| Minneapolis Genius is the first collection of studio recordings by 94 East, the band name given to a number of tracks recorded by Pepé Willie and Prince with occasional other musicians.
The collection contained one song with writing input by Prince, Just Another Sucker, and Prince appeared as a musician on all tracks, stemming from recording sessions between 1975 and 1979 (the cover subtitle incorrectly labels the sessions as "the historic 1977 recordings"). Additional recordings and remixes were done by Pepé Willie between 1984 and 1985. The initial issue was credited to 94 East featuring Prince.
Minneapolis Genius was released without much promotion by Hot Pink Records Inc., and did not chart. Two singles (Just Another Sucker and If You Feel Like Dancin’) had no chart impact either.
A second collection, with different versions of Games and Dance To The Music Of The World and additional tracks, titled Symbolic Beginning, was released in 1995. A third collection, simply titled 94 East, with two other songs featuring Prince was released in 2002.
The collections have been since re-released multiple times with different sequences of tracks by European labels through loose license agreements with small independent labels which take advantage of gray areas of copyrights to place these records in stores. Some had artworks with Prince’s name and image featured more prominently than 94 East. This compilations were released without Pepé Willie’s consent who sent cease-and-desist letters to those labels without much success. These issues (Lovin’ Cup for instance for the Minneapolis Genius album) are not listed below being semi-official or bootlegs (only the initial release by Hot Pink Records Inc. is considered as legit). In April 2024, Minneapolis Genius was re-released as a double-LP for the Record Store Day. It is basically a re-release of Symbolic Beginning with the Minneapolis Genius title and packaging. The album was remastered and re-released in May 2024 by Charly Records with a slightly revised tracklist under the title Dance To The Music Of The World.
Prince had no input into any of the 94 East collections, however, and was upset at its releases, leading to a heated discussions between Prince and Pepé Willie in 1986 and in Early 2000.
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1986: Different Light ◄
