Prince
Prince Heirs Settle Estate Dispute More Than Six Years After His Death
Prince‘s heirs have finally kissed and made up. The late music legend’s family members and advisers have put to rest all remaining issues involving the disbursement of his $156 million in assets, according to court papers reviewed by SPIN. Prince died in April 2016 at age 57 of a fentanyl overdose, without leaving a will. As such, and because he had no living children or a spouse, his six half-siblings were named heirs. Unfortunately, they could not come to an agreement on how to manage the estate moving forward and frequently found themselves in court. Three half-siblings sold their shares to Primary Wave, while three others kept their shares and retained longtime Prince advisor L. Londell McMillan and Charles Spicer to oversee them. In January, the heirs and the Internal Revenue Service ...
Prince Comes Alive!
For drummer Bobby Z, the decision to film and record Prince and the Revolution’s stop at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York, on the tail end of the band’s Purple Rain Tour was an apt decision based on its reverence as one of the most iconic shows of the era. “It was close to the end of the tour, and it was a compromise to not continue the tour into Europe and Japan,” he tells SPIN over the phone. “He was already kind of bored and had moved on. Around the World in a Day was already in the can before we played Detroit. He’d always be onto the next thing. So this particular show, with the satellite feed and the Carrier Dome being somewhat bigger than the normal arena, he loved all of that pressure. He’d put all of this tremendous pressure on himself, and then would feel it and rise to the...
Watch Prince’s ‘Little Red Corvette’ Restored from 1985 Syracuse Concert
A week ahead of the release of the previously announced Prince and The Revolution: Live 1985 Syracuse concert film, the late artist’s estate has released a remixed and remastered standalone video of “Little Red Corvette” from that legendary performance. [embedded content][embedded content] Similarly restored versions of “Let’s Go Crazy” and “1999” have already come out from the project, which was filmed at the Carrier Dome during Prince’s tour in support of Purple Rain. In conjunction with the release, the first episode of the two-part podcast “The Story of Prince and The Revolution: Live” is out today (May 26). On “Welcome to Superstardom,” host Andrea Swensson talks to all five members of The Revolution to discuss the Purple Rain movie premiere at the Chinese Theater in Hollywo...
Listen to Prince’s Funked Up Version of ‘1999’ From His 1985 Syracuse Concert
So, tonight we gonna party like it’s 1999, again. Prince‘s Estate released the recording of “1999” from Prince and The Revolution’s Syracuse, New York show during the 1985 Purple Rain tour. The show is considered one of the best in the artist’s live history. [embedded content][embedded content] The show took place on March 30, 1985 at the Carrier Dome, where Syracuse University’s football and basketball teams play. Though the collection has made the rounds as a bootleg over the years, it is finally getting a proper release on vinyl, CD, and Blu-ray as a concert film. A few years ago, the Estate streamed the concert on YouTube, and last month, they released a version of “Let’s Go Crazy” from that show. The newly remastered version of “1999” comes ahead of quite a few projects from the late ...
Watch Jack White Share Advice From Prince on Colbert
Jack White went to the The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to discuss his recent engagement and to perform “What’s The Trick?” [embedded content][embedded content] White has done so much recently, it was only fitting he talk to Colbert to hash it all out. Before diving in, Colbert makes fun of White for rarely joining talk shows (“They’re contractually tax-related obligations once a year,” said White) and White’s new blue do (“If you stick out you’re tongue you got red, white, and blue, you’re an American flag,” Colbert said.) White performed the National Anthem at the Detroit Tigers game only hours before proposing and marrying his wife, Olivia Jean, on stage at his homecoming concert last week. Because White’s anthem rendition went well and the Tigers won the game, he felt all signs ...
An Unearthed Video Shows Prince at Age 11 Talking About Fair Pay for Teachers
In a recent scouring of ’70s archives, Minneapolis’ WCCO television station unearthed a compelling video with an all-too-familiar face — an 11-year-old Prince vouching for higher pay for educators. [embedded content][embedded content] The station’s production manager Matt Liddy came across the clip while reporting on a recent teacher’s strike that occurred in the city earlier this year. When Prince’s small but notable face appeared, Liddy asked his co-workers, “I’m not gonna tell you who I think this is, but who do you think this is?” The news team brought in a specialist to restore the video’s audio and footage plus a historian along with a childhood friend of Prince to confirm that the young star was in the video. “I think they should get a better education too cause, um, and I think the...
Prince’s 1985 Syracuse Purple Rain Show Will Finally be Released
The Prince Estate has partnered with Legacy Recordings to release a remastered, digitally enhanced release of Prince and The Revolution: Live. This will be the first time the historic Purple Rain tour show in Syracuse, NY is available on CD, vinyl, and Blu-ray. The show was previously broadcasted on the radio. In addition to the physical formats Prince and The Revolution: Live will mark the first Prince release available to digital streaming platforms in spatial audio. The first preview track, the live show’s opening track “Let’s Go Crazy,” was released today and can be heard here. The full album release will be available in both physical copy and streaming on June 3 and can be pre-ordered and pre-saved now. Watch the restored video of Prince performing “Let’s Go Crazy” uploaded...
Prince Interactive Exhibit to Debut in Chicago
If you’ve ever wanted to see what it is like to be Prince (at least in a fashion that would make sense in 2022), now is your chance Prince: The Immersive Experience will be making its worldwide debut in Chicago on June 9. The artist’s estate partnered with Superfly to curate an interactive trip that will include 10 multidimensional spaces. In there, attendees can experience his life and creative career in…an immersive way. The exhibit will feature historic wardrobe pieces, photography, instruments, and interactive sets. Attractions include (according to a release) being able to “step inside the Purple Rain album cover, head into Prince’s beloved Paisley Park workspace Studio A to mix an iconic greatest hit, and get down to an audiovisual dance party designed by Prince’s lighting designer R...
Morris Day Says Prince’s Estate Blocked Him From Using The Time Band Name
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: Emma McIntyre / Getty Few names in music are as ubiquitous to funk and soul music as Morris Day & The Time, but it appears that the band’s name will no longer be in use according to its frontman. Morris Day took to Instagram with claims that the estate of the late Prince, who helped develop the band in the early stages of his career, blocked him from using The Time for performance purposes. Day, 64, shared the statement via Instagram on Thursday and can be read in full below: I’ve given 40 years of my life building up a name and legacy that Prince and I came up with. A name that while he was alive, he had no problem with me using. I literally put my blood, sweat, and tears into bringing value to that name. In fact, he booked me on several tours, and m...
Listen to Prince’s ‘Do Me, Baby’ Demo to Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Controversy
To mark the 40th anniversary of the release of Prince’s fourth studio album, Controversy, today, The Prince Estate and Warner Records released a previously unheard 1979 solo demo-recording of “Do Me, Baby.” “Do Me, Baby” was on Controversy, but the track was actually recorded by Prince a few years earlier (hence the 1979 recording date). Additionally, “Do Me, Baby (Demo)” is available to pre-order as a special replica cassette single and an etched 7” single pressed onto purple vinyl. The replica cassette bears re-printed original handwriting, just as the one kept in the Paisley Park vault, and the vinyl incorporates Prince’s handwritten lyrics for the track. The artist and his best friend André Cymone recorded a demo of the track in 1978, and a year later he reimagined the song as a s...
The 40 Greatest Music Video Artists
Music videos are the perfect bastard child of art and commerce, even more than pop music itself. A promotional visual accompaniment to a popular song doesn’t need a coherent narrative (although on rare occasions, they do). It just needs to suit the song, sell the record, and possibly make the artist look cool. But since the launch of MTV 40 years ago this week, a select few recording artists have helped raise music videos to an art form — sometimes by accident, and sometimes by carefully curating the work of brilliant directors like Mark Romanek, Hype Williams, and Spike Jonze. Here are 40 artists from the last four decades that helped video kill the radio star. 40. Lil Kim [embedded content] Although earlier female MCs like Salt-N-Pepa and Queen Latifah used music videos to help launch th...
Inside the Making of Prince’s Clairvoyant Welcome 2 America
Early in Barack Obama’s first presidential term, the U.S. showed the wear that would ultimately become a crisis a decade later — when sniping, arguing and a full-blown culture war engulfed the country in a seemingly inescapable spiral. In 2010, however, many Americans were optimistic that better days were on the way. But Prince was deeply concerned about where things were going: with people’s consumption of technology (especially with the iPhone and other modern tech staples in their nascent days) and with race relations in America, particularly issues affecting the Black community. “His forethought as to what’s going to happen now by who would be consumed by these things, like the iPad and technology was just fascinating,” Prince’s creative director Morris Hayes tells SPIN over Zoom. “Whe...
