Prince, Las Vegas Sun, Oct. 24, 1997

Welcoming What’s-His-Name Lisa Ferguson Friday, Oct. 24, 1997 | 9:52 a.m. Alright already, so he doesn't have a master plan. But a business plan would be more difficult to deny. As though changing his name from Prince to an unpronounceable symbol midstream in his career wasn't an ingenious enough marketing move, The Artist Formerly Known As Prince has gone a step further: He is now simply The Artist. Should he decide to transform again sometime (just when is anyone's guess), he may want to go with "The Mogul Formerly Known As ..." or maybe "The Entrepreneur." Since parting ways with his former record label, Warner Bros., in 1994 (you may recall the episode where he scrawled "Slave" on his face to protest the company's alleged stifling of his productivity), The Elusive One has taken control of his own recording and marketing ventures. And business is good. Need proof? Dial (800) NEWFUNK, The Artist's telephone version of the Home Shopping Network. Operators standing by to hawk a half-dozen or so of his CDs (now solely distributed through this number and on the Internet at www.love4oneanother.com), hats, T-shirts and key chains, among other trinkets. Sure, you lose a few bucks by not mass distributing your records through retail stores. But, The Artist said -- as only he could, inserting letters and numbers in place of whole words -- in a recent online interview with USA Today, he's more than making up for it. "If I was making the lion's share of the profit from an album that sold 100,000 copies 4 $50 apiece (U do the math), I don't need 2 go platinum," he said. "At the bank, I'm platinum at 50,000 copies. And now that I am free 2 conduct business like any other American entrepreneur, I have no ill words to speak of anyone -- inside the business or out. "I pay no agent, no manager, no merchandiser and sometimes no (concert) promoter," he said. "These R some of the things that make one feel born again. Never again will I be slave 2 a system I had no part in designing." In another brilliant stroke of marketing, The Artist is playing off his '80s anthem, "1999," as well as millennium fever, by vowing to remain on the road, touring until then. "With the last concert at a secret location to be withheld until then," he announced at a rare press conference this summer. The show's secretive nature follows suit with his current "Jam of the Year World Tour," which plays the MGM Grand Garden tonight. In an effort to thwart ticket scalpers ("Get a real job," he told them in an America Online interview this summer), venues have been booked and announced a month or less in advance of shows. Also on the road is his newlywed wife, former belly dancer Mayte Garcia, whose 21-member NPG Dance Company (named after The Artist's Band, the New Power Generation) is performing its three-act, "Around the World in a Day" modern dance tour nationwide. Detroit Free Press writer David Lyman called it "a chronological excursion through the various eras of The Artist's music." Big surprise, especially since The Artist penned several orchestral works for the company, including the "Kamasutra Ballet," which was originally written as a wedding present for Mayte last year. The Artist has also been promoting Love 4 One Another, a charitable organization he founded last year which, according to publicist-provided press information, "continues 2 be the force and the spirit behind the New Power Generation's every move." Having raised $1.7 million for children's causes (including Seattle's Youth Advancement Through Music and Art and Cleveland's Clothe-A-Child program), as well as people in need of medical attention since its inception, Love 4 One Another's other goals include constructing a school, a day-care center and a clinic in The Artist's hometown of Minneapolis. (Between 6:30-7:30 p.m. tonight, Love 4 One Another be will stationed outside the MGM Grand Garden, collecting concert-goer's used coats, which will be donated to Las Vegas' needy this winter.) The idea for the organization surfaced while he was recording "Emancipation," a lauded three-disc set that served to kick off his freedom from creative and contractual control, on his own NPG Records label. "I gained a greater sense of the connection we all share with every other living thing in the universe," he told USA Today. "No one understands better than children, who R the most non-judgmental of all." "He's always been involved (with charities), sometimes more quietly than others," explains Alan Light, editor-at-large for Vibe magazine, who spent "a bunch of time" with The Artist while writing a 1994 cover story for the magazine about him. Through interviews and by sitting in on rehearsal sessions and concerts around the globe -- from San Francisco to Monte Carlo -- Light connected with The Artist in a way few people outside his inner circle of confidantes ever do. "That story was a long process of building trust ... just to talk" to him, Light says. "Once he decides to let you inside, he's not all that weird." In the midst of name changes and battles with Warner Bros., Light says, "I had a lot more sympathy ... hearing him talk about it. I think he was getting frustrated with being such an intensively creative person and having to function within a business." His beef, Light explains, was that he was recording more records than the label would permit him to release each year. "Did you see (the movie) 'The Firm?' " Light quoted The Artist as having asked. "I feel like the music business is like that -- that they just won't let you out once you're in it. There's just a few people with all the power." And even though he's his own boss now, "Emancipation" and his most recent release, "The Crystal Ball," another three-disc set featuring previously bootlegged material, have not enjoyed the same commercial success as the now-classic Prince tunes of the '80s did. His last sizeable hit, "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" was on the charts three years ago. "I don't think he's ever gonna sell 10 or 12 million records again," Light says. But then, "Many fewer people do that now than did in 1984 anyway. Things have gotten so much more niche-driven, it's hard for anybody." No sweat off The Artist's back. "Charts, awards and grades at school R sociopsychotic illusion," he told USA Today. "Being unsigned 2 a major label is the most rewarding, least constricting way of life I've led in 20 years. Everything I do now is on the spur of the moment, which allows me freedom 2 better follow my own divine design." archive