‘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.

“Prince was tremendously influenced by Minneapolis,” Shabazz said, “…Prince’s sound was really made up of four basic music forms, rhythm, and blues…it created an endless landscape for him to explore…plus he could explore all of those genres.”

Prince, who is recognized as one of the greatest musicians of all time, is also one of the greatest composers ever.

“I would argue that he is the most important musician in American history,” Shabazz discussed, “…no other musician was able to do musically, which was to sort of stitch different parts of American music genres together, but he was able to do it in a time of deep contention and division.”

Shabazz emphasized how much music segregation existed throughout the city, as white musicians typically played indie and punk rock uptown. While black musicians played much more funk and blues on the south side.

“What he (Prince) did is he heard the entire city,” Shabazz said, “…he heard downtown, he heard uptown…he was able to stitch them together…he could take the baselines from funk, which was uptown in downtown…he was able to demonstrate the diversity of American music…bring them together to create something new, which was the Minneapolis sound.”