2. Prince, The RevolutionPurple Rain

Prince came to my first Essence Festival in New Orleans. My mom was like, “We need to go see Luther Vandross”. And I was like, “OK, fine.” But Prince was there, and that was it. Nothing else needs to be said. I see my spirit animal and it is Prince. He isn’t just an artist. He created a sound era, and that’s something that no other artist could do. The only other person I can think of is Quincy Jones or Berry Gordy. When I say an era of sound, he had multiple people from Apollonia to Sheila E., to Cindi Lauper, to Sinead O’Connor. All of them. It’s a sound. And Purple Rain was the the gateway drug to that.

He is so musically inclined, playing over seven different instruments. But ‘Purple Rain’, to me, is a ballad that no one can touch. I’ve not heard a record that can speak at that level, because his voice is, number one, insane. But bigger than that, the guitar speaks in such a way that the melody itself can be sung. It’s so unique. I don’t know of a ballad that is as profound as that one, or that catchy, that needed, that classic, that timeless.