“I go for it”: Why Prince claimed he’d never lost a street fight
Do not be fooled by his glitter-clad outfits and flamboyant persona: Prince was always hard as nails. Growing up in Minnesota during the 1960s and 1970s, Prince’s defiant, androgynous look and independent spirit regularly made him the target of harassment, discrimination, and violence. As a result of these various attacks, many of them rooted in homophobia or racism, Prince was forced to learn how to defend himself, and he did so with apparent ease.
When Prince rose to the dizzying heights of rock royalty during the 1980s, he quickly became something of a formidable character, not somebody to be messed with. A lot of this came down to his staunch sense of artistry; nobody was going to interfere in the artistic process or creation of Prince. He was always a true original, operating by his own metrics and desires. Although his music and vocal style was often quite pop-centric, flamboyant, or effeminate in its nature, there was little doubt that Prince himself was not somebody to be messed with.
Whatever the persona that Prince managed to build for himself during his catatonic rise to stardom, its essence was formed during his early years as a Minnesota youth. Born and raised in Minneapolis, a young Prince was forced to adapt to the brutal and fast-paced style of city living. On top of that, it must be remembered that society in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s, when Prince was coming of age, was still incredibly prejudiced.
Within the context of that era, Prince marked the middle of a discrimination Venn diagram, being both Black and sexually androgynous. Either of these things, in isolation, would have made life very difficult for a young kid growing up in Minneapolis during that time, but bring them together, and you start to get a picture of why Prince was forced to toughen up during his adolescence.
Reflecting on his youth during a 1981 interview with Rolling Stone, Prince recalled how he, along with his group of “lunatic” friends, “took a lot of heat all the time.” Explaining the reasons for this, the songwriter continued, “People would say something about our clothes or the way we looked or who we were with, and we’d end up fighting.”
These early experiences of violence, conflict, and fighting for your own identity stayed with Prince throughout his life, regularly providing artist inspiration to the songwriter. Most overtly, Prince drew upon his youth during the writing of his 1980 track ‘Uptown’. As the title of the track suggests, the song was largely inspired by Prince’s experiences growing up in the uptown area of Minneapolis, namely the violence that he encountered during that period of his life.
“I was a very good fighter,” he once remembered, adding, “I never lost. I don’t know if I fight fair, but I go for it.” We certainly do not doubt Prince’s ability to handle himself in a fight, particularly given his experience in that field. “That’s what ‘Uptown’ is about,” he shared, “We do whatever we want, and those who cannot deal with it have a problem within themselves.” That sentence could easily act as a mantra for the entirety of Prince’s career and existence.
Throughout his time on this planet, Prince never paid much attention to criticism or perceptions of his work. Instead, he did whatever he wanted, creating some of the greatest music and art of the period in the process. Even today, a lot about Prince remains a mystery, but one thing has always been certain: you do not mess with Prince.
