The purple one, a symbol, his royal badness.. Prince has been called all of these but one thing is for sure... He has always been fonky! He is still the one and only Prince who is still reigning after 25 years of Music. Prince is a rock legend and always will be a "Musical Genius".
Prince was born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958 to Mattie Della Nelson (at the time) and John L. Nelson. Who would have ever thought that this bundle of joy would grow to become one of the greatest musicians and rock legends that ever lived??
Prince was raised in a trouble home where his father was a struggling musician trying to make ends meet. At an early age, Prince's escape from everything was his music. As a child, Prince taught his self to play more than 20 different instruments, by ear alone, and by the time he was in Junior High school, He had formed his own band called Grand Central. He graduated from Highschool at the age of sixteen years of age and moved out of his parents' house to live in a friend's basement, where the music continued. A year later, a Studio offered him studio time as a swap for piano sessions to work on. After stepping away from alot of his music on the piano, Prince added drums, bass, lead gutair and backing vocals to his same work, stunning the studio techs and creating a starting point for the rest of his musical career. After returning from a trip to New York, Prince was offered two contract deals and later went on at the age of nineteen, to cutting a three track demo that amazed Warner Bros. Records and he was signed to a record deal as a buget of 100,000 and total control over his debut album.
Prince's debut album, For you (1978) featured Prince playing every intrument on the record but still wounded up going over his contract budget. His next album, Prince (1979) was released a year later causing an increase in is reputation thanks to the hit "I wanna be your lover" which got him a guest appearence on American Bandstand. Things soon started to slow down as the 1980 album, Dirty Mind, failed to become a top 40s single. But soon Prince bounced back with 1981's, Controversy which gained his exposure to the main rock audience by opening a few shows for the Rolling Stones. Taking stage in nothing but a revealing trench coat and bikini briefs, Prince was booed off the stage.
But Prince's career was once again set for a big switch over when Prince crossed over to the pop audience and 1982's album, 1999, was the prime example. The album was led by it's three biggest hits "1999", "Little Red Corvette" and "Delirious", which put him on the radio and on the new music television station, MTV. . With a great sucessful tour, the album sky rocketed to Top 10, causing great achievement for the year. In 1984, Prince at the age of 26 starred in the hit movie "Purple Rain". The single was When Doves Cry and the movie was number one along with the album on Billboard and box office charts. The album stayed in the number one spot for a total of 24 weeks. Prince won an oscar for best score in the movie Purple Rain. After the purple rain era, Prince, ten months later, released Around the World in a Day (1985).
The next three years were followed up by a movie and three more albums, Under the Cherry Moon (movie: 1986) and its album called Parade, Sign O' the Times (1987, which included the number one hit Adore). Alot of the music left from Sign O' the times went to some other artists that was signed at Prince's new label, Paisley Parks in Minnesota such as Mad House, the Time, and the Family. Also in 1987, Prince released his most explict album ever, The Black album which in a matter of time was scrapped for its too controversal songs such as Le Grind. But soon Prince came back with another album, Lovesexy which was released a year later in 1988, which also came along with a US Tour. The 1988 album was the first since 1981's Controversy to not break Top 10, promoting lots of people to say that Prince's career was over, but little did they know it had just started.
In 1989, Prince squashed the noise about his career being over when he collaborated to create the soundtrack for the 1989 movie, Batman which an affair of Kim Basinger who played in the movie, put Prince back in tabloids. After Batman came another movie and soundtrack of Graffiti Bridge which was starred in and directed by Prince, as continuing part to the movie Purple Rain, and next lead to 1991's Cream from the Diamonds and Pearls album lead to what became is fifth number one single.
In 1992, Prince signed a new contract with Warner Bros. worth approximately $100 Million over six albums. But Prince was still in his previous contract with Warner Bros. and if things weren't changed the $100 Million contract would be over and things would get real weird, which they did. In 1993, Prince changed his name to an unpronouceable symbol made up of a male and female sign, gymph O(+>. There was immediate confusion about the name change and spectulators started speculating once more. With more negative attention gathering on about his name change, Prince finally released The Hits/B sides ( October 1993) which was just a collection of his music from before the name change such as songs from 1999, Purple Rain, Diamonds and Pearls, Sign o' the times, ect.
But alot more about Prince started spreading about trouble with Warner Bros. over Prince owning his own masters to his recordings which lead to Prince protesting his music by writing "Slave" on his cheek, during public appearances. During this period, Prince vowed that he would not release any new albums on Warner Bros. Record Label. In the summer of 1994, Prince released his own record label called NPG which lead to the Gold Experience album. "The Most Beautiful Girl in the world" from the gold album became a a surprise hit climbing to a number three spot on the charts. In september, Prince released a album intitled "Come" which symbolized the birth and death of Prince 1958-1993 on the album cover, which meant the new birth of the artist formerly known as Prince, O(+>.
Upon the release of the Gold Experience in the summer of 1994, came rave reviews on the album with such comments on songs like the Most Beautiful Girl in the world. The excellent album, Chaos and Disorder which followed up in July of 1995, but it disappeared from charts with in four weeks. In fall of 1996, Prince signed a distribution deal with EMI-capitol records, which led to the release of Prince's three disc album, Emancipation.
Emancipation was also the first album Prince released as a married man: On Valentine's Day of 1996, Prince married one of his back up dancers, Mayte Garcia . Their son was prematurely born that following October which lead to alot of sadness and grief for the once happy father, and with in hours of the baby's birth, Boy Gregory died. Interviews with Bryant Gumble and Oprah Winfrey did little to answer questions about the young infants fate, but Prince finally confessed to a Danish magazine that his son passed away due to rare skill defect. But the mark of the child's short life can be found on the Emancipation album, and on the song "Sex in the Summer", You can hear the baby's heart beat mixed into the song.
Freed from the effects of marriage, label affliction, and the grief left from his child's death, Prince found himself at personal and proffesional crossroads. Ever the master of his own destiny, Prince came up with the clever scheme to sell his newest album, Crystal Ball, which was a three disc collection of previous released songs such as The Hits/B sides of material released through the eighties and early nineties, which was sold over the internet on his offical website, Love 4 one another, which is now www.npgmusicclub.com.
Following the success of this album, which reportedly earned the artist millions, Prince teamed up with NPG stable members, Chaka Khan and Larry Granham from Sly and the family stone, for a tour in the fall of 1998. During this tour while performing with Chaka Khan, The purple one managed to actually "Break a leg" and end up canceling a couple of shows due to an ankle injury.
Though he was temporarily side-lined, Prince struggled to keep his self and married life out of the spot light in tabloids. That came in a form of an annoucement that his blissful marriage to Mayte would soon be over , though not for long. At the time it seemed that the two planned to annul their three-year marriage because their marriage was both based on contracts, which would soon "probably lead to a divorce". So on Valentine's Day of 1999, three years to the day they married, Prince and Mayte Garcia were divorced.
After Prince's divorce, 1999 was soon ending and the new millieniem was approaching and 2000 was going to be here before anyone knew it. The year and song by Prince came up and Prince decided that he remix the 1983 song, 1999 and release an album. So in 1999, The album, New Masters was released on Ground Hog's Day through Prince's new NPG label. After New Masters was released, Prince released his album, The Vault..old friends 4 sale and the album which was morally based on what was becoming the future, Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic.
In 2000, After along hectic couple of years, Prince's battle with Warner Bros. was finally finished and Prince once again announced that he was changing his name and once more he would be Prince, his birth name. After the name change once more in 2001, Prince released another album called Rainbow Children. Soon after the release, rumor had it that Prince had remarried and now Prince is married to Manuela Testolini, who was also a former Paisley Parks Staffer. In 2002, Prince did some more touring and he released a live box set called One Night Alone, which feature alot more of his older songs. 2003 led to the release of two more albums one by Prince, N.E.W.S and another one by fans called Xpectations. Prince also released an DVD called Prince live at the Aladdin (in Las Vegas) which sold all over the internet especially on his offical website, www.npgmusicclub.com which is also Prince's new and old band name, New Power Generation. And now in 2004, Prince is touring once more on his newest tour Musicology which is named after his newest album Musicology.
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