Why does he look so black on the cover of Prince and then so white on the cover of Dirty Mind? And why does nobody ever mention this? Is it heaps and heaps of makeup?

MrSquiggle said:

I am dyin !

MrSquiggle said:

well considering that we're talking about Prince, probably so

lovebizzare said:

but that much? the poster included with controversy shows his whole body, and he's pretty much white all over in that shot.

He's like Zelig, he changes colors when he's around people of different races. I wish I still had that Purple Rain photo shoot from when the group of Hasidic Jews wandered on the set...

Funny... I was just recently thinking how much lighter he seemed to look in pics from around the late 80's/early 90's, as opposed to the cover of "For You"...

However, I'm certainly not tryin' to play him like Jacko or anything...

Dirty Mind is black & white photos with high high Contrast!

I don't think he's known to cake on body makeup!

"Smoke, a, cig-ar-rette. I'm, not, rea-dy yet."
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[This message was edited Sun Nov 30 1:06:58 PST 2003 by CinisterCee]

It's just different lighting. No great mystery.

Butterscotch. Obviously

MrSquiggle said:

Innocence, irony, rhetoric, pathos and high comedy all in one sentence.

Fresh down the chimney. What up?

At the time "Prince" came out, WB was trying to push him to the black R&B market. They didn't think that blacks would accept a "light-skinned" funkster, so they did a little touch up on the photo.

Eleventeen said:

---
That is the most crazy shit have I read on this site in a
long time. Prince is just a light skin black man. Who gets a little darker when he is out in the sun. You guys must not know any black people.(LOL)

Next some fool will say he could pass for a white guy.

july said:

That suit is screaming for a wide patent leather belt with a silver buckle, fo sho'!

Eleventeen said:

Kinda like how OJ's mugshot got touched up so he'd appear dark and menacing. Boo!
[This message was edited Sun Nov 30 12:19:14 PST 2003 by UptownDeb]

MrSquiggle said:

It doesn't matter, he's still purple on the inside.

laurarichardson said:

He could pass for a white guy

Prince is black?

my 16 year old son scot, was tellin me a tale bout wen he was givin his brother marc, (my other son) clues bout some1 who influenced the black eyed peas ! that some1 was "prince" and 1 of the clues scot gave marc was "he is white"

i was like WHAT !!! WHITE !!!

he said yes , in utcm prince describes him and tricky as bein white and black !

ie, the butterscotch / chocolate scene !

i couldnt believe my son thought p was white !!! he's black as far as i can c.

ps i dont actually care what colour he is this is just a tale bout scot thinkin he was white !b'cos of the scene in the movie !

There used to a be a time when no one cared. Those were the good times, "everybody just a freakin'."

Jasziah said:

I wouldn't bet a week's wages on that, young man.

I think Prince is brown and the lighting and backgrounds make him look lighter or darker...if you have a light backgroun youll look darker and the opposite for a dark background...plus probaly makeup and tans...

ChadtheRTF said:

I concur. It's strange. When I see some periods of his life, like Graffiti Bridge, I could swear he is white, maybe mulatto, but mainly white. And then, I see for e.g. Raspberry Beret video and it's sure he is black, maybe mulatto, but mainly black.
I don't know why. Maybe it's makeup, I dunno.

MrSquiggle said:

It is the Camera Flash! They just blasted him with it straight on his face..

it is all lighting

OK, I feel really kinda cheapened for giving this answer because I genuinely believe it doesn't matter, so I'm telling this purely as trivia.

In an interview with Steve Sutherland back in the early 80's, Prince said his Dad was black with a bit of Italian and that his Mum was Italian with "something else".

However, it's best to remember that Steve Sutherland was part of the "old boys" network of English music journalism, where to work for a national music paper, first of all you needed a top degree in English from one of the very big Universities like Oxford. If you listen to the interview, it's very awkward with this pompous old goat grilling a very shy & uncomfortable prince. All his answers have to be viewed in the light of a scared guy.

In the end, to sum up the man, I'm going to have to be as pretentious as that Sutherland fool and paraphrase Orson Welles' words about Shakespeare, "He speaks to everyone, and we all claim him, but it's wise to remember, if we would really appreciate him, that he doesn't properly belong to us but to another world".




Final word - He's one of us, all of us. Just proves that we should all be as one.


[missing 'a' edit]

Fair 'nuff?
[This message was edited Sun Nov 30 16:00:55 PST 2003 by daned]

It's so funny that this subject came up, because not even a week ago I was watching some VHS tapes on Prince I've recorded through the years and came accross a clip of Prince accepting an award from Stevie Wonder. During his speech he(Prince)explained that he was trying to come up with some award shows of the 70's just to show his wife how Stevie used to "wipe everybody out" and as a "Black Person" he was very proud of that. That stuck out in my mind only because he was looking so damn cute that I must have rewinded the tape about six time. So there's my two cents on the subject.

MrSquiggle said:

To answer this question is to answer why some ppl are white and some ppl are black, answer: ENVIRONMENT!

Prince did FOR YOU and Prince in L.A...its called a tan, its HOT as hell there ya do know that, right?

In his later albums such as Parade, he's a bit lighter, he recorded much in MPLS which is COLD like 8 months(or more) out of the year. Ppl tend to lose their color when in colder environments.

Example: My cousin Mari came from El Salvador, she was VERY tan, she's lived out here in the Bay Area for a year and has lightened up in color much. She actually gone through some foundation changes because of the change of color in her skin.

Now, you have learned something VERY valuable to your future. I hope I've added much to your education. Good day!

seduction747 said:

Can I invoke Orson Welles comment again? It sums up my attitude towards Prince and I think it's nice and not-commital, yet appeasing towards all sides of the argument. I love you all and I think Orson's comments sum up my hearts contents compeltly.


All of you are my family. Black, white, yellow, purple - you're all my sisters & brothers. Deal with it!

I once had a dream, in which Prince happened to appear...
For some reason, he was a WHITE MAN...WTF???
That threw me for a loop!

No, I don't normally dream about Prince! Sheeesh!

Revolution said:

Stop having them midnight snacks and those bad dreams will go away...away..a..WAYYY WHOOOSH