The Purple patriarch Prince sat down for a rare interview opportunity with Mojo to discuss his new album with 3rd Eye Girl and speak to some systemic biases that he's had the opportunity to bear witness to during his nearly 35 years of recording. In an address that was specifically geared towards racial biases, Prince spoke out against how unforgiving the entertainment industry can be towards black artists, specifically stating:
“It’s like Chris Rock said: Leonardo DiCaprio can make one bad movie after another, and he just keeps going. Chris Rock makes a bad movie, and he doesn’t work again. Black people aren’t allowed to make mistakes.”
Whether he believes he's fallen victim to those biases within his own career or not, it could explain how an artist like D'Angelo is still out on the run somewhere, while George Zimmerman trolls for his next publicity stunt (it certainly does not explain Tyler Perry's career.) In regards to the album, Prince spoke to some of his influences for the comeback LP Plectrumelectrum, some of which seemed a bit out of left field. When the line of inquiry focused on what influenced his new track "TICTACTOE, " we expected to hear names like Miles, Sly, Joni and JB. Hell, the interviewer even threw in a Led Zeppelin likeness, to which Prince rather curtly responded "“Jimmy Page was cool, but he couldn't keep a sequence without John Bonham behind him." But the Cocteau Twins?
"“We recorded it in Bryan Ferry’s studio in London, after a night of partying for which the Cocteau Twins was the soundtrack. You can’t understand the words of the Cocteau Twins songs, but their harmonies put you in a dreamlike state.”
At the end of the day, who knows what we're in for with the ever enigmatic Purple One's new record. All we can do is sit and wait and fight our envy of the Brits for getting treated to an intimate London-based pub tour, for which tickets were a whopping 10 dollars (even in pounds, thats a fraction of what I paid to see him just a few years ago in the states) Keep your ears to the ground, we'll have more from his Purple Majesty soon. Cop the latest issue of Mojo for the full script.
