‘Prince’s Minneapolis’ explores the city’s rich history of music

A new book about the history of musical sound in Minneapolis, specifically the musical genius, Prince. More than a biography of Prince, this is a biography of the city and the world from which Prince emerged.

Rashad Shabazz, the author of “Prince’s Minneapolis: A Biography of Sound and Place” and associate professor for the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss the hidden history of the Minneapolis sound, Prince, and his beloved city.

Shabazz traces the history of the Minneapolis sound alongside the city’s history, from colonial contact through periods of Indigenous removal, white settlement, mass migration, industrialization, music education, suburbanization and systemic racism. This complex history, combined with the exceptional talent cultivated in Minneapolis’s small Black communities, gave rise to a groundbreaking genre, the otherworldly legend that was Prince and music that captivated the world.