OldFriends4Sale said:

EnDoRpHn said:

rogifan said: The first time I heard someone saying that Prince was "dying of AIDS" was the summer of 1983. That was not only an anti-LGBT trope (what wasn't back then?), it was also an avowedly racist comment by the person who made it (you don't want me to repeat what else they said). Flash forward to April 2016: what's one of the first theories I hear about Prince's death? I think it was Nelson George who wrote (back around 1986) that white America/MTV only ever accepted Prince and Michael Jackson because they were sexually-charged black men who could be emasculated as effete. Does anyone think that race had nothing to do with the re-surfacing of that vicious rumor? [Edited 7/26/16 6:54am]

'white' America accepted Michael Jackson way before MTV and he was a cute little American kid of of very obvious African ancestry. I never thought of Michael Jackson as sexually charged. Michael was always sorta the opposite of Prince. I never heard of Michael Jackson as being sexually charged anything. People were shocked when Michael would try to incorporate things like grabbing his crotch and such much later.

And I doubt that is why Prince was accepted either. And so what lol most male rock stars were sexually charged. And most of them were wearing boas, lace and leather, make up, long hair and were semi effem as well.

The gay rumors were heavy among African-Americans toward Prince (not Michael Jackson)
so if race had something to do with it, it came from that direction.

Also when it comes to 'Rock Stars' in general and AIDS, it is because of all the 'alleged' sexual excess "Sex Drugs RocknRoll" that they supposedly partake in.

Tony M, while in his band, saying to others he didn't think Prince 'was black enough' and how he was going to shove blackness down that _ throat'

Remember this guy? @ the Purple Rain premiere preaching 2 Prince cause he was a sinner

I totally agree.You beat me 2 it.

OldFriends4Sale said:

hezekinap said:

"Oh Yeasss!" as Morris Day would say I concur, and I especially like your point about how Prince's racial awareness "narrative arc" (& "Come to Jesus" moments) are typical of African Americans struggle in America, I would go further and say it IS the climax of "Blackness" in White Space.

Are there many African-Americans living in Austria?

No. Only just a few African-Americans. More Africans are coming though now. But nothing compared to sizeable populations of blacks in UK & France (post-colonial), or even as Germany (post WWII & army bases).

[Edited 7/26/16 8:09am]

OldFriends4Sale said:

2olskool4u said:

The sad thing is he couldn't start out as being openly 'black' and be successful commercially, because America was, and still is, full of racist, ignorant, fucks

I don't know. Many people who came to fame prior to Prince and who were also huge at or around the time of his superstardom, didn't do anything less black and they were huge ie Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Lionel Ritchie, Whitney Houston Janet Jackson George Benson Donna Summer Miles Davis Herbie Hancock etc Prince didn't want to be pigeonheld in 1 musical style

.

I think Prince expressed those things for personal reasons.

.

And his fame hit at the right time and era. I don't think it would have happened if he started out late 80s into 90s

I get the same impression after listening to that audio interview with Mick Boskamp again (in Amsterdam, 1981), Prince says that he used to hang out with a lof of free-minded people when he was younger and that these people wanted to be different in order to get ahead of the ongoing musical competition. Therefore his main original goals were to be different in order to be successful. This suggests that the initial reason for him to look the way he looked at the time (including the ambiguity around his ethnicity), could have also been destined to make him stand out from amongst the black artists, in order to attract the attention, rather than to avoid racism or be more palatable to the white audiences. That mention starts around 7:32. He also mentions his mother being Italian (18:48) (later denied)... When asked about the people that he admires, he says being inspired by speakers more than musicians as they "play better musics" and mentions JF Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr (21:48). And he also states shortly after that, that he doesn't like boundaries and dislikes characterisations or the idea of anything "pure", but prefers combinations and explains how he felt that his exposure to some of the main black artists from the previous generation was not his deliberate choice and how that created some boundaries for him which he didn't like. https://www.mixcloud.com/...rdam-1981/

BlackandRising said:

Everyone, just go listen to his last song on the subject. Black Muse. It perfectly articulates where his heart was around being black. It's quite uplifting.

Amazing! Thats just what I needed to hear.

[Edited 7/26/16 8:39am]

BlackandRising said:

Everyone, just go listen to his last song on the subject. Black Muse. It perfectly articulates where his heart was around being black. It's quite uplifting.

Lenny Kravitz has a song like a 'muse' too called Black Girl

CherryMoon57 said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

I don't know. Many people who came to fame prior to Prince and who were also huge at or around the time of his superstardom, didn't do anything less black and they were huge ie Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Lionel Ritchie, Whitney Houston Janet Jackson George Benson Donna Summer Miles Davis Herbie Hancock etc Prince didn't want to be pigeonheld in 1 musical style

.

I think Prince expressed those things for personal reasons.

.

And his fame hit at the right time and era. I don't think it would have happened if he started out late 80s into 90s

I get the same impression after listening to that audio interview with Mick Boskamp again (in Amsterdam, 1981), Prince says that he used to hang out with a lof of free-minded people when he was younger and that these people wanted to be different in order to get ahead of the ongoing musical competition. Therefore his main original goals were to be different in order to be successful. This suggests that the initial reason for him to look the way he looked at the time (including the ambiguity around his ethnicity), could have also been destined to make him stand out from amongst the black artists, in order to attract the attention, rather than to avoid racism or be more palatable to the white audiences. That mention starts around 7:32. He also mentions his mother being Italian (18:48) (later denied)... When asked about the people that he admires, he says being inspired by speakers more than musicians as they "play better musics" and mentions JF Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr (21:48). And he also states shortly after that, that he doesn't like boundaries and dislikes characterisations or the idea of anything "pure", but prefers combinations and explains how he felt that his exposure to some of the main black artists from the previous generation was not his deliberate choice and how that created some boundaries for him which he didn't like. https://www.mixcloud.com/...rdam-1981/

Yes, and when you look at the people in his band and early protege groups they all seemed to have that out of the box attitude. Jesse Johnson has always stood out different from the time and had a very Prince like expression about himself.

Not to mention how his main frontmen:Morris Day Sheila E Vanity 'looked like him'

I think it was around the Dirty Mind album that he said 'this expression is truly me'

Definately. I mean Prince was a 'pretty man' he knew it and he accentuated he looks style and such to stand out. His height might have had something to do with doing a bit more to stand out too. And his 'female' expression was most likely always there, he probably just couldn't express it while living with 'the Father'

and his mother let him express his masculine sexuality via images
He wasn't scared of or running from racism, he was setting himself apart.

that was a good mixcloud piece. Like a lot of those really early stage Prince songs/interviews

Thank U

3rdeyedude said:

rogifan said:

3rdeyedude said:

Let's face it. In America there are those that can never forgive the ignorant past we all share. They still see things only in terms of black and white. They hold grudges. Prince would never have gotten anywhere with that sort of attitude in life. That is why Prince became Prince. And that is why internet trolls are internet trolls. Let's take this thread, for example. Nobody is debating anything but yet you have people acting like they are in the middle of a heated discussion. Nobody would take them seriously in public, so the internet gives them a place to SHOUT. Ever see the people on youtube in the comments section? You have the same people in here. Don't worry though. They don't represent the rest of America. The sad part is that Prince is not here anymore. So they can say whatever they want about him now. And they do.

This reminds me of a Van Jones anecdote. Prince made the comment that someone sees a black kid in a hoodie and thinks they're a thug; they see a white kid in a hoodie and think they're the next Mark Zuckerberg. He asked Van Jones why that was. Jones reflexively said its racism. Prince corrected him and said no, it's because the black community isn't producing enough Mark Zuckerbergs. And then he got involved with Yes We Code to help black kids learn how to code and build apps. That's what I love about Prince. He was about solutions not just complaining about injustice and expecting someone else to do something about it.

that is powerful

OldFriends4Sale said:

BlackandRising said:

Everyone, just go listen to his last song on the subject. Black Muse. It perfectly articulates where his heart was around being black. It's quite uplifting.

Lenny Kravitz has a song like a 'muse' too called Black Girl

Ooh forgot about this Lenny jam! Was feeling it too back in a day

rogifan said:

3rdeyedude said:

Let's face it. In America there are those that can never forgive the ignorant past we all share. They still see things only in terms of black and white. They hold grudges. Prince would never have gotten anywhere with that sort of attitude in life. That is why Prince became Prince. And that is why internet trolls are internet trolls. Let's take this thread, for example. Nobody is debating anything but yet you have people acting like they are in the middle of a heated discussion. Nobody would take them seriously in public, so the internet gives them a place to SHOUT. Ever see the people on youtube in the comments section? You have the same people in here. Don't worry though. They don't represent the rest of America. The sad part is that Prince is not here anymore. So they can say whatever they want about him now. And they do.

This reminds me of a Van Jones anecdote. Prince made the comment that someone sees a black kid in a hoodie and thinks they're a thug; they see a white kid in a hoodie and think they're the next Mark Zuckerberg. He asked Van Jones why that was. Jones reflexively said its racism. Prince corrected him and said no, it's because the black community isn't producing enough Mark Zuckerbergs. And then he got involved with Yes We Code to help black kids learn how to code and build apps. That's what I love about Prince. He was about solutions not just complaining about injustice and expecting someone else to do something about it.

Yes Prince was certainly a "Do-er." And a "grower"

OldFriends4Sale said:

EnDoRpHn said:

rogifan said: The first time I heard someone saying that Prince was "dying of AIDS" was the summer of 1983. That was not only an anti-LGBT trope (what wasn't back then?), it was also an avowedly racist comment by the person who made it (you don't want me to repeat what else they said). Flash forward to April 2016: what's one of the first theories I hear about Prince's death? I think it was Nelson George who wrote (back around 1986) that white America/MTV only ever accepted Prince and Michael Jackson because they were sexually-charged black men who could be emasculated as effete. Does anyone think that race had nothing to do with the re-surfacing of that vicious rumor? [Edited 7/26/16 6:54am]

'white' America accepted Michael Jackson way before MTV and he was a cute little American kid of of very obvious African ancestry. I never thought of Michael Jackson as sexually charged. Michael was always sorta the opposite of Prince. I never heard of Michael Jackson as being sexually charged anything. People were shocked when Michael would try to incorporate things like grabbing his crotch and such much later.

And I doubt that is why Prince was accepted either. And so what lol most male rock stars were sexually charged. And most of them were wearing boas, lace and leather, make up, long hair and were semi effem as well.

The gay rumors were heavy among African-Americans toward Prince (not Michael Jackson)
so if race had something to do with it, it came from that direction.

Also when it comes to 'Rock Stars' in general and AIDS, it is because of all the 'alleged' sexual excess "Sex Drugs RocknRoll" that they supposedly partake in.

Tony M, while in his band, saying to others he didn't think Prince 'was black enough' and how he was going to shove blackness down that _ throat'

Remember this guy? @ the Purple Rain premiere preaching 2 Prince cause he was a sinner

Remember this guy? @ the Purple Rain premiere preaching 2 Prince cause he was a sinner

I thought that was Little Richard back to selling Bibles for a moment.

We all know the story of Prince wanting not to be classified as a R+B artist when he signed his first record deal - he wanted to reach more people/cross over. To me, it seemed he dressed as if he was not black or that he wanted to appeal to more groups than just the African-American community. In the past five or so years, with the afro and the tunics, the chains, etc., it seemed he was becoming more African-American. Going back to his roots. I mean no offense to anyone, but his women were usually not black. He had a preference, a type. I never thought, in terms of his appearance, that he was anything but straight. Over the years, no one - okay, not women - cared about the make-up and the lace and the frills. He just had "it" and we all wanted him.

1Sasha said:

We all know the story of Prince wanting not to be classified as a R+B artist when he signed his first record deal - he wanted to reach more people/cross over. To me, it seemed he dressed as if he was not black or that he wanted to appeal to more groups than just the African-American community. In the past five or so years, with the afro and the tunics, the chains, etc., it seemed he was becoming more African-American. Going back to his roots. I mean no offense to anyone, but his women were usually not black. He had a preference, a type. I never thought, in terms of his appearance, that he was anything but straight. Over the years, no one - okay, not women - cared about the make-up and the lace and the frills. He just had "it" and we all wanted him.

So if someone doesn't wear tunics, chains, and fros that means that they don't dress Black?

purplethunder3121 said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

'white' America accepted Michael Jackson way before MTV and he was a cute little American kid of of very obvious African ancestry. I never thought of Michael Jackson as sexually charged. Michael was always sorta the opposite of Prince. I never heard of Michael Jackson as being sexually charged anything. People were shocked when Michael would try to incorporate things like grabbing his crotch and such much later.

And I doubt that is why Prince was accepted either. And so what lol most male rock stars were sexually charged. And most of them were wearing boas, lace and leather, make up, long hair and were semi effem as well.

The gay rumors were heavy among African-Americans toward Prince (not Michael Jackson)
so if race had something to do with it, it came from that direction.

Also when it comes to 'Rock Stars' in general and AIDS, it is because of all the 'alleged' sexual excess "Sex Drugs RocknRoll" that they supposedly partake in.

Tony M, while in his band, saying to others he didn't think Prince 'was black enough' and how he was going to shove blackness down that _ throat'

Remember this guy? @ the Purple Rain premiere preaching 2 Prince cause he was a sinner

Remember this guy? @ the Purple Rain premiere preaching 2 Prince cause he was a sinner

I thought that was Little Richard back to selling Bibles for a moment.

OUCH LOL

OldFriends4Sale said:

No, that was not what I was saying. Back in the 60s, when I was growing up - later 60s - that was the image on TV of well-dressed black men in casual clothes. What I was saying is that Prince sort of went back to his childhood and emulated the men he grew up around, and whom he saw on TV and in the movies.

rogifan said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

that is powerful

I think Prince would've been a great teacher. His success was mostly due to hard work. He didn't come from a rich family or have some fluke hit single somebody else wrote for him that made him a lot of money. That's what needs to be taught to youth - a good work ethic and don't expect anything to be handed to you.

You can't say that, though. Poor snowflakes might get their feelings hurt.

1Sasha said:

No, that was not what I was saying. Back in the 60s, when I was growing up - later 60s - that was the image on TV of well-dressed black men in casual clothes. What I was saying is that Prince sort of went back to his childhood and emulated the men he grew up around, and whom he saw on TV and in the movies.

when did he do that?

rogifan said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

that is powerful

I think Prince would've been a great teacher. His success was mostly due to hard work. He didn't come from a rich family or have some fluke hit single somebody else wrote for him that made him a lot of money. That's what needs to be taught to youth - a good work ethic and don't expect anything to be handed to you.

Yep, in the Truth According to Prince thread

I think i said it, that there were things Prince talked about that were too slippery and too loose. But then on the other hand when he talked about music sound hearing instruments AND education. He was very sharp and clear. I guess being a gemini and an artist I would expect to get 2 different kinds of answers.

Yes he came from a period and came of age musically in the 80s(probably the last era that really had to work double hard to be successful) A lot of knowledge there.

.

I think it was a 98 interview where he talked about speaking proper english and was against 'ebonics'

OldFriends4Sale said:

YEP that's it!!

rogifan said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

Hmmm...I found this: http://www.interviewmagaz...ng-prince/

ON EBONICS: Comedian Chris Rock said it best: There is language that will get you a job and there is language that won't. Make that choice as an American. This is where you live now.

CherryMoon57 said:

OldFriends4Sale said:

I don't know. Many people who came to fame prior to Prince and who were also huge at or around the time of his superstardom, didn't do anything less black and they were huge ie Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Lionel Ritchie, Whitney Houston Janet Jackson George Benson Donna Summer Miles Davis Herbie Hancock etc Prince didn't want to be pigeonheld in 1 musical style

.

I think Prince expressed those things for personal reasons.

.

And his fame hit at the right time and era. I don't think it would have happened if he started out late 80s into 90s

I get the same impression after listening to that audio interview with Mick Boskamp again (in Amsterdam, 1981), Prince says that he used to hang out with a lof of free-minded people when he was younger and that these people wanted to be different in order to get ahead of the ongoing musical competition. Therefore his main original goals were to be different in order to be successful. This suggests that the initial reason for him to look the way he looked at the time (including the ambiguity around his ethnicity), could have also been destined to make him stand out from amongst the black artists, in order to attract the attention, rather than to avoid racism or be more palatable to the white audiences. That mention starts around 7:32. He also mentions his mother being Italian (18:48) (later denied)... When asked about the people that he admires, he says being inspired by speakers more than musicians as they "play better musics" and mentions JF Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr (21:48). And he also states shortly after that, that he doesn't like boundaries and dislikes characterisations or the idea of anything "pure", but prefers combinations and explains how he felt that his exposure to some of the main black artists from the previous generation was not his deliberate choice and how that created some boundaries for him which he didn't like. https://www.mixcloud.com/...rdam-1981/

I just listened to that audio recording. Thanks for sharing that! Really wonderful to listen to Prince talking so openly about himself. He had intellect beyond his years. He was truly one in a million!

rogifan said:

ON EBONICS: Comedian Chris Rock said it best: There is language that will get you a job and there is language that won't. Make that choice as an American. This is where you live now.

Who gives a damn about Chris Rock and his idiotic ass? LOL

rogifan said:

2olskool4u said:

The sad thing is he couldn't start out as being openly 'black' and be successful commercially, because America was, and still is, full of racist, ignorant, fucks

I know I shouldn't respond to this but oh well....would that be the same America that elected a black man President for two terms?

Ok and? America is still follows a systematically racist country that has no problem shooting black people, what elseis new?

hezekinap said:

1725topp said:

As an African American, Prince ran the gamut--individually and culturally--of what it means to be an African American. In America, sadly, it is still more difficult for African Americans to be seen as multidimensional beings, even though--historically, culturally, ideologically, genetically--African Americans are as multidimensional as any group in America. As such, to be deemed as black or African American is too be deemed as part of a monolith, limiting one's human dimensionality and economic opportunities. Thus, Prince, understanding this, early, did what many African Americans have done to survive and thrive since the time of American slavery, which is to mold or present oneself as something that can be more palatable to the white masses/power structure, especially since it was his desire to play all the music of his heritage, and, by 1978, rock music had been completely coopted by the white mainstream. As Little Ricard has said on many occasions, "R&B never meant 'rhythm and blues,' it meant 'real black' because they [the white power structure of American music] needed to create a category for me so that Elvis Presley and Pat Boone would have a category [rock-n-roll] all to themselves." So, Prince lied about his race to make sure that he would not be limited because of it. One can call it self-hatred, or one can call it self-preservation.

*

What's funny is that Prince, himself, couldn't even keep the lie straight because in a January 1980 article he states that one of his parents is black and other is mixed, in a February 1980 article the previously mixed parent is black and the previously black parent is mixed, and by March 1980 both parents are mixed. What's worse is that no journalist interviewing him at that time bothered to do their research and have him clarify this. Yet, as times and lives change, Prince, for whatever reason--and there are a few specific reasons, began to identify more with and engage issues more specific to the African-American community, which, of course, pissed off many of his white and biracial fans. I mean, how dare an African American man born in 1958 address issues specific to the community in which he was raised? Didn't he know that it was his responsibility to maintain the lie of his mixed heritage so as to continue to appease the fantasy of many of his fans of him being a "special Negro" or an exotic "other" through which others could live vicariously?

*

Anywho, Prince's narrative arc from multicultural utopia to an understanding that no multicultural utopia can exist without African Americans becoming more self-determining is a pretty normal/natural narrative arc for many African Americans. It seems that, like Prince, many African Americans have a "come to Jesus" moment when they realize that fighting for a multicultural utopia may not be the best course of action. Even W. E. B. DuBois and Martin L. King, Jr.,--two of the greatest fighters for integration--both had their "come to Jesus" moment and realized that self-determinism and not mindless or blind integration would be the best answer for African Americans. King stated that he "may have integrated his people into a burning house," and DuBois, in his seminal essay, "Does the Negro Need Integrated Schools," stated that [African-American] children need schools that are well-funded and administered by people who love them, not schools administered by whites who doubt their intellect. Not long after the publication of this article, DuBois renounced his American citizenship and moved to Africa. Prince didn't renounce his citizenship; he just released The Rainbow Children, which pretty much pissed off folks in the same manner, even though he had been moving in this direction for about five years or so.

*

Therefore, Prince's narrative arc of racial awareness/identity is not atypical or unusual of African Americans; it's pretty typical of African Americans who have and continue to struggle to find place and space in American hell.

"Oh Yeasss!" as Morris Day would say I concur, and I especially like your point about how Prince's racial awareness "narrative arc" (& "Come to Jesus" moments) are typical of African Americans struggle in America, I would go further and say it IS the climax of "Blackness" in White Space.

*

Thanks, and, of course, this narrative arc of racial awareness often occurs anywhere in the world were black folks are a minority in a predominately white space. Many authors of African descent writing and living in European spaces have written about this since the 1800s through today. So, your statement is on point.

Kara said:

1725topp said:

As an African American, Prince ran the gamut--individually and culturally--of what it means to be an African American. In America, sadly, it is still more difficult for African Americans to be seen as multidimensional beings, even though--historically, culturally, ideologically, genetically--African Americans are as multidimensional as any group in America. As such, to be deemed as black or African American is too be deemed as part of a monolith, limiting one's human dimensionality and economic opportunities. Thus, Prince, understanding this, early, did what many African Americans have done to survive and thrive since the time of American slavery, which is to mold or present oneself as something that can be more palatable to the white masses/power structure, especially since it was his desire to play all the music of his heritage, and, by 1978, rock music had been completely coopted by the white mainstream. As Little Ricard has said on many occasions, "R&B never meant 'rhythm and blues,' it meant 'real black' because they [the white power structure of American music] needed to create a category for me so that Elvis Presley and Pat Boone would have a category [rock-n-roll] all to themselves." So, Prince lied about his race to make sure that he would not be limited because of it. One can call it self-hatred, or one can call it self-preservation.

*

What's funny is that Prince, himself, couldn't even keep the lie straight because in a January 1980 article he states that one of his parents is black and other is mixed, in a February 1980 article the previously mixed parent is black and the previously black parent is mixed, and by March 1980 both parents are mixed. What's worse is that no journalist interviewing him at that time bothered to do their research and have him clarify this. Yet, as times and lives change, Prince, for whatever reason--and there are a few specific reasons, began to identify more with and engage issues more specific to the African-American community, which, of course, pissed off many of his white and biracial fans. I mean, how dare an African American man born in 1958 address issues specific to the community in which he was raised? Didn't he know that it was his responsibility to maintain the lie of his mixed heritage so as to continue to appease the fantasy of many of his fans of him being a "special Negro" or an exotic "other" through which others could live vicariously?

*

Anywho, Prince's narrative arc from multicultural utopia to an understanding that no multicultural utopia can exist without African Americans becoming more self-determining is a pretty normal/natural narrative arc for many African Americans. It seems that, like Prince, many African Americans have a "come to Jesus" moment when they realize that fighting for a multicultural utopia may not be the best course of action. Even W. E. B. DuBois and Martin L. King, Jr.,--two of the greatest fighters for integration--both had their "come to Jesus" moment and realized that self-determinism and not mindless or blind integration would be the best answer for African Americans. King stated that he "may have integrated his people into a burning house," and DuBois, in his seminal essay, "Does the Negro Need Integrated Schools," stated that [African-American] children need schools that are well-funded and administered by people who love them, not schools administered by whites who doubt their intellect. Not long after the publication of this article, DuBois renounced his American citizenship and moved to Africa. Prince didn't renounce his citizenship; he just released The Rainbow Children, which pretty much pissed off folks in the same manner, even though he had been moving in this direction for about five years or so.

*

Therefore, Prince's narrative arc of racial awareness/identity is not atypical or unusual of African Americans; it's pretty typical of African Americans who have and continue to struggle to find place and space in American hell.

Excellent analysis!

*

Thanks.

AbstractPoetic91 said:

rogifan said:

2olskool4u said: I know I shouldn't respond to this but oh well....would that be the same America that elected a black man President for two terms?

Ok and? America is still follows a systematically racist country that has no problem shooting black people, what elseis new?

*

Yes, the same America that allowed a white man to stand outside a President Obama press conference wearing a gun on his hip with a sign that read, "Sometimes the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants." Yes, that America. I wonder what would have happened if a black man would have stood outside a President Reagan or President Bush press conference with a gun on his hip holding the exact same sign? Oh, I don't have to wonder. They shooting brothers for selling cigarettes on the street; I know what they'll do to a brother holding a sign inferring that the President needs to be killed.

Dont go by to many things prince said.He prob changed his mind up 2 mins later.You could prob write a book on his feelings one day and how he changed it the next.He always seemed to throw us all off.

cloveringold85 said:

CherryMoon57 said:

I get the same impression after listening to that audio interview with Mick Boskamp again (in Amsterdam, 1981), Prince says that he used to hang out with a lof of free-minded people when he was younger and that these people wanted to be different in order to get ahead of the ongoing musical competition. Therefore his main original goals were to be different in order to be successful. This suggests that the initial reason for him to look the way he looked at the time (including the ambiguity around his ethnicity), could have also been destined to make him stand out from amongst the black artists, in order to attract the attention, rather than to avoid racism or be more palatable to the white audiences. That mention starts around 7:32. He also mentions his mother being Italian (18:48) (later denied)... When asked about the people that he admires, he says being inspired by speakers more than musicians as they "play better musics" and mentions JF Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr (21:48). And he also states shortly after that, that he doesn't like boundaries and dislikes characterisations or the idea of anything "pure", but prefers combinations and explains how he felt that his exposure to some of the main black artists from the previous generation was not his deliberate choice and how that created some boundaries for him which he didn't like. https://www.mixcloud.com/...rdam-1981/

I just listened to that audio recording. Thanks for sharing that! Really wonderful to listen to Prince talking so openly about himself. He had intellect beyond his years. He was truly one in a million!

You're welcome! I love listening to his voice from back when his accent was slightly different. He definitely was a great thinker. I miss him loads.