Purple Reign

I apologize for creating a blog post about one of the greatest musicians to ever grace the stage on a memorial day where I should try and hold a more serious discussion concerning the thankful plight of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Don't kill me, forgive me.

To be honest, I figured that since the majority of black folks refuse to vote, or don't realize we have civil rights, but continue to partake in ignorant black on black crime ... apparently, Dr. King lost his life in vain. Matter of fact, if today hadn't officially been declared as a "holiday," how many of us would have bothered to show up at work today? Not many, I am willing to bet. I know I wouldn't.

Nah, let me stop playing. Last week I was reading an interesting post over at the blog Thought For The Day, touching upon the intriguing similarities between presidential candidate Barack Obama and The Artist. It was a good read. Thought-provoking, at its finest. And it also got me to thinking about the musical genius who will forever be known as Prince. I posed the question to the blog author, hardcore, about what is his favorite Prince song ever? I will get to that, shortly.

Do you remember the first time you heard Prince's music? I do. It was somewhere around the year '83, when I saw the video Little Red Corvette. That song was in heavy rotation on MTV back when MTV was a video channel. BET was also a video channel, during this same time. I didn't take to the raunchy Prince initially. I mean, let's face it, the guy wore heels, leotards, had beautiful long hair, and was rather creepy-looking in an era where, in my neighborhood, it was all about your kicks, your gear, and your stone cold B-Boy Stance. His music was good though. His lyrics even better.

Maybe what I should say is that no one really understood Prince. My classmates sure didn't. Certainly not the black students. Everyone was gone off that hip hop music - its' newborn culture. I listened to Prince but I didn't let anyone know. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I hid my Prince cassettes whenever my friends would come over to the crib. What would my "friends" think if they knew I listened to a dude who looked like a woman making screaming noises like a woman does, while singing in a falsetto voice?

After everyone sat around and listened to RUN DMC or Whodini or even New Edition, and they left the house ... I'd instantly close the bedroom door, reach high into the top of my closet, pull out the Purple Rain cassette, and proceed to grab a broom and give yet another scintillating, sweat-filled, electrifying concert performance.

All this while standing directly in front of my bedroom mirror.

Don't laugh. Just as there's a little Tupac Shakur within all of us, there is also a little Prince Rogers Nelson stored inside. Somewhere.

Don't get it twisted though. I never did the freaky looking dance he does. But I did jump off the bed onto the floor while giving a seriously mean guitar solo, similar to the classic riff Prince gave at the end of the video Let's Go Crazy. Remember that?

What's funny is that once I reached junior high school, those same friends had now began to discover the legend Prince truly is. Many of these same people were taken aback by his pure genius. And there I was, the entire time, already aware of his extraordinaire. Isn't that something? I guess that is another reason why peer pressure sucks.

Since my blog is my personal time capsule and stay going against The Blog Grain ... like civil rights leader MLK, the birth of Hip Hop music, and His Royal Badass, who all decided to go against the grain in sake of their respective dream, I too decided to step out the box and ruffle some collars with my mouthpiece and post about a talented and fearless individual who took full advantage of his deeply-rooted freedom.

Every now and then, at least, I figure some collars need to be ruffled. Isn't that exactly what is wrong with us now - too content and settled in our ways? Hopelessly afraid to step up and change the game. Jena 6 was incredible, I have to admit. But what's next?

We aint gon' do ish.

Anyways, in no particular order, these are my favorite 10 Prince songs ever:

1) The Ballad of Dorothy Parker

2) The Beautiful Ones

3) Free

4) Adore

5) I Wanna Be Your Lover

6) Still Waiting

7) insatiable

8) When Doves Cry

9) Purple Rain

10) Pop Life