Prince

Released: February 14, 1997

Songwriter: Prince

Producer: Prince

[Verse 1]
What if half the things ever said
Turned out to be a lie
How will you know the Truth?
If you were given all the answers
And you stopped to wonder why
But how will you know the Truth?

[Chorus]
Everybody's got a right to love
Everybody's got a right to lie
But the choice you make it ain't no piece of cake
It ain't no motherfuckin' piece of pie

[Verse 2]
What if Time's only reason
Was to give us all something to fear?
And if so you all, the end of the journey's so clear
Questionnaire: What did you stand for?
Questionnaire: Who did you save?
When it gets right down to wait a minute
When it gets right down to the nitty of the gritty
When it gets right down to it you take more than you gave

[Chorus]
Everybody's got a right to love
Everybody's got a right to lie
But the choice you make it ain't no piece of cake
It ain't no motherfuckin' piece of pie

[Bridge]
Mmmm oh
Got to (Going to?) tell the truth you all
Got to tell the truth
Got to tell the truth you all
Got to tell the truth
Got to tell the truth you all
Got to tell the truth

[Outro]
If there was just one day
That everybody tell the truth
We'd all trade bank accounts and move to Neptune

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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