Prince’s death anniversary: ​​Five years later, his beloved Minneapolis was in turmoil

Prince’s death anniversary: ​​Five years later, his beloved Minneapolis was in turmoil

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Nowhere does this feel more true than in the city he loved and helped put on the map, Minneapolis.

Racial strife existed in the city long before the murder of George Floyd – a fellow black man who also worshiped Minneapolis. But the trial of the police officer who caused his death, along with the police who recently killed another Minnesota black man, Daunte Wright, increased racial tensions and drew a global spotlight.

In many ways, it feels like Prince predicted these days would dawn.

“Does anyone hear us pray? / For Michael Brown or Freddie Gray? / Peace is more than the absence of a war,” Prince sang in his 2015 protest song “Baltimore,” written after Freddie Gray died of injuries after an arrest by Baltimore police. “Are we going to see another bloody day? / We are tired of crying and people dying.”

“If there is no justice, then there is no peace,” Prince sang.

The man who was born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958, died on April 21, 2016 at the age of 57 from an accidental overdose of the opioid fentanyl.
I grew up listening to his music and treating his death extensively for CNN, even writing about my experience of what he would become on the last night of concerts.

Five years later, I can not help but think about what the man and the artist made of what happened in his hometown. I imagine how sad he would have been, how he would probably have entered the streets to protest and the great art that might have come out of his pain.

Minneapolis may have become synonymous with Prince by chance.

He recounts his earliest encounters with racism when he was among the students traveling from Northern Minneapolis to a predominantly White elementary school in the late 1960s.

“I went to school with the rich kids who did not like having me there,” he recalls in his 2019 posthumous memoirs, “The Beautiful Ones.” When student called him the N-word, Prince threw a shot. “I felt I had to,” he wrote.

“I was unfortunately born here,” Prince said in an interview with his high school newspaper, according to Far Out Magazine. “I think it’s very difficult for an orchestra to get it in this state, even if it’s good. Mainly because there are no big record companies or studios in this state.”

Fame and great success found him anyway with his debut, self-produced album “For You”, which he released at the age of 19 in 1978.

He goes on to become the architect of the “Minneapolis Sound”, which donated the world to groups and artists, including The Time, Sheila E. and super producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

His Paisley Park complex has not only become his home, but a sacred space and now a tourist attraction. His longtime hairstylist and friend Kim Berry spoke to me shortly after his death in 2016 about how much Prince loved his city.

“There are currently homeless people walking around in Minneapolis wearing Prince’s coats and they do not even know it,” Berry said during the work the singer did through his Love 4 One Another Foundation.

And just as much as Prince Minneapolis gave, the city and its people immediately loved him and gave the intense private star respect.
“He had the freedom to do things here and not worry about paparazzi harassing him,” former Paisley Park security guard Lars Larson told Channel 4 CBS in Minnesota in 2016. ‘I remember he would travel to Dairy Queen in his BMW. do not know if you can get away with it in Hollywood. ‘

Prince was more public about his work for racial equality.

He made this known during the 2015 Grammy Awards album of the year award.

“Albums still matter,” he said. “Like books and Black life, albums still matter.”

Consistent with his spiritual beliefs, Prince chose to keep his philanthropy quiet so as not to seek honor for himself.

But after his death, his friend and CNN contributor, Van Jones, spoke to Rolling Stone about the singer working with him on Green for All, an organization that creates green jobs in underprivileged communities, as well as #YesWeCode, which educates urban youth about technology.

Prince also sent money to Trayvon Martin’s family after the teen’s death sparked demonstrations and traveled to Baltimore for a concert to address Freddie Gray’s death.

The music video for his single “Baltimore” concludes with a quote from Prince.

“The system is broken,” reads the quote. “It’s going to take the young people to fix it this time. We need new ideas, new life …”

None of us ever thought that Prince would not be there to see how young people are trying to do just that.

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