Prince Rogers Nelson, or as we all know him, Prince. Born to a musical family, he started playing the piano at age 7, and by the time he was 14, he had his first band and had already learned to play the guitar and drums.
As a multitalented musician, he performed all keyboards, guitar, and drums on almost all his albums. He was a singer, songwriter, and played various instruments, making him one of the most talented musicians. Prince began his musical career with funk, soul and disco-oriented sound, then started experimenting in different directions such as rock and roll, new wave, electronic, jazz, punk, blues, R&B, hip-hop and gospel.
At just 18, Prince signed a contract with Warner Bros. Records, the agreement allowed him to write, arrange, produce, and play all the instruments he wanted.
In 1983, Prince released “Little Red Corvette“, which became a major hit for him, peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 15 on the R&B chart. It also became one of the first videos by an African-American artist to receive heavy rotation on MTV.
After Little Red Corvette, his album Purple Rain won him his first Grammy Award and the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score.
Prince felt like he had a lot to offer, and the contract made him feel like he’s not really using all of his talent. He started feeling trapped and wanted more freedom to create as much music as he wanted, but Warner Bros., on the other hand, felt that releasing music that way would oversaturate the market, which Prince saw as a threat. He once said ‘What am I supposed to do? The music just flows through me.“
By the 1990s, tension was rising, and Prince took every opportunity to protest that contract. He began going in public with the word “Slave” written on his cheek, not only that, his search for freedom made him change his name to what people called the Love Symbol, which was the traditional male and female signs. And because the name was unpronounceable, people called him “The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.”
After his contract expired in 1996, he took his original name back and released Emancipation to celebrate the win and the freedom to release as much music as he liked.
Prince then launched his own NPG Music Club as a paid membership site, offering fans exclusive music and concert tickets.
In 2004, Prince’s included his CDs with every concert ticket. That led Billboard and Nielsen SoundScan to update their policies, mentioning that albums distributed at concerts can only count as sales if fans are given the option to opt-in or opt-out for a cheaper ticket.
Two years later, he won a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for his album Crystal Ball, 1977, being the first artist to release a full album online.
In 2104 Prince came back to Warner Bros., the same company he protested for a long time to break free from. He signed a new contract and released two albums, Art Official Age and Plectrumelectrum, on the exact same day, September 30, 2014.
Prince was found dead on April 21, 2016, at his Paisley Park home in Minnesota. A week before that his plane made an emergency landing to get him to the hospital for what was thought to be a severe case of the flu, but reports later said that he was actually given a safe shot for a Percocet overdose. Throughout his career he earned seven Grammy Awards out of 38 nominations, one Golden Globe Award and four MTV Video Music Awards.
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