Prince Rogers Nelson (born June 7, 1958) is an American musician. He performs under the mononym of Prince, but has also been known by various other names, among them an unpronounceable symbol which he used as his name between 1993 and 2000,
During which time he was usually referred to as The Artist Formerly Known as Prince. Prince is prolific, having released several hundred songs both under his own name and with other artists. He has won seven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the first year he was eligible in 2004. Rolling Stone ranked Prince #28 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Prince's musical palette covers many musical genres including R&B, soul, funk, rock, blues, new wave, psychedelia, folk, jazz and hip hop. Some of his influences are Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Sly & the Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield, Parliament-Funkadelic, Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, Joni Mitchell, the Beatles, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis. The distinctive characteristics of his early-to-mid 1980s work, such as sparse and industrial-sounding drum machine arrangements and the use of synthesizer riffs to serve the role traditionally occupied by horn riffs in earlier R&B, funk and soul music, were called the "Minneapolis sound" and have proved very influential.
rince Rogers Nelson was born June 7, 1958 in Minneapolis, Minnesota to John L. Nelson and Matti Shaw. John was a pianist and songwriter, and Matti was a jazz singer. He was named after his father, whose stage name was Prince Rogers, and who performed with a jazz group called the Prince Rogers Trio. In a 1991 Current Affair interview, John L. stated, “I named my son Prince because I wanted him to do everything I wanted to do.” His childhood nickname was Skipper. As a child, Prince suffered from epilepsy. Prince's mother would later recall to him that he claimed during his childhood, "I'm not gonna be sick anymore, because an angel told me." After the birth of his sister Tyka in 1960, Prince's parents gradually became estranged. After they separated formally (when Prince was ten), he had a troubled relationship with his stepfather that resulted in him going to live briefly with his father, who expelled him after finding him in bed with a female friend. Later he settled in with a neighborhood family, the Andersons, befriending their son, Andre Anderson (later called André Cymone). Prince and Anderson joined Prince's cousin Charles Smith in a band called Grand Central that they formed during high school. (Smith would later be replaced by Morris Day.) His initial contributions were on piano and guitar, but he would share vocals with Anderson in what was mainly an instrumental band, playing clubs and parties in the Minneapolis area. As time went by and Prince's musical interests increased, he began producing the arrangements for the band. Grand Central evolved into Champagne and started playing original music drawing on a range of influences including Sly & the Family Stone, James Brown, Earth, Wind & Fire, Miles Davis, Parliament-Funkadelic, Carlos Santana and Jimi Hendrix. At one point Prince was a student at the Minnesota Dance Theatre. In 1976, he started work on a demo tape with producer Chris Moon in a Minneapolis studio. Prince also had the patronage of Owen Husney (of The High Spirits), to whom Moon introduced him, a connection that helped him produce a high-quality demo recording. Husney started contacting major labels and ran a campaign promoting Prince as a star of the future, resulting in a bidding war eventually won by Warner Bros. Records as they were the only label to offer Prince creative control of his songs.
Discography
* 1978: For You
* 1979: Prince
* 1980: Dirty Mind
* 1981: Controversy
* 1982: 1999
* 1984: Purple Rain
* 1985: Around the World in a Day
* 1986: Parade
* 1987: Sign “☮” the Times
* 1988: Lovesexy
* 1989: Batman
* 1990: Graffiti Bridge
* 1991: Diamonds and Pearls
* 1992: Love Symbol Album
* 1994: Come
* 1994: The Black Album (recorded in 1987)
* 1995: The Gold Experience
* 1996: Chaos and Disorder
* 1996: Emancipation
* 1999: Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic
* 2001: The Rainbow Children
* 2002: One Nite Alone...
* 2003: Xpectation
* 2003: N.E.W.S
* 2004: Musicology
* 2004: The Chocolate Invasion
* 2004: The Slaughterhouse
* 2006: 3121
* 2007: Planet Earth
* 2009: LOtUSFLOW3R
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