Beyond his music Prince’s legacy includes black activism
Associated Press
Prince accepted a standing ovation as he strolled out carrying a cane and rocking an Afro to present the 2015 Grammy for album of the year. Then he stole the show with a line that reminded everyone he was more than just a pop superstar; he was a black activist.
“Albums still matter,” he said. “Like books and black lives, albums still matter. Tonight and always.”
In the wake of his death Thursday at 57, radio stations played his biggest hits and fans came together to grieve. But beyond the chart-toppers and dance parties, the legacy of Prince Rogers Nelson grew to include political stances, challenges to record execs and an overarching focus on black empowerment.
At the Grammys in Los Angeles, Prince was referring to the Black Lives Matter Movement that was galvanized by the 2014 police killing of an unarmed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
But Prince didn’t stop there. After protests rocked Baltimore over the death of a black man who suffered a spinal injury while riding in a police van, Prince stepped in and performed a tribute song named for the city that included the line, “Does anybody hear us pray for Michael Brown or Freddie Gray?”
“This song shined a new light,” said Pastor Charles Ewing, Brown’s uncle. “A lot of his music had messages.”
It wasn’t the first time Prince connected his music to the fight for racial justice. He told The Associated Press in 2004 that he had chastised music industry bosses over rap and R&B that promoted sex, drugs and violence. “What you won’t show your kids, don’t show ours,” he said at the time.
About a decade earlier, he publicly feuded with record label Warner Bros. and appeared with the word “slave” scrawled on his cheek.
Music journalist Kelley L. Carter said she thinks Prince saw racial inequality in that dispute and others, including his beef with music-streaming services over artist pay that has left fans scrambling to find their favorite Prince songs. She said his defiance wasn’t about enriching himself, but about “trying to pave the way for the next generation.”
Carter, senior entertainment writer for ESPN’s The Undefeated, a website about race, sports and culture, wrote recently about meeting Prince last year at his Paisley Park compound in suburban Minneapolis, where he threw a party for black journalists in town for a convention.
Prince also sent money to the family of Trayvon Martin after the unarmed Florida teen was shot to death by a neighborhood watch volunteer in 2012, the Rev. Al Sharpton said recently on MSNBC.
Activist Van Jones said that after Martin’s death, Prince was influential in establishing #YesWeCode, an initiative to get more minorities into tech jobs. Jones recently told USA Today that Prince didn’t exclusively blame racism for the way some people view young blacks in hoodies as thugs instead of potential Facebook founders.
His black consciousness was apparent in his best-known records and performances, according to Stephen Hill, president of programming for BET.
“Prince was very proudly black and a lot of the music that he played – you’ve got to remember the rock ’n’ roll that some people said that was the ‘white’ side – no, rock ’n’ roll was black music. Funk is black music. Ballads is black music,” Hill told the AP. “Prince was playing music that was true to his soul and true to his core.”