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3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Prince's Minneapolis: A Biography of Sound and Place

Prince's Minneapolis: A Biography of Sound and Place

Hardcover

Black American StudiesGeneral World HistoryRegional: Midwest

ISBN10: 1469690942
ISBN13: 9781469690940
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Published: Feb 17 2026
Pages: 272
Weight: 1.23
Height: 0.75 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English
When nineteen-year-old Prince took the stage to perform I Wanna Be Your Lover on American Bandstand, those who watched couldn't reconcile how Prince's funky disco-pop sounds had hailed from a place like Minneapolis. But the Minneapolis Sound, Prince's signature pop-musical fusion of funk, R&B, rock, punk, and new wave, did not emerge from a vacuum. The place and space of Minneapolis shaped the musical ecosystem that made Prince famous. And in turn, a complex array of social forces shaped the city's soundscape.

An expert on place, race, and culture, geographer Rashad Shabazz reveals the hidden history of the Minneapolis Sound, Prince, and Prince's beloved city. More than a biography of Prince, this is a biography of the city and the world of sound from which Prince emerged. 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.

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