Below is what Prince said in his own words about how the music industry exploits it’s artists, in particular, Black artists:

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“When you speak about music, you speak about ME AND MY PEOPLE…and I don’t mean to offend anybody. But I do know that this thing called Napster just sold out to (inaudible) for 50 million dollars and I ain’t heard them sing n’ere lick. He’s (the owner of Napster) 20 years old, the gentlemen ain’t never made no music, he sells it and got 50 million dollars. When will WE (the artists) be paid?!!

Now…y’all on my favorite subject nah. There is the truth and then there is everything else. When you hear the words ‘intellectual property’ the ownership of creative works, such as a songs, albums, inventions, words, phrases, etc.) it’s code for your future. What that means: ‘We are here to protect YOUR intellectual property.’ What I hear is: ‘We are here to protect your future’ and I say you know what? I don’t need you to protect my future I’mma protect my future. You know what? Gimme what I made, back to me, so that I can hand something to my children.

Now…Najee (a well known jazz saxophonist who has also played with Prince in concert) has made many records…I asked him ‘What are you going to leave to your children?’ He can’t…[audience member interrupts and says “music lessons”] yeah music lessons she said…LOL [Prints points at female audience member]. He should be able to hand the master recordings to his children so that they have a mix of recorded dynasties in this day in time. That’s how WE could fix our communities. Right?

Jimi Hendrix made a lot of music…it should stay in his family. Miles Davis made a lot of music and you can go in the music stores and still buy Miles Davis records- it should stay in his family. I DONE MADE A LOT OF MUSIC [crowd goes wild]…it should stay in MY family. When will WE get paid?

 

Now I ain’t trying to preach, I’m just tryna let y’all know something. BET [then Prince shakes his head]…they sold out, it’s gone, it’s GONE they sold it out. Viacom now owns YOUR network. Your ONLY network, it ain’t like you got two (shakes his head). Woooh! Paul Mooney said “UPN- U pick a nigga” [crowd goes crazy]. HE said it, I didn’t…why y’all laughing though? [Shakes head] It’s sad. ‘Bamboozled’ check it out…it was only in the theaters 45 minutes though, right? ‘Cause you don’t own the theater. You don’t own one theater. Give Magic Johnson some props ’cause he trying, you know what I mean? If you own theaters, you can put in the theaters, what you wanna see.

This next tune is about what we talking about: ‘When Will WE Be Paid?’ It was given to me by Mavis Staples. She did it in the movie ‘Soul To Soul’ and I saw it in the movie and it inspired me. These were the days when music was music and radio stations belonged to us. In Minnesota we had different music, so we had the different dances. In Chicago they had different music, so they had different dances. In D.C. and Philly y’all had your thang. We came out with music that inspired everybody, but now we’ve got national playlists…and EVERYBODY sounds alike.

And what you would notice is I ain’t on the radio no more…LOL…and there’s a reason for that: I AIN’T SIGNED UP TO NO CORPORATE STRUCTURE. So I ain’t getting the public (inaudible) no more, I get in where I could fit in and this is what that song is about, if you wanna join in on the chorus, please do… [Prince goes into the song, “When Will WE Be Paid”].

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Prince has been doing things his way since 1977 when, at the age of 19, he signed a three-album deal and blew the budget for all three albums on the first one, and this after insisting that he play all the instruments himself, record all the vocals himself – and produce it himself. He had assumed full artistic control from the beginning and he has never relinquished it. Go ‘head Prince!

The symbolism here is when a song is completed, it’s referred to as a ‘master’ and of course there’s the slave’s boss….so that’s why Prince was playing on the word over and over.

A spokesman for Prince said: “Prince feels that charts are just music industry constructions and have little or no relevance to fans or even artists today. Prince’s only aim is to get music direct to those who want to hear it. When Prince famously took a stand against Warner…he subsequently regained control of the publishing right to his work and broke down the existing system through his innovation.”

That’s how you do it Prince! Fight for what’s right and make the music industry pay you what’s rightfully your’s!