If I Gave You Diamonds and Pearls…

The Prince Estate is re-releasing Diamonds and Pearls with a super deluxe edition and I can’t wait. I don’t listen to it often these days, but it was very influential to me in my formative years.

For my 7th grade art project we had to draw something special as a still life. I was and still am a terrible drawer, but I brought in a sampling of my Prince collection at the time. I’m sure the teacher must’ve raised an eyebrow when she saw me trying to draw my Gett Off cassette single with b/w Horny Pony.

And I remember playing “Thunder” for my cousin Jessica in her car when she took me onto UC’s campus for lunch one sunny day. Or maybe it was rainy. I don’t remember.

The beautiful Black girls on the school bus, plus one freckled white girl named Tammy, would sing the “D to the I to the A to the M…” part of the song Diamonds and Pearls in the afternoons on the way home. And I wanted so much to join in and sing with them but was always too scared of what people would think. Besides, it was really a Rosie Gains kinda moment, not a Matthew moment I suppose.

This one girl, I still remember this from 7th grade, told this big involved story about how her auntie was this huge Prince fan and wore purple, everything purple, to see him play in concert thinking she’d be all matchy matchy with him because he’d certainly be wearing purple too, “…and then he came out on the stage wearin black and my auntie was SALTY”

🧂🤣