A Legend never dies: Prince the Inspirational Music Icon

“A strong spirit transcends the rules.” For Prince, these words rang true through his music, style and personality. Prince not only set the precedent for music in the eighties with his two major hits, “Kiss” and “Purple Rain”, but continued to break convention with his unique style and personality. Prince was an icon, a singer, and a musician who loved his art and gave his soul to the music.

Prince was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota as Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7th 1958, to, Mattie Della (Shaw),a Jazz singer and, John Lewis Nelson was a pianist and songwriter. Both Prince and his sister Tika Evene had developed an interest in music at a young age. Prince wrote his first song, Funk Machine, on his father’s piano at the age of seven. Despite a difficult family life and the separation of his parents, Prince continued to pursue music, creating the band Grand Central with friend Andre Anderson. Despite his humble upbringing and lack of financial support, Prince was determined to make it in the music industry, even at the age of sixteen.

Over his life time, Prince became a successful musician and an inspiration to many artists. In 1975, Prince became part of 94 Ease Band and continued to take the music career by storm. The singer released his own album entitled Prince, which quickly became a hit in the R&B music scene. The singer released many major songs and became contracted with Warner Brothers- a relationship that later proved to be a difficult for the singer and the company. ''

By 1984 Prince had formed a new band called the Revolution and released his famous hit “Purple Rain.” By 1987, he was also working on the Cammile Project, which featured sped up vocals and a more feminine sound. Prince gained a reputation for pushing social norms with his unabashed use of sex, androgynous image and criticism of racial stereotypes. In 1992 Prince released “The Love Symbol” album, with an unpronounceable syllable and took the symbol for his name- The Artist Formally Known as Prince- in an attempt to free himself of his contract with Warner Brothers. The artist would not reclaim his name until the year 2000 releasing multiple albums including Came and Chaos and Disorder. In 2007, Prince performed at the Super Bowl in spite of a surprise downpour- the performance was one of the most viewed in history. Prince continued to push societal norms with his lyrics and music videos. The artist released his final album HITnRUN Phase 2 on December 11, 2015.