Prince Calls Out Racial Divide In The Industry…

By
Jacky Jasper
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young-prince

Prince appears to have jumped straight into The Movement, revealing the racial divide prevalent in the industry. According to what the Purple one is putting down, White artists get a pass when they fudge up… while a mistake by a Black artist would result in them getting a swift kick to the curb!

“Black people aren’t given a second chances in film and music.”

Here’s what Prince told Mojo Magazine:

“It’s box office. I can’t have something like The Great Gatsby on my hands. Didn’t you know that black people don’t get a second chance?

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.”

Is Prince lending his genius to help blow a Brit, noted as the “greatest singer of this generation”? Of course! Don’t believe me… Ask Adele.

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99 COMMENTS

  3. Prince is EVERYTHING!! LOVE him…the best ever. Of course he’s right. He’s a Genius. Long live prince Rogers Nelson and I.can’t wait to see this fly Gemini in July #bestever

  4. Prince is full of it. There are plenty of Black artists who have gotten 2nd, 3rd and even 4th chances I see right through his fake rage, Prince sold out years ago and now he wants to come back to us by playing the race victim. I’m not falling for his bs

    • I agree completely. This jerk is more racist than the people he criticizes. he’s never seen with a blk woman.

      • Hell yeah prince is a mulatto racist mofo. That’s why Alexander O’Neal wasn’t the lead singer of The Time and Morris Day was.
        Why were ALL his protoges light skinned or white? Sheila E, Sheena Easton, Apollonia, Vanity, etc etc.
        Now that he hasn’t had a major hit prince wants to jump back on the soul train. Man, eff u!

        • I think the decision to have Morris Day the lead singer was a good choice. Prince knew what he was doing. If Alexander was the lead singer, the time would not have lasted this long. I think prince chose not to because of Alexander O. Had a serious drug habit. It was the safest move by prince

    • Absolutely. Chris Brown and R.Kelly for starters. On top of being given several chances, neither men have done time for for their crimes.

      Prince can fallback because didn’t he fake being mixed race to appear palatable to his white audience.

      • Prince may not have “faked” being mixed race, but he sure let people believe it. Many still persist in saying he is black and white.

  7. Part of the reason blacks in Hollywood(THE GOOD ONES) dont get second chances is because people like Chris Rock and Prince beatin on their own people when they are down and trying to do good like how Chris Rock and Prince used to tag team in their given fields to throw Michael Jackson under the bus, but they supported the thugs like Bobby Brown and R Kelly. Now after MJ’s death all those n’groes in hollywood who put him down are now realizing they should have supported the ONLY black person who wasn’t scared to buy white artists out of their own catalogues(like whites have been doing to blacks for years) or make himself known all over the world, Black hollywood males have always been jealous of MJs brave moves against whites, something that Chris Rock cant say or Prince. At least MJ didnt use his platform to degrade black women about their hair and call his brothers Ni33ers. PS. White people will NEVER let us talk about WOODY ALLEN OR ROMAN POLANSKI (BOTH NEVER WENT TO COURT),,…..Just Sayin!,

    • R Kelly is a genius who was railroaded without even a complaining victim. you are stupid.

        • If he one you one to you piece of horsesh8t. who did he molest bish? why isn’t he in jail bish? why does his exwife trust him completely with their kids bish?

    • Let’s see…since the release of Princes first album in ’78 he is responsible for giving the following black artists a chance to shine: Andre Cymone, Dez Dickerson, Mark Brown, Morris Day, Jerome Benton, Jesse Johnson, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Levi Seacer, Miko Weaver, Cat Glover, Rosie Gaines, Tevin Campbell, Maceo Parker, Larry Graham, Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, George Clinton, Mavis Staples, the all black New Power Generation band, shall I continue? Because there’s more…

      • Just because he likes his women light skin, long hair doesn’t mean he doesn’t support other black artists. His mother is bi-racial for God’s sake.

        • I don’t know where everyone is getting their info. But Prince took up the struggle in the music industry a loooong time ago, long before Mike did. He was talking about being a slave and all of the injustices in the industry especially against blacks. I don’t know what he said about Mike or why he said it. But Prince is a long way from a sellout to blacks. Maybe he has sold out in other ways, but I never felt like he was not pro black. And he definately ain’t not punk when it comes to taking a stand. I say it again and I say this shit loud. PRINCE STOOD UP TO HE MUSIC INDUSTRY BEFORE MJ did it and that is a fact!!!!

    • Well now Price is seeing what MJ went throught when he TRIED to speak out and educated negroes on the real intention of people like SONY.

      People like Prince were always trying to do his best to separate from MJ throughout the entire 80s and 90s, powerful talented black men nee to know that they do not work better apart, but together

    • This all depends on how you look at it. I said it before and I say I again. Prince took a stand long before Michael Jackson decided to do it. Why is everyone down on Prince like he a sell out. First and foremost I have nothing against Michael Jackson and everybody may be a little sensitive because he has passed. But I will be perfectly honest with you. MJ woke up late, I don’t know exactly when it happened but if you are going to be honest with yourself , you have to admit that before he died everybody including white people said MJ wanted to be whit and as long as he was living nobody and I mean nobody, took exception when that joke was made because everybody in America thought Micheal Jackson Wanted to be white. And if I’m lying I’m flying. Michael Jackson too his Black nose and mangled it because it was too big and black, Michael Jackson tried to be as skinny as a white woman and he had to really work extra hard at that because he did not have a skinny gene in his body. Look at his family and tell me whit a straight face that he was supposed to be 140 pounds. Then he went and developed Vertiligo, all of a sudden he’s almost clear. Michael Jackson is the one who despised his seed so much that he had a white woman and a white man create his children, the people that are to carry his legacy and his name are white. And he married, of all the kinds of people in the world, he married a f*ckin hill billy, the daughter of a bigot. So I have no idea what everybody is tripping on prince for because if you look at the total picture, prince is more proud of his blackness than MJ ever was. I have nothing against MJ. But the picture is getting twisted because Prince is blacker that MJ ever wanted to be

      • MJ hated being black and tried to fancy himself as a black Caucasian. There’s no way MJ would having given a black woman the latitude of having his kids.I view him as the biggest sellout of all sellouts.

        • Maybe we saw something different. But after off the wall, it was clear MJ wanted nothing to do with us. I don’t hold any grudges but you still don’t get credit from. That you don’t deserve. The real of it is this, Michael Jackson was a grudge holder, he held one against his father. And once he found out that all he was to white people was a cash cow, it hurt his feelings and tried to run back. When Michael took a stand I had nothing to do ith black people. I was because he had been betrayed. But what he didn’t know was that while he was turning white, we were use to being betrayed as we saw the likes of black stars jumping e fence. If you despise OJ, and not MJ, you are a hypocrite. OJ liked white women, MJ tried to become white. And Im still waiting for someone to say what stand MJ took against hollywood in th name of blacks…..I will wait.

          • When Prince’s Purple Rain era began to die down in the early 90’s especially when new jack swing and gangster rap started to become big and the androgynous pop scene began to fade, that’s when Prince started waking up. His white fans were dying down and he was trying to get back to his blackness, using more black women in his videos such as Rosie Gaines, and drawing the word slave on his face.

            But that didn’t fool me! Where was his blackness when he casted a white woman to play his mother in Purple rain despite the fact he actually comes from two black parents. You would have thought black women were the plague to him. Now he trying to invite India Arie and Erykah Badu to his home as if thats gone keep his black fanbase. He’s lucky were still a fan of his music and can overlook the bullshyt he was on in the 80’s.

            If you ask me both Prince and MJ were grand sellouts in the 80’s until they got their nigga wake up call!! I can forgive MJ more, atleast he always repped black women in his videos starting from Thriller’s Ola Raye, to Naomi Campbell and Iman. In his personal life, he was just odd, but I don’t blame him, I blame his father for that.

            • no their both black, although his mother is lightskin, she is creole or mixed with Italian and black. I saw a picture of her and she look like a regular lightskin black woman to me. She looked nothing at all like the white women playing his mother on purple rain.

      • Can’t argue with what you typed…… We want to love MJ and turn a blind eye to him adopting white children and marrying a low class white woman…that was bizarre to say the least. MJ had demons he struggled with which we will never know, perhaps many of his choices were a result of those demons and the fact that he was defiled and enslaved as a child which lead him to have self hate… I’m not giving him any excuses but it was apparent that he had demons as it was apparent that he was trying to leave a legacy for Black Musicians and Black people around the world. When ‘Remember The Time’ premiered prime time on nearly every American television on a Sunday Michael Jackson projected one of the most profound images in black entertainment in white living rooms across the nation…BLACK ROYALTY…Who we really were and are. He used that moment to not further his status in white America but to ask us and was warning us to REMEMBER THE TIME…his life was NEVER the same after that…all of a sudden the child molestation accusations came out. Think about it. It was no coincidence and he did not use his best friend Elizabeth Taylor or a woman in her likeness to play an Egyptian because he believed they were Black…There were NO white people in that video. Think about it. What was his message and why did he risk EVERYTHING to bring that to you/US? Don’t sleep on MJ listen to his song Another Part of Me…he gets metaphysical with his music. He wanted to awaken us from our enslaved slumber. MJ always used black women in his video from dark to light…he projected chocolate Naomi into white middle America on a Sunday when ‘Keep It in The Closet’ premiered. Prince decided to project different images….he did not use black women as they truly exist…a myriad of colors and hair textures, he decided to only use light skin women with straight or wavy hair, which I initially thought was fine since his mother is light but it perplexed me to see him start to use TWO white women by the time he was singing cream with his azz hanging out his pants. Prince seemed to project a world void of real black women. Prince never came off to me as the type to use his celebrity or music for the black cause, if he wants to do it now..let it be..I’ll accept better later than never. I remember when he had slave shaved into his beard which was a powerful message although it was because of his problems with his label and not his skin color regardless it was a message that he would not be a sell out. Besides, Prince has evolved over the years…no more lye.. AND ‘Working Up A Black Sweat’ showed his appreciation for dark chocolate.
        Anyways I love MJ & P.
        http://en.musicplayon.com/play-touch?v=319920

        • I understand what you say about some of his videos and songs and Im going to give him credit for those things becaus he is a legend, and he could have been showing black prid by doing that. But I will also say that, in any other situation, my standard of interpretation lays in the individual’s actions. And frankly all of the that could have been to a marketing tool, to keep his black fan base appeased. Once again, I go off of actions and his actions did not reflect that pride. But like I said I will give him credit and look at it as if he was prout to be who he was. Thank you for you insight, I appreciate it, nothing says my opinion is right but I do like to look at thing from all possible angles. So, thank you for taking the time to share you thoughts with me.

            • No, thank you. I really appreciate you and your point. Much love and respect.

        • WExactly, also MJ never had any problems with putting darkskin black women in his videos, from Ola Ray (Thriller), Naomi Campbell and Iman. As far as him marrying white, we all know those marriages was fake. Mj is odd like that but I don’t blame him, I blame his father Joe for MJ’s social problems. I truely believe if MJ was a functional adult he would have married black. I was looking at “Remember the Time” video last week for the first time after 7 years and thinking of the Illuminati and how they must wanted his azz handed on stake for that video and the Black and White video where he is bashing everything and doing crazy dance rituals saying fukk the Illumanati. MJ was much smarter and knew more than we think.

          As for prince, Rick james even said touring with him, Prince was confused about his race and wanted to be white. When his popularity started to die down in the 90’s with new jack swing and gangsta rap, thats when he started trying to regain his blackness, painting slave on his face, collaborating with more black women such as Rosie Gaines, India Arie and Erykah badu as if he finally gained some consciousness about his blackness. I feel he’s only doing it because now he know’s black women were his big supporters especially when white people weren’t checking for him after his purple rain era and black men were off into gangsta rap and thought he was too soft. Till this day to black women, prince can do no wrong. Prince and MJ were big sell outs in the 80’s until they got their nigga wake up call.

          • Does everybody forget that prince promoted Homosexuality an drag back in his day? Dude looked like a damn he/ she fir crying out loud! I love prince but when it comes to MICHEAL JACKSON? Prince can take his p*ssy lookin ass on. Mike is the Best period.Nobody will EVER!!!!!!have as much influence as Mike!

            • prince and mj was both into the homosexual thing.

              they both looked silly denying.

              mj tried to look like liz taylor then liza minneli.

              mj may have cast black women in his videos but mj nevber showed interest in black women as a partner and marriage.

              at least prince been with women and he prefers light and hispanic women the only dark skinned woman I know prince had sex with was whitney but then again she was the biggest pop star so her and prince dating wasnt hard to believe.

              mj dated whitney but they never had sex mj wanted somebosdy to cover his gay tracks.

              mj never sexed madonna bevcause mj was’nt into girls.

        • I agree an prince aint got Shit on Mike, Period! Even though 17 days is my favorite prince song! I still got in on a 45″ lol

    • Why the f*ck would Woody Allen have gone to court? Unlike Polanski he was never charged with a crime.
      The NY State prosecutor did not bring charges against him.

    • Actually, Woody Allen and Roman Polanski are being talked about everywhere by everyone, and their supporters are being trashed.

    • Chris Rock called out all the Black women who are dumb enough to make the southeast Asians rich off of buying hair that is not for nor by them. The shame is theirs; not Chris Rock’s.

      • No what he did was bash black women in that movie with notorious men who despise black women but go out and get a white woman with manufactured black parts (i.e..ice t). Chris rock could have made his point in a way that wasn’t derogatory towards black women. Southern white women have been wearing fake hair for decades but he had no comment about that. I understood his intent but the execution of the film was derogatory and easily became a vehicle for those who despise black women in general to reference.

        • Totally agree. White women weave. His own white peers could open up a weave factory with the amount of hair fakery that goes on.

          • Yes white women weave, but think the point that so many more “conscious” brothas make is that white women weave with hair that looks like their natural hair. They do it to enhance the true hair style, not to create a hair style which would other wise not be possible.
            Look, I wear weave from time to time my own self, but most men I deal with don’t like it.
            I’m about to hang up the weave permanently and rock the Lupita. At least through the summer.

    • You have a point but Michael Jackson is dead and all his money is with the white man with his only Black heir (Momma) getting peanuts compared to his white kids and his white lawyers. My point – Michael Jackson hated his own Black people too, that why the catalog and his 500 million and counting is back in the white man’s hand!!

  8. Prince is right and I would like to see alot of artists that happen to be of color get some sort of organized, well publicized movement going in the way of letting both the music and film industry they need to have better hiring practices because without that nothing will change

  10. We measure our success in comparison to who they are. I love Angela Bassett she doesn’t try to have a career like Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon, Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, etc. She stays in her lane. She makes appearances when it’s time to and other than that she lives her life. I rarely hear about her. And she never had to bust it wide open for anyone. She has something which is very rare in the entertainment industry and that is VIRTUE. I can appreciate Omar Epps he has evolved from roles such as Juice, The Wood, Higher Learning, Love and Basketball, etc. to Dr. Eric Foreman on House. It works for the one’s that are not always looking for the glam, glitz, and trying to be the top dog.

  11. I love Prince. No doubt he is a musical genius. “Diamonds & Pearls” But, I wonder why some entertainers are speaking up now about the injustices in the Entertainment Industry? Those racial injustices were put into place decades ago.

    • Because he’s financially able to speak up about it. He has his own label and publishes his music online. He has control over his music now.

    • Exactly! Prince, Michael and all the rest of them sacrifice everything to be accepted by others and then they want to come back to us after the others put them out to pasture.
      I’m not saying I don’t agree with him but it would have meant more to me if Prince would have tried to make this point back in the 80’s or while he was prancing around with his ass out in the 90’s.
      Jay and Bey are going to be talking the same stuff in 20 years.

  12. me jacky i wantu to check out my videos come up on homosexual in black community dark out.

  13. Someone need to tell self-hatin’ kneegrows like Prince,

    Once the white girls ain’t fallin’ all ova ya, and the white man ain’t got no mo’ use for ya,

    Don’t try comin’ home, the black community done changed the locks.

    Ya hearin’ me black music industry, black Hollywood, black pro athletes?

    • When’s the last time Prince has made a good song or Album?I can’t remember.

      • Lol…BA, I dont know if you follow Prince, but the dude had a couple of bangers that dropped a few months ago. He distributes hi music himself now, in order to get son you have to go to his site an download the song to your computer. One is called breakfast can wait, but it’s he funkies song I have heard since aquemini by the outkast. And the other is a song called, ain’t gon miss you when you ate gone. He has dropped a few more in the sat few months but those are my favorites from the last few months..chek em out if you can…he really is still running circles around theses new cats. He is, in my opinion the best musician that ever lived, but don’t get me wrong, I’m not a Stan and not above boycotting his shit if it is trash

  16. This type treatment towards AAs happens all the time with scholars, teachers, and in education period. White teachers get the trophies for educating our youth. Ask Cornell West or any AA teachers/educator.

  17. Black Folk In Denial…Anti-Blackness Is A Religion. We’re The Seal On The Shoreline…Great White Alert!

    Ty

  18. I have to disagree with you. I say that MUSIC would be nothing without Black music and it’s influences.

    The recording INDUSTRY us and always has been white owned and run and always will be.

    The only Black who did well n the industry was Berry Gordy, and he treated his own recording artists as bad if not worse than white record label owners do.

    • I so love you for knowing we are the Israelites.I tell this on hsk daily.Shalom

      • Africans wished they had the soul or flavor we Israelites have.They’re more jealous than the whiteman of us Hebrews.

        • You know what, you’re on to something BA. I’ve noticed the rude/mean treatment that I’ve received from africans. I could never figure out why. I’d read a book decades ago by molefi keti asanti (not sure if I spelled his name right) that mentioned ideas similar to what you’ve stated here on hsk.

    • Always? Really? It’s so funny how Caucasians feel that they will be in power forever… Nothing lasts FOREVER. Your time is coming to an end right now…the world is waking up and the power will be restored to the originals. So narcissistic and foolish til its actually cute…LMAO

      • Its over from those devil edomites.The dark skinned Egyptians thought they’d be in power forever also,but ask them what happened.No one stays on top forever but us Israelites.

    • Like is said, he is a genius, but you might be right, he just might be.

  20. I just watch the documentary Muscle Shoals. It’s about the Fame Recording studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The studio was built by Rick Hall in 1962.

    During one of the most turbulent racial times in American History, those white musicians were turning out some of the soulful songs. They produced Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Etta James, Percy Sledge, Otis Redding, Johnny Taylor and many more.

    At first I was Impressed with the musicians because the documentary was about the musicians but, without the soulful singers there music wouldn’t be as great as it was.

    The owner/producer really stole the music of black folks who he heard singing while they were picking cotton. It is a must see documentary. Funny how the Brits love black music

    • the british invasion all those whiteboys like beatles, stones, elton john, clapton, beegees, rod stewart, and black sabbath, led zeppilin, and a few others like david bowie grew up on that blues, studied it copied it and made millions off the black sound.

      but those white groups did’nt have a dertain thing the black blues artists had.

      stones was good they can play some low down blues but its something missing.

      white groups love going to africa and studying music learning those voodoo rituals and which is why white artists go to africa and jamaica so they can mimic the black music.

      clapton was told to imitate bob mar;ley sorry hatye his version of shot the sheriff.

      hendrix blew up in england where he got famous and a lot of the metal groups like sabbath, and zeppilin emulated hendrix and really blew up after he died.

  21. I can’t say that Prince lied to Mojo, but dude was VERY disingenuous at best. And a complete amnesiac at the very least. His Royal Badness seems to think we’ve all forgotten that he was the beneficiary of considerable largess from the movie biz back in his heyday.

    PURPLE RAIN (1984) — an indy film with a soundtrack that went straight to the top of the charts & stayed there, for weeks & weeks. It even won an Oscar for Best Original Score (a category that has since been nixed). The production budget was only $7 mil, but the movie grossed $68.3 mil, which made it a bonafide hit. Didja know that The Purple One, such a purist about his art, originally asked Stevie Nicks! (The White Witch, altho’ she now denies that moniker – even after her role on AHS… hmmph!) to write lyrics for Purple Rain, but she turned him down!? So he had to pen them himself. You can read more about PR here:

    http://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/20-things-you-didnt-know-about-purple-rain

    UNDER THE CHERRY MOON (1986) — Epic FAIL! Prince’s 2nd film, which he demanded be shot in the glorious South of France, then wasted all that beauty by insisting on shooting in B&W – cost $12 mil to make but barely earned more than $10 mil at the box office. I don’t know what the formula is now with 100% digital films being made. But the break-even figure for a movie back when a 35mm release print was created sent to every theater was 2X the cost of Prints + Advertising. So CHERRY MOON seriously missed that mark.

    But Hollywood STILL had love for Prince, even tho’ folks knew by then that his narrow ass couldn’t act. He got a 3rd chance at bat with GRAFFITI BRIDGE (1990). GB grossed $4.56 mil against a budget of $6 mil. Pitiful!

    Since then, we’ve seen Will Smith have some flops but still get asked back to the dance. Ditto for Halle Berry, who ain’t made a decent movie since MONSTER’S BALL. Yet Tom Hanks – who’s STILL one of the top A-List actors – put her on as his co-star in that ridiculous movie in search of a story, CLOUD ATLAS, from 2012.

    So Hollywood clearly DOES give certain Exceptional Negroes more than one chance to dance.

  22. remember in under the cherry moon prince and jerome was acting like 2 gay lovers competing over a white woman forgot the white girls name but prince was dating her at the time.

    you don’t think prince is gay look at under the cherry moon.

    mj saw purple rain and said back then prince was a terrible actor but still he thought that him and prince could do a song together.

    • The white woman in that movie is Kristin Scott Thomas. She’s currently a very well respected, and Oscar Nominated actress. I believe Under the cherry moon is an early film of hers she is mortified she had anything to do with. LOL.

    • Prince fired the original director of Under the Cherry Moon. Back then he thought since he was a musical genius he could do any medium, well he thought very wrong. I was shocked he got Graffiti Bridge made.

  24. Welp all I have to say is that black or white..PRINCE SURE DOES HAVE SOME NAPPY AZZ HAIR…WITHOUT THE CREAMY CRACK..I WAS LIKE DAYUM..NOW THAT IS A FRO…LOL

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