Prince of Intellectual Property: On Creatorship, Ownership, and Black Capitalism in Purple Afterworlds (Prince in/as Blackness)

Abstract

This article focuses on a relatively rarely discussed aspect of Prince’s life: his intellectual property rights politics. Despite seemingly conservative stances on infringement, Prince was an intellectual property radical, one who shaped perceptions of Black creatorship, critiqued the politics of contemporary and historical slavery, and provided space for thinking about new forms of Black capitalism. In particular, Prince’s insistence on exercising creative control in his musical life, having complete authority over his name and the labor associated with it, and managing how and where his music was distributed showcase his commitment to confronting the structural dispossession caused by copyright and trademark law. This article concludes by contending that Prince, during the 2017 Superbowl, was not simply exploited or appropriated by White capitalists but acted as a rebellious spectral presence who continues to confront the “afterlives of slavery.” Prince intrudes on the present in ways that shape the “microclimate”—and potentially shifts “the weather”—of Black creatorship, ownership, and Black capitalism, not without agency, but with the informed resistance of Black fugitivity.

Keywords:

• Prince
• Blackness
• copyright
• intellectual property
• racial capitalism
• fugitivity