Prince (artist)

Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, known as from 1993-2000) is a popular and influential singer, songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist. His music has spanned myriad styles including funk, pop, rock, R&B/soul, and hip hop, and is regarded as the definition of "The Minneapolis Sound".

Uptown: Early years

Prince Roger(s) Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Mount Sinai Hospital on June 7, 1958, to John L. Nelson and Mattie Shaw. John L. Nelson played in a jazz trio The Prince Rogers Trio, hence Prince's birth name. There are a number of myths regarding Prince's ethnicity and gender, some spread by Prince himself. The most pervasive is that he is the child of a black father and white mother, a myth later bolstered by the cult film Purple Rain starring Prince, Morris Day of The Time, and pop singer Apollonia. However, both Prince's parents are African-American, and, like many Black Americans, their lineage is an amalgam of ethnicities.

Related Topics:
The Prince Rogers Trio - Purple Rain - Morris Day - The Time - Apollonia - African-American

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Prince's parents separated and he had a troubled relationship with his stepfather causing him to run away from home. He lived briefly with his father, who bought him his first guitar. Later, Prince moved in with a neighborhood family, the Andersons, and became friends with their son, Andre Anderson (later called Andre Cymone).

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Prince and Anderson joined Prince's cousin Charles Smith in a band called Grand Central, formed in junior high school. By the time Prince had entered high school, Grand Central evolved into Champagne and started playing original music already drawing on a range of influences including Sun Ra, Sly Stone, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana and Joni Mitchell.

Related Topics:
Grand Central - Champagne - Sun Ra - Sly Stone - James Brown - Jimi Hendrix - Carlos Santana - Joni Mitchell

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Prince became a central figure of "Uptown", a 1970s underground funk scene in Minneapolis (centering around the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis) which also spawned Flyte Tyme, Jellybean Johnson, Terry Lewis and Alexander O'Neal. In 1976, he started working on a demo with producer Chris Moon in a Minneapolis studio. He also had the patronage of Owen Husney who Moon introduced him to allowing him to produce an excellent quality demo. Husney started contacting major labels and ran a clever campaign promoting Prince as a star of the future, resulting in a bidding war eventually won by Warner Bros., who offered him a long-term contract.

Related Topics:
1970s - Uptown - Flyte Tyme - Jellybean Johnson - Terry Lewis - Alexander O'Neal - 1976 - Chris Moon - Owen Husney - Warner Bros.

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