Prince Told the Truth About America Through His Music
Five years after the icon’s death, a deep dive proves his catalog to be timely — and political — as ever
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Prince died as Donald Trump was on the warpath to becoming president in 2016, and I’ve spent the last five years fighting the superstitious urge to connect those dots. Trump was boorish (and criminal) enough during America’s four-year red fugue state to justify any disgust and blame that could be lobbed in his direction, and I haven’t yet fully pivoted into this shiny new age where we don’t have a boogeyman as president. It’s been a hard five years since Prince died, both because he passed away and, despite that fact, what with all the glowing-hot White supremacy and rampant communicable disease. I freely admit that I’ve occasionally whiled away the time picking at the scab of wondering what Prince would make of the world he left behind.
The good news is that we can, in part, know some things. As news of a new Prince album makes the rounds — the long-shelved Welcome 2 America — there is a prescience in its composition. Lyrical references to the failure of the American dream of capitalism, the dangers of social media…
