Prince's Minneapolis - by Rashad Shabazz (Paperback)

About the Book

"When nineteen-year-old Prince took the stage to perform 'I Wanna Be Your Lover' on American Bandstand, those who watched couldn't reconcile how Prince's funky disco-pop sounds had hailed from a place like Minneapolis. But the Minneapolis Sound, Prince's signature pop-musical fusion of funk, R & B, rock, punk, and new wave, did not emerge from a vacuum. The place and space of Minneapolis shaped the musical ecosystem that made Prince famous. And in turn, a complex array of social forces shaped the city's soundscape. An expert on place, race, and culture, geographer Rashad Shabazz reveals the hidden history of the Minneapolis Sound, Prince, and his beloved city. More than a biography of Prince, this is a biography of the city and the world of sound from which Prince emerged. Shabazz traces the history of the Minneapolis Sound alongside the city's history, from colonial contact and through periods of Indigenous removal, white settlement, mass migration, industrialization, music education, suburbanization, and systemic racism. This complex history, combined with the exceptional talent cultivated in Minneapolis's small Black communities, gave rise to a groundbreaking genre, the otherworldly legend that was Prince, and music that captivated the world"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

When nineteen-year-old Prince took the stage to perform "I Wanna Be Your Lover" on American Bandstand, those who watched couldn't reconcile how Prince's funky disco-pop sounds had hailed from a place like Minneapolis. But the Minneapolis Sound, Prince's signature pop-musical fusion of funk, R & B, rock, punk, and new wave, did not emerge from a vacuum. The place and space of Minneapolis shaped the musical ecosystem that made Prince famous. And in turn, a complex array of social forces shaped the city's soundscape.

An expert on place, race, and culture, geographer Rashad Shabazz reveals the hidden history of the Minneapolis Sound, Prince, and his beloved city. More than a biography of Prince, this is a biography of the city and the world of sound from which Prince emerged. Shabazz traces the history of the Minneapolis Sound alongside the city's history, from colonial contact and through periods of Indigenous removal, white settlement, mass migration, industrialization, music education, suburbanization, and systemic racism. This complex history, combined with the exceptional talent cultivated in Minneapolis's small Black communities, gave rise to a groundbreaking genre, the otherworldly legend that was Prince, and music that captivated the world.

Review Quotes

"Prince is often rightly hailed as an individual virtuoso and genius, but he was also an artist whose tastes and abilities were shaped by long histories of racialized space and arts education, and legacies of cultural coalescence and conflict. In this innovative blend of cultural geography and musicology, Rashad Shabazz presents an engaging, compelling, and persuasive analysis of the poetics and politics of place in the music worlds of Minneapolis and their impact on Prince."--George Lipsitz, author of The Danger Zone Is Everywhere

"A revelatory exploration of early Minneapolis history and music education in the city's public schools. This is the first biography of Prince to trace the origins of his music so far back in time in so much detail."--Andrea Swensson, author of Got to Be Something Here: The Rise of the Minneapolis Sound

About the Author

Rashad Shabazz is associate professor of geography and African and African American studies at Arizona State University and author of Spatializing Blackness: Architectures of Confinement and Black Masculinity in Chicago.