince had written under the pseudonym “Christopher.” Following the film and album, Prince returned to touring with a stripped-down show. Sign “☮” the Times: 1987–1991
The New Power Generation: 1991–1994 The Diamonds and Pearls album in 1991 gave Prince album charts success with the song “Cream” giving him his fifth U.S. number one single. Diamonds and Pearls also marked the debut of the New Power Generation featuring rapper Tony M, Rosie Gaines on vocals, Michael Bland on drums, Levi Seacer and Kirk Johnson on guitar, Sonny T on bass, and Tommy Barbarella on keyboards. Having mysteriously thanked Kate Bush in the credits of his Diamonds And Pearls album, Prince worked on Bush’s 1993 album, The Red Shoes. Collaborating chiefly on the song “Why Should I Love You,” Prince added bass, guitar, keyboards, his vocals and other arrangements to the mix. This would be the final “Prince” credit, until 2000. Kate Bush reciprocated in 1996 and is featured on background vocals on the Emancipation track, “My Computer.” Prince’s twelfth album was titled “,” dubbed by critics as The Love Symbol Album. It reached the top ten of the U.S. album charts. In 1993, he would change his name to (often represented in ASCII text as "O(+>"). The symbol is said to be a melding of the symbols for male and female. Due to being unpronounceable, he was often referred to as “The artist formerly known as Prince,” or simply “The Artist.” In 1993, at the request of Warner Bros., Prince released a 3-CD greatest hits compilation entitled The Hits/The B-Sides. The first two discs were also sold separately as The Hits 1 and The Hits 2. In addition to featuring the majority of Prince's hit singles (with the exception of “Batdance,” which was omitted), The Hits includes an array of previously hard-to-find recordings, notably B-sides spanning the majority of Prince’s career, as well as a handful of previously unreleased tracks, such as the Revolution-recorded “Power Fantastic.” A new song, “Peach,” was chosen as a promotional single to accompany the album. Unfortunately, neither the album nor single performed as well on the charts as Prince and Warner Bros. would have hoped. To this day, however, The Hits remains the closest thing to a definitive overview of Prince's musical output from 1978 to 1993. Behind the name change In 1994, during negotiations regarding the release of Prince's album The Gold Experience, a battle between Warner Bros. and Prince ensued, struggling over the artistic and financial control of Prince’s output. During that time, Prince appeared in public only with the word “SLAVE” written on his cheek. Prince explained his name change as follows: The first step I have taken towards the ultimate goal of emancipation from the chains that bind me to Warner Bros. was to change my name from Prince to . Prince is the name that my Mother gave me at birth. Warner Bros. took the name, trademarked it, and used it as the main marketing tool to promote all of the music that I wrote. The company owns the name Prince and all related music marketed under Prince. I became merely a pawn used to produce more money for Warner Bros.… I was born Prince and did not want to adopt another conventional name. The only acceptable replacement for my name, and my identity, was , a symbol with no pronunciation, that is a representation of me and what my music is about. This symbol is present in my work over the years; it is a concept that has evolved from my frustration; it is who I am. It is my name. Prince’s strategy behind the name change seems to have been to reinvent himself, going back to a smaller audience to redevelop his style. One commentator noted: Prince started his career as a big R&B star with limited mainstream success. At that point, he left the middle of the road and headed for the ditch. In 1980, it was risky to record new wave songs with lusty lyrics that assured no radio airplay (the classic Dirty Mind), but it paid off. Critics took notice and he became an underground favorite. This paved the way for his huge success with 1999 and Purple Rain. Certainly that was the pinnacle of his career, as far as worldwide earnings and universal adulation are concerned. But by heading for the ditch again, by changing his name and experimenting with his style, by lowering his stock value and escaping his record contract, Prince has become an underground artist again. In late 1996, the first collection of Prince music since his break with Warner Bros. appeared in record stores, a sprawling three-hour extravaganza integrating great dance grooves and slow-burning ballads. Critical response has been overwhelmingly positive, and sales have been brisk despite the high price of a 3-CD set. It's no coincidence that he titled this album Emancipation. Chaos and Disorder: 1994–2003
Musicology: the return of Prince: 2004–2005 On February 8, 2004, Prince made a significant leap out of obscurity by appearing at the Grammy Awards with Beyoncé Knowles. The duo were allegedly selected as a last-minute replacement for Janet Jackson, whose controversial incident at Super Bowl XXXVIII the week before had made her an undesirable choice to appear at the awards ceremony. In a performance that opened the show, Prince and Beyoncé ripped through a medley of classic Purple Rain songs, namely the title track, “Let's Go Crazy” and “Baby I'm a Star.” The performance also featured a rendition of Beyoncé's “Crazy in Love.” This performance would later be the inspiration for the Saturday Night Live recurring sketch, "The Prince Show", with Fred Armisen as Prince and Maya Rudolph as Beyonce Knowles. The following month Prince was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The award was presented to him by Alicia Keys, along with Big Boi and André 3000 of OutKast. As well as performing a trio of his own hits during the ceremony, Prince also participated in a tribute to fellow inductee George Harrison in a rendition of the deceased artist’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” The performance was mostly led by Tom Petty, but also featured Jeff Lynne and Harrison’s son, Dhani. The tribute shed notable light on Prince, who concluded the performance with a lengthy and critically lauded guitar solo. In April 2004, Prince released Musicology through a unique one-album agreement with Columbia Records. This deal, which meant that Columbia was obliged to distribute and promote the album, was constructed in such a way that ensured Prince himself still garnered the majority of the royalties (as he had been accustomed to through his own independent music service). The album, which rose to the top 5 in the album charts of several countries (including the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Australia), featured some of the artist’s most economical and commercially appealing music in years. That same year, Pollstar named Prince the top concert draw among musicians in America. Grossing an estimated $87.4 million, Prince’s Musicology Tour was the most profitable tour in the industry during 2004. The artist played an impressive run of 96 concerts, the average ticket price for each being $61. Further highlighting the success of the album, Prince’s Musicology went on to receive two Grammy wins, for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for “Call My Name” and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance for the title track. It was also nominated for Best R&B Song, Best R&B Album, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Cinnamon Girl." The album became the artist’s most commercially lucrative since Diamonds and Pearls, partly due to a radical scheme devised on his part which enabled copies of the album presented to those who purchased tickets on the Musicology tour to be included in the album’s overall sales as compiled by Billboard. Musicology also won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Album in March 2005, with Prince receiving the NAACP Vanguard Award. and the Musicology tour ended up becoming the year's most lucrative; indeed, in February 2005, Rolling Stone magazine published the list of top money makers of 2004; Prince was on top with estimated net earnings of $56.5 million. In December 2004, Prince was chosen by Rolling Stone magazine's readers as the best male performer and most welcome comeback. During that same month, Prince was named number five on the Top Pop Artists of the Past 25 Years chart. In April 2005, Prince played guitar (along with En Vogue singing backing vocals) on Stevie Wonder’s first new single in six years, “So What The Fuss.” The single debuted at number thirteen on the Billboard Adult R&B chart. Despite rumours of an appearance or duet with Stevie Wonder at Live 8 in Philadelphia, Prince did not perform at the concert. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the city of New Orleans on August 29, 2005, Prince offered a personal response by recording two new songs, “S.S.T.” and the instrumental “Brand New Orleans,” at Paisley Park in the early hours of September 2. The artist, in a typical moment of inspiration, played all instrumental and vocal parts without collaboration. These recordings were quickly dispersed to the public via Prince’s NPG Music Club, and “S.S.T.” was later picked up by iTunes, where it reached number one on the R&B chart. On October 25, Sony Records released a version of the single on CD. 3121 and further career: 2005–present On December 9, 2005, it was reported that Prince had determined an agreement with Universal Records to release his next album, 3121. This deal is believed to be similar to that which the artist struck with Columbia Records for Musicology. The debut single put forward from the album was the Latin-tinged “Te Amo Corazon,” the video for which debuted on VH1 on December 13, and was directed by actress Salma Hayek. The piece was filmed in Marrakesh, and showed Prince accompanied on-screen by Mía Maestro. She was also present at a brief press conference which Prince made in promotion of the new single and video. The video for “Black Sweat,” the second single from 3121, premiered on February 2, 2006, demonstrating a rather more minimalistic approach both in the sound of the song and the style of the video. It was nominated for an MTV VMA for Best Cinematography on July 31, 2006. On February 4, 2006, Prince was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live after a 25 year gap between appearances (he was asked to be the musical guest for the first episode of season 21 with host Mariel Hemingway and again as the musical guest for the first episode of season 30 with prospective host, Steve Martin, later replaced with Ben Affleck. Prince declined both invitations prior to his appearance on season 31), where he performed two new songs, the guitar-driven “Fury” and “Beautiful, Loved & Blessed,” with up-and-coming R&B singer Támar. Both are featured on Prince’s own 3121, with “Beautiful, Loved & Blessed” also appearing on Tamar’s album, titled Milk & Honey (to be released). On February 15, 2006, Prince performed at the Brit awards alongside Wendy and Lisa and Sheila E. He played “Te Amo Corazon” and “Fury” from 3121, and “Purple Rain” and “Let's Go Crazy” from Purple Rain, in a performance which was generally regarded as the best of the night. 3121 was leaked to the internet on March 6, 2006. Prince achieved his first career number-one debut on the Billboard 200 (in the issue dated April 8, 2006) with 3121. The set sold 183,000 copies in the United States in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It also debuted at number one on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums tally. 3121 also took over the number one spot on Billboard's European Top 100 Albums chart the following week, giving the legendary artist his highest charting international album of the decade. On May 24, 2006, Prince performed “Lolita” and “Satisfied” from his album 3121 on the last results show of the fifth season of American Idol. He was the only artist to perform without any contestant in the episode. The infamous judge on the show, Simon Cowell, has recently turned his barbed comments toward the artist saying, “It just tells you how selfish he is. He comes on, not a word—‘I’m not gonna sing with anybody else, I’m not gonna say goodbye.’ Thank you for your generosity, Prince.” in regard to Prince’s late arrival and abrupt departure. Ultimate is the title of Prince’s latest greatest hits compilation album. Originally slated to be released in North America on 14 March 2006, the album was cancelled just days prior to its release. However, copies were already available in some retailers and have been sold. It was eventually released on August 22. The double disc set consists of one CD of hits, while the second disc contains extended versions and mixes that, for the most part were previously unavailable on CD. On June 12, 2006, Prince was honoured with a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his "visionary" use of the Internet that included becoming the first major artist to release an entire album—1997's Crystal Ball—exclusively on the Web. "Everything you think is true," Prince said, coming in under the five-word limit and leaving everyone wondering what he meant as he launched into a solo number. The performance ended abruptly as he suddenly chucked his guitar back over his head with a crash and raced off to a waiting limousine. On June 27, 2006, Prince appeared at the BET awards. He was awarded Best Male R&B artist. In his acceptance speech he told the crowd that he was surprised but honored to receive the award. He also thanked Jehovah, Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder, India.Arie, and Yolanda Adams. Later in the evening Prince participated in a tribute to Chaka Khan with the other artists he had named in his speech. The tribute was part of Chaka Khan's lifetime achievement award given to her that evening. Prince also closed the show, alongside Támar, with his song "3121" from his album of the same name. He was joined onstage by musician will.i.am from The Black Eyed Peas. At 12:00 AM on July 4, 2006, much to the dismay of his fans (and only weeks after winning a Webby Award), Prince abruptly shut down his official NPGMC website, which had been in existence for over five years. The NPGMC sent out an email, claiming that "in its current 4m there is a feeling that the NPGMC gone as far as it can go. In a world without limitations and infinite possibilities, has the time come 2 once again make a leap of faith and begin anew? These r ?s we in the NPG need 2 answer. In doing so, we have decided 2 put the club on hiatus until further notice." It has since emerged that the club was shut down on the day that an opposition to its trademark was filed against it by HM Publishing (owners of the Nature Publishing Group, or NPG). Despite these events occurring on the same day Prince's attorney reports that it was purely coincidental and that the site did not close due to the trademark dispute. On August 9, 2006, Vibe magazine reported CBS has hired Prince to play the halftime show at Super Bowl XLI in February 2007. In current news; Prince has written and performed a song for the animated children's movie, Happy Feet. Confirmed as the first single, "Song of the Heart" appears on the film's soundtrack which also features a rendition of his classic, "Kiss" as sung by Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. It is also rumored that Prince will be performing regular shows in Las Vegas as a possible warm-up for a 2007 tour. Rumors circulated on forums for some months, and they were further fueled when a short video of Prince, the band, and other artists showed up on the 3121 website with a picture of the Rio Hotel and Casino with 3121 printed on the building and a date of November 2006. There has been no official word as of yet. Music samples Discography This is a list of Prince's mainstream retail release studio albums since his 1978 debut. For a detailed listing of all albums, singles, and production/songwriting work, please see Prince discography. Filmography Protégés and associates Prince has worked with dozens of musicians and performers over his career and has given songs to a diverse array of artists. However, this list of protégés include only those who Prince contributed a significant portion of material, or are current/former bandmates who are well-known for their association with Prince. Monikers Prince often uses pseudonyms and monikers to separate himself from the music (either his own or that of others) he has had input in; he has said that he was tired of seeing his name everywhere, and that only egotistical people take credit for everything they do. He has also given himself alternate names for his film characters, the most recognizable of which is The Kid. As a child, he was called Skippy. See also | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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