Prince's 'Slave' era and battles with Warner Bros - C/D

Classic -
Bringing artists rights and ownership to a mainstream audience and highlighting the poor treatment of many black artists at the hands of the industry
Influencing people like Frank Ocean and Rihanna to want to own their master recordings.
Fighting the good fight against the major label system.
Explaining that saying he was a slave didn't necessarily mean he was equating his predicament with people who suffered actual bondage
Seemed to fire him up in the 93-95 period creatively

Dud -
Not sure he did a good/sympathetic job of explaining his situation and why it mattered
Surely he could have done it less publically
He signed a new deal just a year earlier - after some 15 years in the business, he hadn't known about owning masters until almost right after he signed the deal?
He inevitably looked like a moany millionaire
It led to Prince signing a new deal and kind of starting again every time he had a new album/wanted to tour - maybe staying with Warners would have been better for the latter stages of his career
Writing Slave on his cheek made him look melodramatic

I recall Q had tried to get him for years to no avail but then in July '94..

https://sites.google.com/site/prninterviews/home/q-july-1994

He mentions George Michael’s court case for the first time. It’s a subject he’ll return to with astonishing regularity and persistence. At one point, he almost shouts, “Why can’t George Michael do what he wants? Why can’t he write a ballet if he wants to?” What he is talking about is artistic freedom and its place in the future. By the end of the rant, and it is a rant, I suggest that he should get in touch with George Michael as he might find such supportive words encouraging. “Oh,” he says breezily. “We speak.”

I wonder if part of him thought it was a genius PR stunt. He had no proper management or advisers in the 90s IIRC. I wonder if George Michael ever commented. Pretty sure I seem to remember madonna saying something on it.

Guess he didnt change his tune over the years

http://www.citypages.com/music/prince-leaves-journos-disappointed-likens-record-deals-to-slavery-7554284