January 10, 1999:

Open Letter 2 Madonna

from :

Madonna: artist 2 artist, eye am sure u understand the connection eye
feel 2 my music. U more than any1 at Time Warner knows the patience
and care with which we give birth 2 creation... and u maybe moreso
than any1 knows how much a new artist longs 2 find a place amongst
"the chosen few" 2 flaunt those creations (and at the same time put
food on one's table). Music lawyers, managers and execs make deals
best suited 4 their futures as well as urs in most cases... OWNERSHIP
OF MASTER RECORDINGS IS ALMOST NEVER AN ISSUE! (let's remember, it was
1978!)

Eye dreamt of u and eye at the Grammy Awards and felt a need 2 write
this letter 2 u. In my dream, eye approached u and asked u if u
remembered me, and u said "sure"... u were on ur way up 2 receive 1 of
numerous awards u will no doubt receive that night, and eye asked u 2
help me with my fight 2 retain ownership of my legacy and u said, "eye
don't own ur masters, Time Warner does... if it was my company, u
could have them."

"But eye say 2 u, dear sister, it IS ur company as long as u remain in
their graces... 4 all Artists, Madonna, make a stand 4 what is
RIGHT... surely they will listen 2 u!" In the dream u seemed 2 feel me
and yet u were a bit non-committal... so as u approached the podium,
eye followed u, and as we stood side by side, eye said, "b glad this a
commercial break!" and eye walked offstage and looked 4 Wyclef.
Interpretations aside, artist 2 artist, "U Can Help Us... and eye know
u will becuz u REMEMBER ME."

_________________

Madonna later responded, possibly to Kurt Loder, that she didn't know what she was supposed to do, or what Prince thought she could do. She'd been with Warner "what seems an eternity," but didn't have the kind of clout that Prince thought she had. She was compassionate with her answer, but honest.

[Edited 12/21/21 22:15pm]

I can't help but giggle at the thought of Madonna looking at this letter filled with 2's, 4's, and U's, thinking "wtf, get over yourself, buddy"... Obviously, I don't know if that's what she thought, but it seems kinda silly.

I remember seeing this back when it came out.

It was a bit of a "last ditch effort" to get some help, with Madonna being probably the most high-profile artist at WB (larger than Prince in the regard of sales/marketing/etc.). Kind of came across as drunk dialing an ex!

Prince had a "friend" in Madonna (someone he also dated at one point, and collaborated with) who was also in the employ of WB that he envisioned was in the ranks of WB.

I do wonder what Madonna thought of the letter though. I don't think she was as consumed with Master ownership as Prince was. Maybe he opened her eyes a bit? Either way, she probably was a bit confused by it but also powerless to do anything.

LOL I am sure Madonna was impressed to learn that Prince would mention her in the same paragraph with Wyclef when it comes to industry clout and pull.

[Edited 12/22/21 7:44am]

I feel like he wanted her to try to "strike" with the label like he had. It's kinda like what Taylor Swift did with Apple Music a few years ago. An artist of her clout could do that. It just hadn't been done yet.

And doesn't Madonna now own her current master recordings? Something like 2008 onwards?

Well at any rate it is good to know that Me'Shell Ndege Ocello and Alanis Morrissette both own their original masters - at least in Prince's dreamscape.

Milty2 said:

I feel like he wanted her to try to "strike" with the label like he had. It's kinda like what Taylor Swift did with Apple Music a few years ago. An artist of her clout could do that. It just hadn't been done yet.

And doesn't Madonna now own her current master recordings? Something like 2008 onwards?

You do realize that's why a film company called United ARTISTS was born?

Mary Pickford Foundation:...ed Artists

hardwork said:

LOL I am sure Madonna was impressed to learn that Prince would mention her in the same paragraph with Wyclef when it comes to industry clout and pull.

[Edited 12/22/21 7:44am]

That last part is Prince being funny and trying to lighten the mood. He paints a picture of following Madonna up to the podium at some TV appearance event, which would be uncool for Madonna, and jokes that at least it was a commercial break, so he didn't really spool her moment and mojo. Him looking for Wyclef is because Wyclef dissed him around that time. I forgot the details. It's actually pretty funny to me. I laughed at the time I read this back when he put it out there.

I'm sure Madonna cracked up.

The hilarious bit was that this batshit letter came a few days after Prince had posted a fairly mature letter, and everybody fell over themselves to congratulate him on his newfound professionalism (instead of the endless whining etc.). And then of course he shat the bed mere days later.

.

I recall Diana of The Family newsletter writing about this in a facepalm/rolleyes kind of manner.

ohhhhhhhh wow......

the power of throwback perception!!!!

that was a really good era that

BartVanHemelen said:

The hilarious bit was that this batshit letter came a few days after Prince had posted a fairly mature letter, and everybody fell over themselves to congratulate him on his newfound professionalism (instead of the endless whining etc.). And then of course he shat the bed mere days later.

.

I recall Diana of The Family newsletter writing about this in a facepalm/rolleyes kind of manner.

Agreed.

ufoclub said:

EnDoRpHn said:

Milty2 said:

I feel like he wanted her to try to "strike" with the label like he had. It's kinda like what Taylor Swift did with Apple Music a few years ago. An artist of her clout could do that. It just hadn't been done yet.

And doesn't Madonna now own her current master recordings? Something like 2008 onwards?

You do realize that's why a film company called United ARTISTS was born?

Mary Pickford Foundation:...ed Artists

I know about United Artists. Not sure what that has to do with what I said.

Sydney said:

I know his fight for artist's rights was and is very important but wow Prince got so distracted by this in the '90's. Affected his output in my opinion, he was scattered, occasionally brilliant. For a successful rock star to wear Slave on his face was an all time low for this genius.

Sometimes I believe Prince fans are a bit jaded to his fight. We get the whys and such. But a lot of fans miss the sheer implication, musician or not, of a Black man - a public figure - to write the word slave on his face and walk around like that. Slavery is, by far, the worst and deepest and nastiest scar on the history of the United States. And for any Black person to fit themselves into that mold, even theoretically, is a provocative action.

Fans are weighing selling millions of records, and subsequently becoming a millionaire, against him fighting for his musical freedom as a "low point." It's not a comparison, it's part of the journey. You can't get from point A to point C without going through point B.

George Michael used "enslaved" a lot with his fight against Sony - a contract he signed when he was 17 years old, and despite re-negotiations, would've still been held to into his 70s or 80s (especially at the rate he put out music).

Frankly, they were both right. Even Michael Jackson talked about the oppressive contracts the J5 signed when they were young. Berry Gordy constructed contracts so that the artist would always end up owing money to the record company despite their sales or success with an album, thereby having to make another record and promote it to pay off the previous debt. Diana Ross, I think, talked about this, too. Toni Braxton went through it, too.

The difference is they just didn't write Slave on their faces. Prince had the balls to do it, despite how it's viewed in hindsight. It was incredibly provoking and goading of him to do that.

Sydney said:

Phase3 said:

Sydney said:

I know his fight for artist's rights was and is very important but wow Prince got so distracted by this in the '90's. Affected his output in my opinion, he was scattered, occasionally brilliant. For a successful rock star to wear Slave on his face was an all time low for this genius.

I thought it was badass and bold of Prince to do that. He fought for his rights to his master's It was a long battle but he won Didn't WB give him his master's back when he signed a new contract with them In 2014?

In short order, that was part of the deal.

Because when he died, on that day a lot of his early albums were re-released. You can tell the covers were reprinted. The saturation was heavier, etc. But the label said, "NPG Records, exclusively licensed to Warner Bros Records." NPG's logo was first, then WB's.

It seems part of the deal was WB would surrender ownership to him, but they - in turn - had the exclusive license to distribute the albums. It works great for both, because Prince would have them working for him to manufacture, print, and distribute the records, and Prince has the lion's share of the money because he's the owner.

Dirty Mind had already been remastered and put out before that. So I didn't rebuy that one again, but I did buy Prince and For You. That's when I noticed the new NPG labeling.

On For You, it's noted:

Original 1978 vinyl mastering by Bernie Grundman at A&M (artwork)
2016 vinyl remastering by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio (matrix/runout)

I think some of these were originally set for release in 2015, but were put off for some reason until the day of his death in 2016.

TrivialPursuit said:

Phase3 said:

I bought for u and prince 2 years ago I didn't notice the NPG label but I will look Just remembered that wasn't the remasters suppose to go back to prince anyway.30 years after the album released it would automatically go back to him?

His master recordings reverted after 30 or 35 years, not remasters. But that rate, he'd only have up to Diamonds and Pearls right now. Although, everything after 1993 was his on NPG anyway.

But that's all water under the bridge. He had them all before he died.

This was very sweet of him to reach out to her. Issue was Warner didnt want to give him his recordings when he wanted them in 1993...didnt he have to wait at least 20?

But what if Madonna would have accepted Princes offer to join the fight? What if Madonna not only decided to lock arms with Prince but go all out? What if they both walked around the WB offices on a picket line? What if they then went out on a joint worldwide "freedom" tour? What if they held public "burn your record contract" events for any artist known or obscure ever signed to a label to come down and testify publically about their own experience with record label slavery? What if they developed a hardcore scorched earth campaign of public shame of the record industry and got unprecedently creative in how they conducted it? These are two extremely adept, creative and clever people with hundreds of millions of fans and hundreds of millions of dollars between them. Madonna never would have done this for many reasons but I believe the possibility of something was there. Nobody was gonna join Prince outside of mild verbal support of some kind or another so long as it was just him by himself. If Madonna was on aboard totally different game. Prince and Madonna together going hard on this issue could have generated some kind of critical mass that could not have been ignored. I mean, after all, the record industry as it was in the 70s 80s and 90s was a completely, totally, utterly illegal and amoral degenerate criminal racket which had its origins in the Mafia. Your standard record contract IS slavery, which was outlawed by the Bill of Rights. Prince was not talking pie in the sky.

hardwork said:

But what if Madonna would have accepted Princes offer to join the fight? What if Madonna not only decided to lock arms with Prince but go all out? What if they both walked around the WB offices on a picket line? What if they then went out on a joint worldwide "freedom" tour? What if they held public "burn your record contract" events for any artist known or obscure ever signed to a label to come down and testify publically about their own experience with record label slavery? What if they developed a hardcore scorched earth campaign of public shame of the record industry and got unprecedently creative in how they conducted it? These are two extremely adept, creative and clever people with hundreds of millions of fans and hundreds of millions of dollars between them. Madonna never would have done this for many reasons but I believe the possibility of something was there. Nobody was gonna join Prince outside of mild verbal support of some kind or another so long as it was just him by himself. If Madonna was on aboard totally different game. Prince and Madonna together going hard on this issue could have generated some kind of critical mass that could not have been ignored. I mean, after all, the record industry as it was in the 70s 80s and 90s was a completely, totally, utterly illegal and amoral degenerate criminal racket which had its origins in the Mafia. Your standard record contract IS slavery, which was outlawed by the Bill of Rights. Prince was not talking pie in the sky.

I agree. It just hadn't been done yet. I mean, when Prince started this mission, everyone laughed at him but in the end he was actually right and successful. It just hadn't been done yet.

Dalia11 said:

He and Madonna probably were great friends?

No.

TrivialPursuit said:

I seem to remember they were friends in the mid to late 80s and in the recent years before Prince passed. I know nothing about the 90s.

Hamad said:

ufoclub said:

That last part is Prince being funny and trying to lighten the mood. He paints a picture of following Madonna up to the podium at some TV appearance event, which would be uncool for Madonna, and jokes that at least it was a commercial break, so he didn't really spool her moment and mojo. Him looking for Wyclef is because Wyclef dissed him around that time. I forgot the details. It's actually pretty funny to me. I laughed at the time I read this back when he put it out there.

I'm sure Madonna cracked up.

The same Wyclef who tried to run as a president for Haiti and grifted people out of the earthquake help funds Wyclef? Now that is funny.

I went to Haiti maybe 5 years ago and I kept making jokes about voting for Wycleff to everyone I met who spoke English and nobody seemed to know who he was.

Milty2 said:

I seem to remember they were friends in the mid to late 80s and in the recent years before Prince passed. I know nothing about the 90s.

Madonna was working hard to keep her movie career going in the '90's so there's no way she would have jeapordized that by taking up the fight against record contracts with Prince.