Since Prince passed away on April 21, fans have been in mourning, and previously unseen video footage is appearing online of The Purple One performing, in one case with rapper Kendrick Lamar.
The performance in question reportedly happened two years ago and was live-streamed. Most of us didn’t even know it had happened, but now the footage has been released online of Prince freestyle-jamming with Lamar.
It is so sad, but so true, that many of us didn’t know great musicians like David Bowie and Prince well until they left this world. We appreciated their music but never realized the depth of their genius and what they had left behind for us. As the days go by, more and more incredible music is being revealed.
Prince and @KendrickLamar onstage together? Yes please – watch here https://t.co/ru0r68SZZO pic.twitter.com/006id37mY7
— NME (@NME) May 5, 2016
This rare video footage shows Prince performing with the rapper back in 2014 at Prince’s Paisley Park estate. To celebrate the release of Prince’s albums, Plectrumelectrum and Art Official Age , Grammy-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar joined the legend on stage and the musical duo performed “What’s My Name,” from Crystal Ball , Prince’s 1998 album.
The performance was live streamed, and no video footage was available until one Facebook Prince fan group , The Prince Museum, recently released the footage. In the video footage included below, we see Lamar starting the song in his own famous style, backed by 3RDEYEGIRL, before handing over to The Purple One himself.
Slate quotes Lamar as saying that after the performance, he and Prince spent some studio time together to collaborate on his Grammy-winning album, “ To Pimp a Butterfly .” Regrettably, their collaboration never made the final cut due to time constraints, but the performance gives an idea of how great a partnership between the two musical greats could have been.
In related news on the Inquisitr:
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It is ironic that so many great videos like this one are appearing on video platforms like YouTube, as Prince was notoriously private and didn’t want to see such footage in the public eye. In fact, he made a regular habit of knocking down copyright infringers on YouTube and other video websites.
The Stranger quotes Prince’s good friend, Van Jones, as saying of this, “He felt that the musical industry had robbed him — as they had robbed so many black performers before him.”
“When he finally got his precious music catalog back under his own control, it was the ultimate vindication. He looked 100 pounds lighter—and 10 feet taller.”
While the various videos that are popping up all over the internet would have upset Prince, they do, however, give us a guilty but pleasurable insight into just how broad his musical skills actually were.
On a totally different musical note, and while there is not much information out there about the performance itself, Prince at one stage did an amazing live performance of “Motherless Child.”
Do NOT go through life never having seen Prince perform “Motherless Child,” or “Stratus” at Montreux. Holy god. . https://t.co/mmm4Zih4kf
— Mark Morford (@markmorford) May 3, 2016
The original song, known as either “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” or simply “Motherless Child,” is a traditional Negro spiritual song dating back to the era of slavery in the U.S. In those days, it was reportedly a common practice to sell children of slaves separately from their parents.
One early performance of the song was performed back in the 1870s by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, but the song has since been recorded by many well-known musicians, including Eric Clapton.
Prince gives his own magical touch to the song below, backed by Larry Graham on bass. Many people who commented on the video said they felt The Purple One had taken them to church, “but in a good way.”
[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]
