By 1994 audiences were well aware of Prince’s resistance to being put in a box even if it still left many scratching their bopping heads…“Am I black or white?” On his 15th full-length studio album, Come, Prince revisits identity, a recurring theme in his artistry and lyrics, on the track, Race. He continues to draw attention to his humanity above all else through the song’s refrain, “Race in the space, I mark human…” However, this track is an important point in the evolution of Prince’s lyrical political consciousness as he explicitly names, racism and his views on mitigating it. In this presentation, I situate the lyrics of Race within Black Intellectual Thought to illustrate how Prince’s message converged and diverged with this tradition and implications for how society, specifically within education, addresses race and racism.

Crystal N. Wise is an assistant professor in literacy education at the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include the historical and contemporary language and literacy practices of African-Americans as acts of liberation and resistance. Her publications on Prince, “(A)Political Prince: An Analysis of Prince’s Political Consciousness” and “It’s All About What’s In Your Mind: The Origins of Prince’s Political Consciousness” explore his evolving world views and (a)political identities represented in his lyrics.

A look at the circumstances around Come‘s content & release with comparisons to his infamous previous album/bootleg.

“Lee Christian is one of my fave lyricists!” – Ace (Skunk Anansie Guitarist/Producer)

Lee Christian was a prominent figure in the Oxford music scene for over ten years as an artist, producer, remixer, event organiser and radio DJ. He’s probably best known for fronting Oxford’s “One Band Riot” (Nightshift – legendary local zine) Smilex for over a decade, but also involves himself in countless diverse musical projects like The Prohibition Smokers Club, BoyWithAToy and Chateaux69. He now lives a semi hermitic lifestyle in Bath UK, developing his eclectic musical and artistic influences.

Once the scourge of the underground gig scene, riotous rock outfit Smilex were hand-picked to support punk legends The Damned and many more, released 2 albums and a string of EPs and Singles via many indie labels including on Lee’s own Quickfix Recordings via Plastichead distribution. Produced by Ace of Skunk Anansie fame, Smilex also released collaborations with MC Lars, The Young Knives and Mr Shaodow (for the Love Music Hate Racism charity) and garnered support from XFM, 6music and a whole host of others, including being awarded Playmusic Magazine’s Best Live Unsigned Act in 2010. All of which sounds very impressive but is really nothing on just watching them destroy a venue or festival with Lee stripped to the waist covered in blood, sweat and anything the crowd might have thrown at him as he baited them.

Since the decimation of the rock band industry and Smilex’s resultant hiatus, Lee has spent the last 7 years (and albums) in Bath, (Somerset, UK) predominantly focused on his solo career, not shying away from any genre, style, or instrument – playing and producing almost everything himself. The result is a sprawling and experimental yet cohesive body of work, including Rock, Acoustic, Electronica, Dance, Hip Hop , Soul, RnB, Funk, World Music, Industrial, Punk, Trip-hop and more all in the mix.

Taking his lead from Prince (his first and foremost musical influence), and other solo pioneers like Bowie, Beck, Tricky, PJ Harvey, Bjork, Goldie, Terence Trent D’arby and more, He makes each album a new experience with new themes, songwriting processes and sonic palette while establishing and retaining signatures and signifiers that make it obvious you couldn’t be listening to anyone else. His lyrical and vocal dexterity are a rarity in today’s genre fixed and topical generalities led era. Inspired by a lifetime of classic bands and songwriters. When circumstances allow, Lee still tears of stages in a different way with his festival favourite funk battalion The Prohibition Smokers’ Club, supporting Roachford (quote: “real Musicians”), Nouvelle Vague and headlining outdoor stages at Truck, Cornbury and Wychwood and more…

His music, film and reading collections are broad and exhaustively completist and feel like a walk through a record store not a home which explains his dalliances as a music critic/writer (reviews including The Mars Volta’s first ever UK show and intimate gigs from Bob Geldof & PJ Harvey).

He has also worked as a producer, engineer, mixer, mastering engineer, remixer (a diverse list of over 30 remixes including Kellindo, MC Tunes, Shed 7, Foals, Akira The Don, Shinichi Osawa, and many more) and spent decades in radio, live event promotion and even a spot of artist management alongside his work with Quickfix Recordings (Youthmovies, Half Decent and recently Kellindo with much more to come).

Lee has produced 2 short films (one award winning) plus online shows, videos, podcasts and radio shows and co-wrote and edited a compendium book for Free Comic Day.

He also found time during Covid-19 to produce and present a Lockdown show meets InfoDump called Covideo Breakdown bringing together all types of people from all parts of the world to share their talents and skills for the education and entertainment of viewers in isolation. It grew from strength to strength each week and featured musicians from Living Colour, Skunk Anansie, Janelle Monae, Lauren Hill/Sly Stone, Desert Storm, Sinead O’Connor, Grace Jones and Frank Turner.

When circumstances allow, Lee still tears up stages in a different way with his festival favourite funk battalion The Prohibition Smokers’ Club, supporting Roachford (quote: “Real Musicians”), Nouvelle Vague and headlining outdoor stages at Truck, Cornbury and Wychwood and more.

This Year Lee released 4 singles, ‘2020’ , ‘U Work 4 US’, ‘The Sun, The Sound And U & Me’ and ‘Goth Girls Do It Better’ plus two instrumental albums, £xp0$ur£ T0k£n$ and newest release ‘Four Disastrous Acts of Judgement’ – A four track concept-instrumental album that represent the four horsemen of the apocalypse. As with most of his work, there are striking videos to accompany it. His next album z0z0 is released at the end of the year – a diary of the year that was 2020.

“Lee, you are pure genius”

– Brando Palomino Bronzino (creator of The Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall Of Fame)

Born and raised on Chicago’s south side, Chris Rob has established himself as a renowned keyboard wizard, passionate vocalist, powerful songwriter, and go-to producer. While his latest single “No Doubt” has already generated quite the buzz among his followers, most recently he co-produced “Right On Brother,” featuring the great Stevie Wonder along with industry heavyweight DJ Spinna. This hypnotic soulful house-jazz piece was included as the finale of Robert Glasper’s Miles Davis remix project Everything’s Beautiful, and received rave reviews from Rolling Stone.

Chris Rob has also become a sought after composer for film and television. He most recently scored the upcoming Netflix series The Upshaws starring Mike Epps, Kim Fields, and Wanda Sykes. In addition, he has scored for Seth Rogen’s Hilarity for Charity also on Netflix, NBC’s summer series Mr. Robinson, Showtime’s Phunny Business, and most recently Harlem Rising, which was nominated Best Documentary during 2020 Pan African Film Festival. His arrangement of “Young, Gifted, & Black” was featured on McDonald’s “Black & Positively Golden” national campaign, while one of his singles, “Sex. Money. & Drugs,” from his critically acclaimed EP Mental Notes was also featured in Tyler Perry’s film Peeples.

On his most recent EP Sound Of Da Struggle, Chris Rob shows off his hometown roots by effortlessly fusing R&B with twists of deep funk, soulful hip-hop, edgy rock, and house music. Some of his most noteworthy accomplishments include his recent tour through Europe as part of The New Stars of America: Body & Soul Tour, being a featured artist at Montreal Jazz Festival, producing for and touring with Grammy Award-winning artist Roberta Flack, opening for and performing with Stevie Wonder at President Obama’s Pre-Inaugural Ball, as well as contributing to Kanye West’s Grammy award-winning album Graduation. He also served as music director for John Legend’s Get Lifted Tour. His most recent house single “Touch The Sky” with co-producer DJ Daryl James gathered much attention on dance floor charts.

In addition to his own shows, he’s also working behind the scenes as a writer and stage director for his older brother, comedian/actor/musician Craig Robinson (The Office), as well as performing with the likes of comedian Dave Chappelle, R&B legends like Nile Rogers and Anita Baker, and hip-hop artists like Rakim and Talib Kweli. A frequent collaborator with Kweli, he has appeared on several of the legendary emcee’s critically acclaimed albums including Radio Silence & Indie 500. In turn, Kweli also appeared on Chris Rob’s epic hip hop single, “For Colored Boys.” Rob has also become a familiar face after appearing on various television shows such as Celebrity Family Feud, NBC’s The Office, Oprah, The 48th Grammy Awards, VH1’s Hip Hop Honors, as well as Last Comic Standing, on which he wrote and performed a live skit.

Chris Rob’s goal is to first and foremost: connect to the audience, using genuine and heartwarming lyrics to tap into their souls.