May 4, 2016
Page 7
O PINION
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A Man Who Refused to be Deined or Conined
Nothing
compares
to Prince
m arC h. m orial
It was July 4, 2014.
The Essence Music
Festival was marking
its 20th anniversary.
The headliner of the
annual celebration of
African-American
music and culture was none oth-
er than Prince. I had the privilege
of seeing Prince in concert that
hot summer Louisiana night—or
should I say, I was lucky enough
to experience the tour de force and
phenomenon, whose sudden and
untimely death we mourn today.
Prince was a star in every sense
of the word. He was a maver-
ick who deined and redeined
musical genres; an icon, whose
inluence could be felt in every
in every corner of the globe; an
outsider who deied the proit
structure and control of the very
industry that propelled him to in-
ternational mega-stardom; and an
advocate who seamlessly connect-
ed his music to the ight for racial
justice, including reminding a
Grammy audience that, “Albums
still matter. Like books and black
lives, albums still matter—tonight
and always.”
There was more to Prince than
pop masterpieces, provocative lyr-
ics and purple rain. I could em-
ploy every word in the dictionary
to describe the man, but it would
by
prove easier and perhaps truer,
to say that nothing compared to
Prince. And nothing ever will.
The son of a bandleader and a
singer, Prince Rogers Nelson was
a musical prodigy. He began play-
ing piano and writing music
while he was in elementary
school. He was signed to
a local Minneapolis band
while other teenagers were
stressing over high school
prom dates. The world was
formally introduced to the
budding musical genius
when he signed to Warner Broth-
ers Records with the R&B infect-
ed, falsetto pop standard “I Wanna
Be Your Lover.” At the tender age
of 21, Warner Bros. granted their
then-new artist, Prince, unprec-
edented autonomy and creative
control over his debut album. It
would be a freedom he would not
enjoy for long.
In the 90s, Prince engaged in a
very public war with Warner Bros.
over control of his music and his
name—going to the extreme of
scrawling the word “slave” on his
cheek and referring to himself as
“the Artist Formerly Known as
Prince,” or an unpronounceable
glyph until he was freed from his
contract.
Prince would go on to sign with
Tidal, the music streaming service
part-owned by Jay Z. In a 1996 in-
terview with Rolling Stone mag-
azine, Prince explained, “People
think I’m a crazy fool for writing
‘slave’ on my face. But if I can’t
do what I want to do, what am I?
When you stop a man from dream-
ing, he becomes a slave. That’s
where I was. I don’t own Prince’s
music. If you don’t own your mas-
ters, your master owns you.”
Prince’s ight for control over
his material was not about Prince.
Like everything Prince has ever
done, it was about a greater cause
and a greater good that touched
the lives of hundreds, thousands
or millions. He would also use
his fame and his famous voice to
become an outspoken critic of ra-
cial injustice in our country. After
protests over the death of a black
man at the hands of police ofi-
cers in Baltimore, Prince penned
a tribute to Freddie Gray that in-
cluded the line, “Does anybody
hear us pray for Michael Brown
or Freddie Gray?” As revealed
by Al Sharpton, Prince also sent
money to the family of Trayvon
Martin after the teen’s shooting
death.
Van Jones recalled that Prince
would only play the 2014 Essence
Music Festival if the organizers
agreed to host a hackathon of Ye-
sWeCode, Jones’ non-proit that
encourages urban youth, particu-
larly young black men and women
to learn how to code. Prince was
as much an advocate as he was an
artist.
We are saddened at the loss of
this musical giant, a man who re-
fused to be deined or conined in
any area of his life, this risk-taker,
prodigy and genius. But we have
his musical legacy to console us,
because as Prince reminds us in
“1999”: “Life is just a party and
parties weren’t meant to last.”
May he rest in purple peace.
Marc H. Morial is president
and chief executive oficer of the
National Urban League.
he Law Oices of
Patrick John Sweeney, P.C.
Patrick John Sweeney
Attorney at Law
1549 SE Ladd, Portland, Oregon
Portland:
Hillsoboro:
Facsimile:
Email:
(503) 244-2080
(503) 244-2081
(503) 244-2084
Sweeney@PDXLawyer.com
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