Kruk, Blog #6

Alright, here's to hoping this blog is a little shorter than my last. In 1975, well-known artist Prince started performing. He started off in a band created by the husband of his cousin called 94 East. The band consisted of himself, Pepe Wille (the founder), Marcy Ingvoldstad, Kristy Lazenberry, and Andre Cymone. A year later, Prince created a demo tape that got passed around until it landed with Warner Bros. Records. From here the singer became popular and rose to the top, almost like Michael Jackson did. Some of Prince's best songs are easily recognizable to anyone over the age of 12. Songs like "Purple Rain", "Raspberry Barret", "Let's Go Crazy", and "I Wanna Be Your Lover" did extremely well. He released 39 records in his lifetime, the first of which being For You, and received 32 awards. Prince died from an accidental fentanyl overdose on April 21, 2016.

Prince wasn't always a solo artist. After being a part of 94 East, he made his own band called the Revolution. The band consisted of Lisa Coleman (keyboard), Doctor Fink (keyboard), Bobby Z. (drums), Brown Mark (bass), and Dez Dickerson (guitar). At first, the band was rarely used. This changed though in 1986. Purple Rain, Prince's film, won him an award and made over $164 million in the United States. Some of the most popular songs from this film were "Let's Go Crazy" (my personal favourite), "When Doves Cry", and of course, "Purple Rain". These songs, along with many others, are what made Prince such a recognizable artist. In 2010, he was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time as well as put into the Grammy Hall of Fame in December of that year. On February of 2016, Prince embarked on his final tour. The Piano and a Microphone tour was a solo tour that went through Australia and New Zealand. It continued onto the United States where it was cut short by his illness and death.

Prince's death was a bit controversial. I remember that I was at the New Hampshire outlets when Twitter gave me a notification that he had been pronounced dead. A lot of investigation went into his passing because it was an accidental overdose rather than a suicide. It is unknown whether he got the fentanyl through a prescription or through other means. The law enforcement agencies were issued two warrants - one for Prince's house and one for the local Walgreens. On April 19 of 2018, it was announced that there would be no criminal charges for Prince's death. The other thing that was brought forward after his death was the fact that there was no will. The saddening part is that over 700 people took advantage of this and claimed to be distant relatives. They did extensive DNA sampling before anything else was done. Various people mourned his passing, including former President Obama. Prince's sales spiked once he was pronounced dead, which is usual for singers and songwriters. The cast of Hamilton paid their respects by singing some of his songs post-show as a memorial, which I never knew about despite loving Hamilton. Along with them, Bruno Mars, the Time, and Morris Day performed a tribute to him at the 59th annual Grammys.

Prince is an icon that will never be forgotten, much like Michael Jackson. It's sad that a talent like him passed at a young age, especially compared to the average death age in America. Although between the awards and inductions he received as well as his amazing music, Prince went down in history. I never listened to him as much as I probably should have, but I really appreciated his music and personality. My favourite song by him is "Let's Go Crazy" due to the fact that when I was in 2nd grade my teacher would play this song during our breaks. I linked that along with Raspberry Baret.