Prince
June 7, 1958 — April 21, 2016 — Chanhassen, Minnesota
Prince Rogers Nelson was a musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist of extraordinary range who shaped popular music across four decades. He died on April 21, 2016, at fifty-seven, at his Paisley Park complex in Minnesota.
Minneapolis to the Mainstream
Born on June 7, 1958 in Minneapolis, Prince taught himself multiple instruments as a child. He signed with Warner Bros. Records at nineteen, insisting on full creative control from the start. By his fourth album, Dirty Mind (1980), he had forged a sound unlike anything else — funk, rock, R&B, and new wave fused into something unmistakably his own.
Purple Rain
The 1984 film and double album Purple Rain made him a global superstar. The album spent 24 weeks at #1, sold over 25 million copies, and "When Doves Cry" became his first number-one single. He won two Academy Awards for Best Original Song Score. His 2007 Super Bowl halftime performance — in a downpour — is widely considered the greatest in the show's history.
Did You Know?
Prince almost never left Minnesota. He built Paisley Park in the Chanhassen suburb specifically to stay out of the New York and Los Angeles music industry ecosystem. Despite his otherworldly stage persona, neighbors say he attended local basketball games, neighborhood potlucks, and was a die-hard Minnesota Timberwolves fan.
Ownership & Legacy
His battle over his masters led him to write "slave" on his face during a dispute with Warner Bros. in the 1990s — an early landmark in the artist-ownership conversation that still resonates. Like Nipsey Hussle decades later, he treated creative control as inseparable from artistic integrity. He died on April 21, 2016, from an accidental fentanyl overdose. His estate continues managing an enormous vault of unreleased recordings.