Prince - was he evil, or simply genius?
Prince. Musical legend. Sex symbol. Lover of purple. But was he evil? In Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Podcast Evil Genius with Russell Kane, Russell and a panel of comedians re-evaluate some of the most famous people in history, deciding whether they were entirely brilliant or if their darker side was simply too dark.
In this episode it’s the Purple Rain singer who’s put under the show’s microscope, with Russell joined by comedians Olga Koch, Thanyia Moore and Johnny Cochrane to cast their judgements. Was Prince pure genius or evil genius? Here are the arguments for and against.
For: He wrote his first song aged seven
Russell says he was “still learning to count at seven”, but Prince was already writing songs. He calls him a “Mozart level of musical genius”, a self-taught musician who was writing a song a day at some points in his career. He wrote so many songs that many of them have never been heard by the public. His first ever song was Funk Machine. It’s not clear if the song was ever recorded so nobody knows if it was any good.
For: He taught himself to play almost every instrument
It’s very well known that Prince was one of the all-time great guitar players, as well as a brilliant pianist, but those are just two of the many instruments he played. He taught himself to play almost any instrument you can think of. There was one type of instrument he struggled with. “He was so annoyed with the one range of instruments he couldn’t play, the horns, that as he got into his 30s…he taught himself to play the horn as well,” says Russell.
With the release of Purple Rain, he simultaneously had the number one single, album and film in the US.
For: He was a pioneer
Prince broke the popstar mould. He played with gender and sexuality boundaries. He had a mixed gender band when such a thing was far from typical. He created his own musical sound. Little Red Corvette was, Russell says, “one of the first tracks by a Black artist to receive major exposure on MTV in 1984. With the release of Purple Rain, he simultaneously had the number one single, album and film in the US.” He later won an Oscar for Purple Rain’s song score. He was unquestionably one of the most influential musicians in history.
Against: He’s accused of being misogynist and allegedly violent
Prince often celebrated women in his songs but he also wrote songs with sexually violent lyrics. “His lyrics and videos were often provocatively sexually explicit,” says Russell, “but he also crossed the line. At least two of his songs [Extra Loveable and Lust You Always] threaten rape.” Neither song was released but Extra Loveable was rewritten, to exclude assault threats, and released in 2011. Prince was also subject to allegations of sexism and assault, discussed in the show. Sinead O’Connor, who had a hit with a cover of Prince’s song Nothing Compares 2 U, has alleged several times that Prince was violent towards her.
He came to be known, with some derision, as The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.
Against: He was the ultimate control freak
Prince famously and unapologetically liked to control everything about his career. When music sharing became popular online, he would stop fans sharing his songs. He would have YouTube clips removed if they showed unauthorised footage from his gigs. Russell says his greatest display of control came when “in 1993, Prince suddenly announced he was changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol used on the ‘love symbol’ album, designed to depict both male and female genders. He came to be known, with some derision, as The Artist Formerly Known As Prince.” The rebrand came in a dispute with his record company, Warner Bros, which Prince felt was limiting his rights to make decisions about his own career. Because the symbol was entirely his own invention, Prince’s representatives had to send out a floppy disk containing a digital image of the symbol, so newspapers and magazines could print it when they mentioned him.
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For: He set the precedent for artists controlling their own work
Prince’s reaction to his dispute with Warner Bros – he once wrote ‘slave’ on his own face, which was widely mocked as tone-deaf – but the Evil Genius panel give him credit for his insistence that “all artists should own their masters [meaning the original recordings of their music]”. They argue it’s something that’s been seen since, notably in Taylor Swift attempting to regain the masters to her first six albums from record executive Scooter Braun.
For: He did lots for charity in secret
One of Russell’s guests, comedian Johnny Cochrane, mentions “loads of testimonies in the wake of [Prince’s] death about countless charitable stuff that he was doing.” He made sizeable donations, including at least one over $1 million, to many charities, often those that helped disadvantaged children. His Love 4 One Another organisation gave millions to community programs. He helped save Louisville Free Public Library from closure. And he mostly did it privately. “The best thing is…he wasn’t telling anyone about it,” says Johnny.
