At atlantas fox theater. He apologized for cancelling his sold out concert a week prior. Fans say he did not appear to be sick. They said his voice did crackle a bit when he spoke. It did not impact his singing. He ended with three encores. He didnt perform saturday again at paisley park trying to waive off any concerns about his health. Tonight, fans all over the world remembering the singers expansive legacy. He was just 52, but he was a giant in the entertainment world. He released some 39 studio albums. Of course, it was this one, 1984s purple rain that made him a household name. He was constantly breaking news ground over a career that spanned more than 40 years. He was a 2004 music hall of famer, a 7 time grammy award winner. He won a golden globe. He won an oscar as well. More than 100 million records sold worldwide. He mentored new artists. He was influenced heavily by the god father of soul, the beetles, jimi hendrix. He was famously private, mysterious. His battles with the record industry was well documented. Notably in 1993 when he changed his name to that symbol during the dispute with Warner Brothers. Last year he performed with Stevie Wonder. Today president obama calling him quote, one of the most gifted and prolific musicians of our time. As well as a virtuoso instrumentalist and electrifying performer. Fans gathering outside paisley park, outside his home there. Hugging and it is, were told, poignantly raining there at paisley mark. A makeshift memorial at that estate. At the apollo, nothing compares to you. The team was reportedly single little red corvette in the clubhouse. He was the face of mtv and carson, my wife and i were talking earlier about, you know, back in the 80s, prince videos on mtv were cause to stop whatever you were doing and watch and sing along and dance along if you could. He will most sorely be missed. What will you miss, sir . I dont know where to begin, craig. Like you said in the open, hes 52 but he was a giant. My time at mtv with the slogan of i want my mtv. It was because of people like prince and what he was doing that was the reason you wanted your mtv. We have lost a lot of musicians recently, tragically too. This one is different. How many people can say they really invented a sound and left the sound. Thats what he did. Prolifically musical. He played every instrument possible. Most guys that did that or artists that did that did it because they couldnt sing. He had one of the greatest voices in music history. If you look at social media, the impact far and wide from kiss to katy perry. Everything and genre and age group in between shows the impact. Then you throw losing the impact of somebody so globally loved at 57 so quickly, youve got the biggest story in news. Ive seen a number of live shows. The best live show i have ever seen s seen, hands down. 2004. I was second row. What was just as impressive as you mention the sheer number of instruments that he played, he had nine or ten costume changes as well. Became a fashion icon. I mean, he was all of it. He was notoriously late which was typical. He wasnt really around in my era of mtv as pop was exploid explo exploding. Prince was on. He showed up one day on trl about two minutes before we went off the air. We were all like, your call time was an hour ago. He said, i dont wear a watch. He doesnt believe in time. Thats who he was. He was eclectic. It was on his terms. Thats what made him so special. Musically live, there was nobody better. Before i let you go, ive got to think theres a treasuretrove of unreleased music at paisley park thats going to blow our mind for the next 10, 20 years. Do you know anything about that . I dont. I believe his autobiography was set to be released next year. I cant confirm this. I can only imagine and heard there was a subsequent sound track, if you will, new music, songs that would go with that autobiography. Youll have that if that should surface. Because of his privacy is his house and recording studio, here in days and months to go, i can only imagine there will be that treasuretrove of tracks that will come out and then theyll have to figure out. He was music in and out. I still hope theres a lot to come out. This is people are still in shock here. Its just thats the one thing if you look at twitter feed. Im in shock. Please say its not true. Just 57 years old. Thanks. I know youre busy. Do appreciate you. Any time, craig. Thank you. Vanessa is editor and chief of essence magazine. James peterson from lehigh university. Lets bring them into the conversation. Vanessa, let me start with you. Are you there . Yes, i am. You know, prince was also one of these artists that transcending race. I remember growing up and there were only, i shouldnt say only, but i listened to two artists growing up. It was Michael Jackson and it was prince. Thats right. Prince really was a ground breaker. When you think about all of his music videos. You think about the popularity of them and around the time mtv was becoming extremely popular. He knew how to use that platform in the best of ways to communicate not only his own musical tastes but also to make music that was universally accepted. There was no one really else doing it quite the way he did. He was also, vanessa, lets not dance around this. He was unapologetically sexual. He was hyper sexual. In fact, you could argue that prince essentially sung about three things. God, romance and he sung about sex. That was a lot of what prince was. He certainly was very provocative. He wasnt afraid to go there in his music, lyrics. He also and the way he dressed. He wore high heels. He wore thongs. He pressed his hair. It was all a part of his selfexpression. Just so we could all be comfortable and push the envelope. He wanted to question the conventional wisdom. Like why are we afraid to go there with a certain look or why do certain looks give us pause . He wanted us to really question our comfortabilities with certain things. I think that was all a part of his incredible influence. James, you would probably say that my previous assessment was a bit shallow. Princes music was about more than just god, romance and sex. Well, i think, i wont critique you. What ill say is that when you look at the body of work, it really is a cornucopia of like black musical sounds. All the im talking about the musical production itself, and the form the music could take. I think youre right about the content. I might had he also had like narratives of just personal pain and struggle in his music as well. I think whats just as important is to think about the broad range of musical representation. I call it a cornucopia but he works across so many gidifferen genres. Hes got a deep voice but almost a perfect falsetto. I think the form of his vocalization are just as important as the content. You and i, a lot of folks around our age, folks younger and older, literally have songs from princes body of work that helped formulate the sound track of their lives. Songs like purple rain or kiss or adore. We can point to those songs and think about specific moments in our own lives. Thats what the greatest gift of music, period. Prince was exceptionally good at providing those different sound tracks for us. I think a lot of us are still just really wrestling with all this. Its still hard to kind of like wrap your head around it. Part of that is because hes been part of our lives. His music has been a part of our lives for decades. As my friend and producer pointed out, shes arguably the biggest prince fan in here. She pointed out something in car ride over. She said unlike a lot of artist, every album sounded the same. I think about musicology and that could have passed for a jazz album. Some of his earlier works that was rock and pop and then the r and b. Theres not a lot of artists today, yesterday, ever who can say that. Not a lot of artist who is have the capabilities to express that range. This is why the love symbol error of prince is so important. Its not it is about the fact hes fighting the Music Industry and hes making a very strategic move to work his way out of the Warner Brothers contract. He records all those albums in a couple of years to give himself to contractual one up. As much fun as people had and made of the artist formerly known as prince or trying to think about how you might pronounce the love symbol. What that really represents, that symbol represents his absolute uniqueness in the world of pop culture and music. I want represents his distinction. Hes so good, so gifted, so wide range in his different interests in terms of music and capacity to perform and produce and sing across musical genres that he knew he would win a battle throughout the history of black music and pop music is unwinnable battle. That love symbol is really an embl emblemmatic moment. It shows us hes distinguished among some of his great peers and his faits and hh and own wo. He knew it would live on and win the day and ultimately it did. I should probably apologize to a few folks out there. I received a few messages saying they are the biggest prince fan. I wont use that anymore throughout the hour. Vanessa, favorite prince song. Its so hard to choose. I mean i love when doves cry. I love 1999. I could pick one from every album. Dont ask me to pick just one. Its too hard. Its too hard. James peterson big thanks to you on this sad day. Joe fryer is sandi instandi los angeles. The response from musicians, artists, actors. We heard from the president. The responses have been coming in fast and furiously over the past few hours. This is hitting the music world and celebrities especially hard because of the influence hes had on pretty much anyone who has made music in the last 30 plus years. Its really interesting. Will smith posted something on facebook saying not only is he stunned and heartbroken but he actually spoke with prince just last night. He says today jade and i mourn with all you have the loss of a beautiful poet, a true inspiration and a magnificent artist. Hes not the only one mourning. Stevie nicks said my friend is gone. This is what it sounds like when doves cry. He was my dove. Hearing from justin timer bberl who said numb, stunned this cant be real. Ma ddonna said he changed the world. What a loss. Devastated. This is not a love song. All of these celebrities deeply impacted. Ive been spending much offed today working on stories about purple rain. That was the 1984 movie and sound track that really launched prince into super stardom. It has an influence on so many artists, so many incredible songs came out of that movie, including lets go crazy. Take me with you, when doves cry and purple rain. Im from minnesota. Thats where prince was born. Thats where he spent a good deal of his career. Thats where paisley park is. His impact was unbelievable. If you were listening to the radio on minnesota, at least once an hour if you were listening to any sort of mainstream or pop station, you would hear a prince song. He was that ingrained in the culture of minnesota. I know friends and family there, this is hitting them pretty hard. Craig. Thank you, sir. When we come back, more on the life, more on the legacy. Also, more on the philanthropy. Also a very, very generous man as well. The new yorker just released next weeks cover. Purple rain. Baby i could never steal you from another its such a shame our friendship had to end cant afford to let heartburn get in the way . Try nexium 24hr, the 1 selling brand for frequent heartburn. Get complete protection with the leader in frequent heartburn. Thats nexium level protection. Were always looking for ways to speed up your Car Insurance search. Heres the latest. Problem is, we havent figured out how to reverse it. For now, just log on to compare. Com. Plug in some simple info and get up to 50 free quotes. Choose the lowest and hit purchase. Now. If youll excuse me, im late for an important function. Compare. Com. Saving humanity from high insurance rates. Welcome back. We want to play you some revealing tape. He didnt do a lot of tv. He had just released the album musicology. Lets watch. I know you say youve been recording music consistently and playing music over the last couple of years and writing music. Most people would say they havent seen a lot of you in the last couple of years in terms of interviews like this one and in terms of tours. Why are you out there now . Touring or touring, doing interviews like this. Not something you love to do. I always did coming talking to you. Youre a cool cat. Im just trying to let people know we got this cd in stores. Its a pop record. Its something that i think folks that so into our music club stuff could get into. Some people are saying prince is making a comeback. How do you feel about that term . What am i coming back to . Have you been away . Not at all. Weve been touring extensively for the past five years really. Let me ask you about reviews. How much do you Pay Attention to them . I sort of love the concert reviews. I get into those. Sometimes theyre really funny. How about the cd reviews . Well, i dont get into those so much. Theyre usually written by popsicle salesman. Why did you call it musicology, by the way . The song musicology was the first one i recorded. It seemed to encompass everything that this album is. Its a return to real music and all thats good and funky in music. A statement that you think the Music Industry has gotten way from real music in the past especially with some of the newer artists. Is that fair . I think everybody feels like that. Its pretty obvious. There seems to be a glut of proce processed, prepackaged, producer driven music out there now. Im just trying to bring real mu musicians into the scene. You said it took me four albums to get on the cover of rolling stones. Now it takes only one. There should be some sort of rules. I was joking. Dwroo you think that artists coming up today dont have to pay the dues that you paid 25 years ago . I dont focus on that as much as i notice that a lot of these acts are thrust into the spotlight so quickly. They dont have time to hone their craft and, we played this clubs a lot when we started out. Thats where a lot of the freaky pictures come from. It was harder, more adult audience. You think they are set up for the rapid raise and set up for the rapid decline as well . You have to talk to one of the great keepers for that. Im just a little old guitar playing man trying to get my thing together. April ryan is the Washington Bureau chief for american radio networks. For the purposes of this conversation a huge prince fan as well. Huge is it. I gauge people who claim their fans or are fans of prince, prepurple rain and postpurple rain. I was a fan since eighth grade. Ive got the album with me. The prince album. His first album when he was 19 years old. You is see that. Ive got six albums with me. You know, for purposes of politics, one of the albums that i have is prince. This was considered the dirtiest album ever. Tippor gore went to Congress Talking about the music and this album was deemed the dirtiest albums ever. Its one of his earliest albums and a lot of songs are still amazing. I have like six in my collection. Ill tell you something, prince didnt just come on the scene. We talked about this issue with tippor gore. He also had a lot of fans to include fans at the white house, particularly this president and first lady. In june of last year, prince performed for president obama and Michelle Obama and a crowd of 500 people in a private concert. He even brought Stevie Wonder on the stage to jam with some of his songs. The president found out about the death of prince while he was on the plane flying from saudi to london today. He issued a statement talking about how he was an icon and the music and the brand of music that he had and he expressed his sympathies to the family, to the fans and to his band members. You have to remember when you talk about prince, he didnt just span the time with music but he touched politics. He touched some controversial issues in this nation. You had a former first lady was on capitol hill protesting against some of his music. You had this president embrace him. Even when president obama was running for president , when he was then senator obama, he and then mrs. Michelle obama were at an naacp image award concert where they were rocking out to prince on the image awards. You could see them in the front row. Prince has touched so many people with his music. April ryan. Thank you. Thank you so much for your perspective. I was only able to go to one prince concert in my lifetime. Youve been to how many . About seven. The last concert i attended was in baltimore. The baltimore concert where he brought the city states attorney on stage. That was a historic concert. Im from baltimore. Ive seen prince in baltimore, new york and washington, d. C. My father took me to my first prince concert in the snow when he used to wear leg warmers and high heels and a trench coat and a scarf and nothing else. Quick break. More on the music legend of prince who died at the age of 57. Youre watching msnbc. Its been seven hours and 13 days since you took your love away dont let dust and allergies get between you and lifes beautiful moments. With flonase allergy relief, they wont. Most allergy pills only control one inflammatory substance. Flonase controls six. And six is greater than one. Flonase changes everything. Its everything youve ialways wanted. And you work hard to keep it that way. Sometimes. Maybe too hard. Get claim rateguard® from allstate. It helps keep your homeowners rate from going up just because of a claim. So protect your home and your rates. Talk to a local allstate agent and discover how much more their personal service can do for you. Twell what if i told you that peanuts can work for you . Thats right. Im talking full time delivery of 7 grams of protein ever see a peanut and 6 estake a day off . Ts. I dont think so. Rness the hardworking and 6 power of the peanut. You live life your way. We can help you retire your way, too. Fincial guidance while youre mastering life. From chase. So you can. Were back with msnbc special coverage with the death of music icon, prince. Joining me is a music journalist and prince biographer. You literally wrote a book on the legend, allen. What dont we know about prince . What have we not been talking about today . Its hard to know the answer to that because were all talking about him so much. I think that his its very his willingness to take risks with his work and music. I think that really stands as an inspiration for all the artists that have come out. I think his willingness to experiment with what his art sounded like, what his music sounded like regardless of what other people were going to put up with it. Then taking that to the fight on the business side of artists rights and control of your own catalog. Thank you. Msnbcs tremaine lee with me. He had facetoface meeting with prince last summer in minneapolis at paisley park. Good to be with you. Good to see you. What was that like . Ill tell you what. First id be remiss if i dont recount my earliest recollection of prince. I