|
Cindy C. is the second song on Prince’s sixteenth album “The Black Album” (originally planned for release as his tenth album, albeit with no artist credit).
While specific recording dates are not known, basic tracks were recorded in March 1987 at Prince’s Galpin Blvd Home Studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota (during the same set of sessions that produced Dead On It). After “The Black Album” was initially canceled, the track was broadcast on 9 December 1989 as part of The New Power Generation Radio Show, hosted by Prince (under the name Me, Myself and I) with Robin Power, Ingrid Chavez and Levi Seacer, Jr.
The track’s title refers to supermodel Cindy Crawford. Cat’s rap in the song (later reused in an unreleased version of Positivity), was taken from J.M. Silk’s 1985 track Music is The Key, although Prince was unaware of this at the time (he removed it from Positivity when he found out, but it is included here as a quote from Cindy C. as Prince was unaware of its origins at the time of its use). In an 2020 interview, Cat discussed the recording of her rap part: "He asked me to come Paisley Park and I don’t know if he was testing me to see if I can sing or rap but I do remember being in Studio B and him and Sheila E. were rehearsing. I think it was Le Grind, and I remember Sheila was doing her timbale solo and Prince asked me to check the mic. He said "Say something, check the mic" so I started rapping Music is The Key. I had no idea he was recording me; it was for the song called Cindy C. and he recorded it. And then we did Le Grind, Cindy C., we did Bob George… Anyway at the end of the day, he put the song on The Black Album. But Steve "Silk" Hurley, from Chicago (...) actually wrote the rap for that. It ended up on the album with me not knowing about the music industry and copyright. Before it came out, I told him. I said: "I didn’t write that rap, it’s a guy named Steve "Silk" Hurley" (...) and that was it. So we had to get clearance on that and that was the first time that Prince heard me rap."
|
