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Prince Black Music Month

Source: CS / Radio One

Born Prince Roger’s Nelson but widely known as Prince, the Artist Formerly Known as Prince or Love Symbol #2; Prince was born and raised in Minneapolis Minnesota and came from a lineage of musicians.

Prince had a love of sports and music at a young age and wrote his first song called ‘Funk Machine’ at 7 years old.  In junior high Prince was noticed by fellow classmate Jimmy Jam quickly impressing him with his musical talent.  Prince signed to his first record deal by the age of 17 with Warner Brothers and released his first album ‘For You’ in 1978 with the breakout hit ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’.

In 1984 Prince changed the game by releasing a loosely based biography called ‘Purple Rain’ along with a soundtrack entitled the same.  Purple Rain (the soundtrack) spent twenty-four weeks on the top of the Billboard charts and sold over 20 million copies and also earned Prince his first three Grammys.  The movie earned an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score and grossed over $68 million.

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Over the years Prince made two more films ‘Under The Cherry Moon’ and ‘Grafitti Bridge’ neither of them were as successful as ‘Purple Rain’.  He also went through many bands over the years continuing to release music, but in 1992 Prince released an album with an unpronounceable name of a male and female symbol combined.  The symbol was then given the name Love Symbol #2.

In 1993 Prince changed his name to ‘The Artist Formerly Known as Prince’ or ‘The Artist’ after disputes with his record label Warner Brothers over creative control.  The public thought Prince was crazy for changing his name but really he was a business genius.    By changing his name Prince was able to release new music quickly tied to his deal with Warner Brothers so he was able to fulfill his contractual obligations and move on.

RELATED STORY: QUIZ: How Big of A Prince Fan Are You?

In 2007 Prince was the halftime performance for Super Bowl XLI giving what many say the best half-time performance of all time.  Prince also sued YouTube and eBay because they hosted is copywritten material.  Prince understood his rights as an ower to his music etc and constantly fought hard to stop use of photographs, images, lyrics, album covers, and anything linked to his likeness.  Over the years Prince released more music and danced on stages all over the world.  But little did the public know Prince was battling serious hip issues and even had surgery.  In April of 2016 Prince canceled a few concerts due to illness and was even rushed to a hospital while on a plane back to Minneapolis.

On April 21, 2016 a call was made to 911 from Prince’s Minneapolis home after he was found unconscious in the elevator.  Toxicology reports showed that Prince passed away from an accidental opioid overdose.  After his death, it came out that Prince became addicted to the medication after many years of suffering from hip pain.  Prince had an appointment with a specialist in addiction medicine and pain management for April 22nd.

Since his death, his famed home in Minneapolis Paisley Park has been turned into a museum and has already been visited by many.  A posthumous record deal has been established with the estate handlers to release new music from Prince’s famed vault.  The vault is said to have thousands of unreleased music that Prince recorded.  Fans love to remember Prince’s unique sense of style, hilarious looks on his face and funny personality.  Here’s a highlight of the top 10 Prince moments:

 

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Black Music Month: Prince  was originally published on mycolumbusmagic.com