"See, me and Prince had a deal..."
(In the mid-’70s, Pepe Willie—a New York writer, musician and producer—went into the Cook House Studio in Minneapolis with two teenaged musicians, Andre Cymone and Prince Nelson. At the time, Willie was married to Nelson’s first cousin, Shantel Manderville.
"See, me and Prince had a deal..."
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J. Kordosh
(In the mid-’70s, Pepe Willie—a New York writer, musician and producer—went into the Cook House Studio in Minneapolis with two teenaged musicians, Andre Cymone and Prince Nelson. At the time, Willie was married to Nelson’s first cousin, Shantel Manderville. A number of tracks were recorded, which have surfaced on a six-song record, Minneapolis Genius: The Historic 1977 Recordings.
Although Prince doesn’t sing on the record, he does play on all six tracks, and co-wrote ‘‘Just Another Sucker” with Willie. The tracks are the earliest recordings of Prince available, and the only known pre-Warner Bros, sessions in existence.
Here, Pepe Willie explains his relationship with the youthful [and latter-day] Prince, how the Minneapolis Genius sessions came about, and why he waited so long to release the recordings.)
Have you heard from Prince about this thing at all?
Uh—yeah, you know (laughs). He likes the album.
Have you talked to him yourself, or have you heard this through the grapevine?