This past Thursday, the world was shocked at the news of the sudden of a musical icon: Prince. Prince started his career with his first full length album “For You” in 1978. The next year he put out his self-titled album, which soon became platinum and created some of his most famous song, such as “I Wanna Be Your Lover”. He continued creating albums that were hailed with the greatest of successes. But most of his success was found in the year of 1984 when he released “Purple Rain” which was an accompaniment to the film of the same name in which he also starred in, showing of his skills. The album is considered by many as a musical masterpiece and as Prince’s magnum opus. The album went 13x platinum in the United States and is also platinum in Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland. His career was not only that, as he continued making amazing albums and memorable songs up until this past year when he released “HitNRun Phase One” this past September and “HitNRun Phase Two” which was released exclusively on Tidal in December then released to the world in January. These albums were the final albums of Prince and meant to be the final chapter of music made by Prince. Now I could honestly go on and on about his illustrious music career, but it was the statements that Prince made in his personality that revolutionized and changed the mindset of many of that time.

When you hear about David Bowie, you hear about how his feminine persona and how he broke the barriers of gender in the time he lived. Prince did the same in his career, but for an entirely different audience. While many of the white lgbtq+ find inspiration in David Bowie, Prince gives that same inspiration to people of color experimenting with their gender identity. Not only did he inspire those battling with their gender, he inspired the common person. He promoted being yourself no matter what anyone though. He wore what he pleased and did not let any critic scare him into the proximities of hyper-masculinity. The fact that he did all this while dealing with the struggles of being an African-American is completely astonishing. Prince broke the notion that people have to fit a mold and wanted everyone, whether they were a fan or not, to do the same.

The world was completely stunned by this and many of the music world gave their respects to the life of the man that deserved it. Old stars like Billy Joel, Lionel Richie, and Slash paid their respects, and modern stars such as Justin Timberlake, Steve Aoki, and MGMT showed their praise and expressed how Prince inspired them. One of the more notable mourners was President Barack Obama, who expressed that Prince could “do it all” and called him “one of the most gifted and prolific musicians of our time”. The entire world is mourning and Prince will forever be in our hearts as one of the greatest musicians in the history of music. In the end Prince’s death showed us the uncertainty of living and in the words of Prince himself “Dearly beloved we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life”.