Prince

Released: January 29, 1998

Songwriter: Hilliard Wilson Brenda Lee Eager Prince

Producer: Prince

[Intro]
(Ah yeah, ah yeah) [repeat sample in song]
Hide the bone
(Oh yeah) [repeat sample in song]

[Verse 1]
I can't hold it any longer
It's getting harder every day
The need for you is getting stronger
Than my need to play

[Chorus]
Playing hard to get is getting hard to play
How can I be cool falling every day?
Playing hard to get is getting hard to play
How can I resist? Love has got me saying, baby
"Give it up - bang, bang - before it be gone!"
Hide the bone

[Verse 2]
Oh, when you whisper that you want me
Press your body close to mine
I feel the fire burning and I just wanna surrender
I wanna surrender every time, hey!

[Chorus]
Playing hard to get is getting hard to play
How can I be cool falling every day?
Playing hard to get is getting hard to play
How can I resist? Love has got me saying, baby
"Give it up - bang, bang - before it be gone!"
Hide the bone

[Interlude]
Hide the bone
Hey baby
(Bone)

[Verse 3]
You are going to ruin my reputation
I'm used to making all the rules
But I can't control this situation (I can't control it)
When it comes to me and you
You are breaking down my resistance
I won't ever be the same, oh no (Oh no)
You kiss away all my defenses
This time the hunter is captured by the game (Bone)

[Chorus]
Playing hard to get is getting hard to play
How can I be cool falling every day?
Playing hard to get is getting hard to play
How can I resist? Love has got me saying, baby
"Give it up - bang, bang - before it be gone!"
Hide the bone

[Interlude]
Ah yeah, hey
(Bone)
Whatever you do - keep it moving
Whatever you do - don't stop

[Outro]
Don't stop the groove
(Let's hide the bone)
Bone (Let's hide the bone)
What you stopping for, nigga?
I didn't tell you to stop
(Let's hide the bone)

An American singer-songwriter, musician, multi-instrumentalist, and actor that produced 22 RIAA-platinum albums during his 40-year career, Prince may be known for one of many different things – his turn as “The Kid” in the iconic film/album/8 ½ minute ballad “Purple Rain”, being the writer behind the acclaimed anthem “Kiss,” rivaling Michael Jackson at the pinnacle of his career, being the inspiration behind censorship laws, or being the artist addressed as an unpronounceable symbol throughout the 1990s—but while many know of Prince, most don’t fully understand the impact his legacy left on this world.

Going by many aliases throughout his life, Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on June 7, 1958 with his father’s (John L. Nelson) stage name as his own given one. Growing up, Prince suffered from serious epileptic seizures at a very young age, but he had wrote his first composition of many by age seven, and outside of his love for basketball, he wanted music to be his purpose in life. His tumultuous childhood, witnessing alcoholism and abuse, caused him to find refuge in neighbor André Cymone’s home in his teens, where the two competed in local band competitions, leading to Prince’s introduction to Morris Day alongside music with his cousin’s band 94 East, leading him to be courted by record labels and ultimately signed to Warner Bros. Records with complete creative control; at 19, his debut album, For You (1978) was released – Prince played all 19 instruments on the record.

Influenced by the likes of Miles Davis, Rick James, and James Brown, Prince desired to form a music dynasty and after the success of his next albums – the platinum-selling Prince (1979), the sexually-charged Dirty Mind (1980), and politically-motivated Controversy (1981) – he negotiated for the ability to form his own label and manage artists of his own. Prince’s trademark sexual/religious rhetoric within pop-and-dance, funk-rock sound gained him a following, but his opening slates for Rick James and The Rolling Stones were both negatively received and facing bankruptcy, the young artist began to reach for mainstream popularity. Cashing on the drug-influenced doomsday mania of the times, 1982’s 1999 easily achieved that mainstream appeal, landing him on MTV, music charts, and radio stations across the world.

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