Prince

MY NAME IS PRINCE, AND I AM FUNKY, MY NAME IS PRINCE THE ONE AND ONLY. I DON'T WANT TO BE A KING, I SEEN THE TOP AND IT IS JUST A DREAM.NOW SINCE THAT IS OUT THE WAY, THIS PAGE IS DEDICAED TO THE GREATEST ENTERTAINER IN MUSIC TODAY, PRINCE. I HAVE BEEN A PRINCE FAN SINCE I WAS 10. I AM NOT A SHAME TO LET PEOPLE KNOW WHO I AM OR WHAT I DO. LOVING, ROMANCE, FREAKY IS MY PERSONALITY. YEA I SAID IT. BUT I HAVE MUCH RESPECT TO ALL.I HOPE TO MEET OTHER PRINCE FANS AND ANYONE ELSE WHO WILL LKE A NICE MYSPACE FRIEND. I AM VERY OUTGOING AND HAVE A GREAT SENSE OF HUMOR. SO BLACK, WHITE, PUERTO RICAN AND ALL, COME ALL COME ALL, LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL. LETS GO UPTOWN AND MAKE CONTROVERSY. MAYBE SOME BLACK SWEAT AS WELL. "OOHWA"Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Mount Sinai Hospital 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 cult film Purple Rain starring Prince, Morris Day of The Time, and pop singer Apollonia. In more recent years, it has been noted in numerous publications that both Prince's parents are in fact African-American, and like many black Americans, their lineage is an amalgam of ethnicities. In an interview in a 1985 issue of Rolling Stone magazine it was noted that Prince's mother possessed African-American, Native-American and Caucasian ancestry.After the birth of his sister, Tika Evene in 1960, Prince saw his parents gradually drift 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 Andre 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 Brothers Records. They were the only label to give Prince creative control of his songs and offered him a contract.Controversy: 19751981 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 19751977 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, you 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 [1] 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 foot, 4inch frame (1.63 m). 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. Prince was actually booed off the stage that night, a clip of which was later used by Prince for his "Pop Life" single in 1985 (if you listen, you can actually hear one member of the audience yell "throw the bum out.")In 1980, Prince released Dirty Mind, a solo effort released using the original demos. On stage, Lisa Coleman replaced Chapman in the band, who felt the sexually explicit lyrics and stage antics of Prince's concerts conflicted with her religious beliefs. Dirty Mind was particularly notable for its sexually explicit material.Prince supported Rick James in a 1980 tour with the label "punk funk" being applied to both artists, although it didn't sit comfortably with Prince. He recorded the album Controversy, released in 1981, with the single of the same name making international charts for the first time. In October of 1981, Prince perfoms "Party Up" on Saturday Night Live. Starting with the album Controversy, Prince used Controversy Music - ASCAP for publishing his songs, which he would use for his following sixteen records until Emancipation came out in 1996.Prince also wrote, produced, and in some instances performed on, the debut album for The Time, containing former members of Flyte Tyme, including frontman Morris Day. In the coming decade, Prince would also collaborate with Vanity (of Vanity 6), Apollonia (of Apollonia 6) and Sheila E. He also composed material, using former bandmates as another outlet for his prolific output. He also wrote hits for artists such as Sheena Easton and The Bangles and his songs would be covered in hit versions by artists as diverse as Chaka Khan, Tom Jones with The Art of Noise and Sinad O'Connor. O'Connor's cover of a song Prince initially wrote for The Family, "Nothing Compares 2 U", was a huge commercial success in 1990.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 only cinematic success. Although Prince would later direct and star in Under The Cherry Moon (1986) and Graffiti Bridge (1990), both films were met with public indifference and critical derision. 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, 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.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. Some of Prince's music mixes spirituality and sensuality. "I Would Die 4 U", refers to Jesus. "The Cross", from Sign the Times, is a stronger reference to Prince's Christian beliefs. Sign the Times, released in 1987 as a double album, reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200 and met with some critical acclaim, reaching the top 100 of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.Following the album, Prince launched the Sign the Times Tour in Europe. At the end of the last tour Prince disbanded his long-time performance band, known since the release of the movie and album Purple Rain as The Revolution, and parted ways with Wendy Melvoin, Lisa Coleman, Bobby "Z" Rivkin, and Mark Brown (Brown Mark). His follow-up live performance band retained Matt Fink on keyboards, and added Boni Boyer on keyboards, Sheila E on drums, Levi Seacer, Jr. on bass, and Miko Weaver on guitar. In 1987, a live concert film was shot of the Sign the Times Tour in Rotterdam and Antwerp. Portions were re-recorded and the performances mimed in the soundstage of his newly-opened Paisley Park Studios complex in Chanhassen, Minnesota. Housing three complete recording studios, and a complete soundstage for performances and video production, the studios have been Prince's playground since their opening. Situated near his home in Minnesota, Paisley Park has allowed Prince to record at the drop of a hat.1987 saw the potential for two of pop's biggest stars coming together to perform a duet. Michael Jackson talked with Prince about performing a duet together for the title track of his new album Bad. Prince liked the idea, seeing as Jackson was his main rival in pop stardom, so he agreed to it. However, Jackson and Prince ended up having creative differences in the lyrics and beats for the song. Finally, Prince left the project when he thought Jackson wasn't making the song dark enough. Jackson ended up cutting the title track for the album on his own, and it went to number one on the charts Also In 1987, Prince recorded The Black Album, a funk-oriented album whose erotically-charged lyrics were considered so blatant that it was not officially released. The album circulated through the bootleg underground music world until it was finally given an official release in 1994. The 1988 album Lovesexy was Prince's spiritual answer to the dark message of The Black Album. Lovesexy was a disappointment in its chart performance, only reaching number eleven on the Billboard 200. The Lovesexy Tour in the U.S. also proved to be commercial disappointment. Prince lost money as dates failed to sell out. Prince recouped his losses with the European and Japanese legs of the tour.In 1989, Prince would record the soundtrack for Batman, which would return him to the top of the U.S. album charts, with the single and worldwide hit "Batdance" reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Prince next released the film sequel to Purple Rain, titled Graffiti Bridge, which performed poorly at the box office. The soundtrack featured Prince on one side and other artists such as Tevin Campbell, Mavis Staples of the Staple Singers, and Morris Day and The Time. It would reach a chart peak of number six in the U.S. and number one in the UK.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.In 1992, Prince worked on Kate Bush's 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 entitled "", 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 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," "TAFKAP," or simply "The Artist."In 1993, at the request of Warner Bros., 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 's hit singles (with the exception of "Batdance", which was strangely 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 and Warner Bros. would have hoped. To this day, however, The Hits remains the closest thing to a definitive overview of 's musical output from 1978 to 1993.Chaos and Disorder: 19942003 Prince's look, circa 1995.In 1994 Prince's attitude towards his artistic output underwent a notable shift. He began to view releasing albums in quick succession as a means of ejecting himself from his contractual obligations to Warner Bros. The label, he believed, was intent on limiting his artistic freedom by insisting he release albums on a more sporadic basis. He also blamed it for the poor commercial performance of his latest work (namely The Love Symbol Album), feeling it had failed to market the album effectively. Out of this state of affairs a proposal came about to subject the aborted Black Album to an official release, approximately seven years after its initial creation. Not surprisingly, due to the fact that many Prince fans had already obtained bootleg copies of the album, this new release sold relatively poorly.Following that disappointing venture, Warner Bros. succumbed to Prince's wishes to release an album of new material, to be entitled Come. The label had refused to grant the album a release in the past, believing the music on it to be dreadfully mediocre and lacking a potential hit single. When Come was eventually released, it confirmed all of Warner's worst fears. It became Prince's poorest-selling album to date, struggling to even shift 500,000 copies. Even more frustrating was the fact that Prince insisted on crediting the album to "Prince 1958-1993". Prince pushed to have his next album The Gold Experience released simultaneously as "" material. As a test case, Warner Bros. allowed the single "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World" to be released via a small, independent distributor, Bellmark. The release was successful, reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one in the UK, but this was not to be a forerunner of what was to come. Warner Bros. still resisted releasing The Gold Experience, fearing poor sales and citing "market saturation" as a defense. When eventually released, The Gold Experience failed to sell well, despite reaching the top 10 of the Billboard 200 initially.The Chaos And Disorder album of 1996 was his final album of new material for Warner Bros., and was one of his least successful. Prince attempted a major comeback later that year, when, free of any further contractual obligations to Warner Bros., he released Emancipation. The album was released via his own NPG Records with distribution through EMI. To publish his songs, in Emancipation, Prince for the first time did not use Controversy Music - ASCAP, which he had used in all his records since 1981, rather he used Emancipated Music Inc. - ASCAP. While certified Platinum by the RIAA, some critics felt that the sprawling 36-song, 3-CD set (each disk was exactly 60 minutes long) lacked focus. Emancipation would be Prince's first album in which he would include covers of songs of other artists; for example, CD number three includes Joan Osborne's top 10 hit song of 1995 "One of Us" Other covers on the album include "Betcha By Golly Wow!" (written by Thomas Randolf Bell and Linda Creed) , "I Can't Make U Love Me" (written by James Allen Shamblin II and Michael Barry Reid) [8] and "La, La, La (Means I Love U)" (written by Thomas Randolf Bell and William Hart) . Prince released Crystal Ball, a 4-CD collection of unreleased material, in 1998. The distribution of this album was shambolic, with some fans pre-ordering the album on his website up to a year before it was eventually shipped to them, and months after the record had gone on sale in retail stores. The Newpower Soul album released three months later failed to make much of an impression on the charts.In 1999, Prince once again teamed up with a major record label, this time Arista Records, for a new album, Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic. However, it also failed to make much of a commercial impression. A few months earlier, Warner Bros. had also released The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale, a collection of unreleased material recorded by Prince throughout his career, and his final recording commitment on his contract with Warner Bros. The greatest success he had during the year was with the single "1999: The New Master", released in time for Prince to collect a small portion of the sales dollars Warner Bros. had been seeing for the album and singles of the original 1999. Both critics and fans panned "The New Master", declaring it unimaginative. 2002's One Nite Alone...Live!On New Year's Eve of 2001, Prince married his former Paisley Park employee Manuela Testolini and became a Jehovah's Witness.In May 2000, he ceased using the name "" and started to use the name "Prince" again after his publishing contract with Warner Chappell expired. In a press conference stating that he was now free from undesirable relationships associated with the name "Prince", he formally reverted to his original name and opened the door to endless "The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince" digs. However, Prince still uses the symbol as a logo occasionally, and continues to play a -shaped guitar.For the next three years, Prince primarily released new music through his Internet subscription services, first NPGOnlineLtd.com, and now NPGMusicClub.com. However, two albums which showcased the substantial influence of jazz music on Prince did surface for the general public: The Rainbow Children in 2001, and the all-instrumental N.E.W.S in 2003. The latter received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Album. In 2002, he released his first-ever live album, One Nite Alone... Live!, which features recordings of performances from the One Nite Alone tour. The costly 3-CD box set, which also includes a disc of "aftershow" music called It Ain't Over!, failed to make an impact on the charts. During this time Prince sought to engage more effectively with his fan base via the NPG Music Club, pre-concert sound checks, and at yearly "celebrations" at Paisley Park. Fans were invited into Prince's studios for tours, interviews, discussions and music-listening sessions. Some of these fan discussions were filmed for an unreleased documentary, directed by Kevin Smith. Smith discusses what happened during those days at length in his An Evening with Kevin Smith DVD -- more information here and here [11]. Performances were also arranged to showcase Prince himself, as well as related artists and guests (including Alicia Keys, The Time, Erykah Badu, Nikka Costa, George Clinton, Norah JonesThe Return of Prince: 2004present On February 8, 2004, Prince made a significant leap out of obscurity by appearing at the Grammy awards with Beyonc 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 Beyonc 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, which was arguably the most exhilarating of the evening, also featured a rendition of Beyonc's "Crazy in Love".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 Andr 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 guitar solo.In April 2004, Prince released Musicology through a unique one-album agreement with Columbia Records. This deal, which meant that Columbia were 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. [12] 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". [13] 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.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 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 millionIn March 2005, Prince won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Album(Musicology) and a Vanguard Award.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.[17] 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.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 Ma 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, demonstating a rather more minimalistic approach both in the sound of the song and the style of the video. Prince is also believed to have a concert tour in the works to promote the new album. On February 4, 2006, Prince was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, where he performed two new songs, the guitar-driven "Fury" and "Beautiful, Loved & Blessed", with up-and-coming R&B singer Tmar. Both are featured on Prince's own 3121, with "Beautiful, Loved & Blessed" also appearing on Tamar's album, titled Beautiful Loved & Blessed (due for release on May 2, 2006).On February 15, 2006, Prince performed at the Brit awards alongside Wendy, 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.Ultimate is the title of Prince's latest greatest hits compilation album. The album is currently scheduled to be released on 22 May 2006. 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.The double disc set is slated to consist of one CD of hits, while the second disc will contain extended versions and mixes that, for the most part were previously unavailable on CD. Artwork for a promo copy [18] revealed that the selection included these tracks: "Let's Go Crazy (Special Dance Mix)", "Little Red Corvette (Dance Remix)", "Let's Work (Dance Remix)", "Pop Life (Fresh Dance Mix)", "She's Always In My Hair (12" Version)", "Raspberry Beret (12" Version)", "Kiss (Extended Version)", "U Got The Look (Long Look)", "Hot Thing (Extended Remix)", "Thieves In The Temple (Remix)", and "Cream (N.P.G. Mix)".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. [22]3121 also took over the No. 1 spot on Billboard's European Top 100 Albums chart the following week, giving the legendary artist his highest charting international album of the decade.