Tuesday, December 25, 1979, Minneapolis, MN
So apparently, it just slipped out of WB's mind that Prince had a break from December fourth to February eighth. I don't understand how you can forget that but hey, I'm not complaining. After eight days of touring, he came back to MPLS and said he will be here for the next two months or so. But that was then and this is today and today is not about touring, it's about getting and giving gifts and love.
Later today, we are all (all being Angela, Kenya, Morris, Andre, Prince and I) meeting up at Prince's house to eat some good takeout food and talk about Christmas like things. The catch is that whoever comes has to bring a gift for their assigned person. I thought that Prince would want to invite Denise but she is in Canada at the moment.
Oh! How could I possibly forget. I am shunned by almost all jazz critics out there because my new album, Pizazz, is apparently "not jazzy enough". I get that it is a more of an R&B album than jazz but there are some jazz songs on it. I didn't want to get drawn into it so I just ignored their comments. Besides, the album debuted at number two on the jazz charts and number 11 on the soul charts. Also, Haven't You Heard, reached number seven on the US R&B charts and number five on the US Dance charts. I am overjoyed. I can't express my happiness with the reception of this record. There is also a pretty good cash flow but it isn't anything too crazy. Right now my life is on a good track and my focus is music.
As for Prince, I'm going to see him in a little bit. He is recording his first music video. He started recording yesterday but I couldn't be there because I had a meeting with the team over at Elektra and then I had a doctors appointment. Today is the last day of his video recording and he wanted me there but asked without any reasoning. I said sure because, I mean, why not? That's what's going on right about now. He is driving us to his video shoot. He shot two scenes yesterday and he plans on finishing it all today. "Why are you so quiet over there?" Prince asks, drawing my attention from the other moving cars to only him.
"Huh?" I confusedly ask.
"What? Cats got your tongue? You ok over there?" Prince questions with a chuckle, referring to my noticeable silence.
"Yeah. I'm just thinking about life and how great everything is going. For you, me, people." I answer honestly.
Prince nods in understanding. "So are you excited?" I ask him, referring to his first music video.
"Not really. I can't stand lip syncing. We are here, by the way." He says while pulling into the parking lot of the empty club. We walk in and say hi to everyone that's there. The director, the producer, the directors assistant, the hair stylist, the makeup artist.
"It's good to see you again, Prince. It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Rushen. Prince, I need you back stage to get ready because we start recording in an hour and a half." The director named Dave says, guiding the two girls standing behind him forward. "This is the hairstylist, Kim and the makeup artist, Kate. These two lovely twins will help you get ready for the video, once again." He continues.
Prince shoots him two thumbs up and heads to the dressing with his hand in mine. Prince opens the door letting, Kim, Kate, Me, and himself inside in that order. Ever since I met Prince, he has been a gentleman. I hope he doesn't change. "Please sit down in this chair so I can get started on your hair." Kim quietly asks.
Prince does as told and I sit next Kate on the couch. She sparks up some small talk. "Hi. I really like your braids. I used to wear braids like this without the beads before Kate gave me the buzz cut. Is it all yours?" She asks leaning on her hand.
"Yeah. I have been growing it out since I was about 15." I simply say as I lean back on the couch.
"Wow. I should do that again. You have officially inspired me." Kate says with a chuckle while combing out her ear length cut.
I laugh with her to ease the little tension. "How long have you and Prince been dating?" She asks in all seriousness.
I hear Prince snicker and I snicker with him before truthfully answering her personal question. "No, we aren't dating. We are just really close friends." I honestly say.
"Oh. My bad. I didn't mean to cross any boundaries." She quickly apologizes.
"No it's fine." I say with a slight chuckle.
"Kate! I'm finished! You can do his makeup now." Kim says before sitting next to me where Kim was sitting.
"Oh. Well, it was nice meeting you, Ms. Rushen." Kate says before shaming my hand.
"Please, call me Patrice." I say before returning the handshake.
"Well, uh, it was nice meeting you Patrice." Kate says with a giggle before rushing to Prince's side.
"Are you ready to knock this out in two takes, Prince?" Dave asks Prince, who is already standing ready on the stage.
Prince simply nods before looking my way. I flash him a bright smile and the ok sign before the director calls out. "Ok aaaannnnddddd PLAYBACK!" Dave shouts.
The song that is supposedly "about me" starts and everybody's eyes are solely fixed on Prince yet it doesn't seem to phase his shy demeanor at all. He is just up there doing his own thing and doing it oh so well.
It's crazy how my little peanut is all grown and what not, acting all sexy and what have you. He's 21 but still. Ugh, you don't understand how confusing this is for me.
Then, he wants to go and point at me right before going into the hook, causing the twins to look at him, then back at me before giggling. I just continue staring at my best friend, who has me mesmerized.
He is really loving the blown out hair. I knew he would. Hmph, he will thank me later.
The song comes to an end shortly after. He walks off the stage and right past everybody but stops at me. He grabs my hand and leads me back to the dressing room quickly. We enter and we sit down on the couch. "What did you think?" Prince eagerly asks me, referring to the music video.
"I thought it was great. You will thank me for the hair later." I say with a slight chuckle.
"Yes. Thank you. I have to go back and do another shot. You wanna stay in here or do you wanna come back out to watch?" Prince asks.
"I'm gonna stay here until your done, if you don't mind." I say.
"Sure. I will be back." Prince responds before exiting the dressing room.
When the door closes, I pull out my handy dandy notebook and pencil... that should be a catch phrase on kid show. Babies would love it. Whatever.
I take out my notebook and pencil and start writing. Sometimes, when I write, I just let everything flow out unknowingly, including the things that I have tried to forget about. This is one of those times.
You took all the hurt away
When my heart was down
Showed me I was beautiful and made me smile
Always so dependable
A treasure seldom found
There is much in you to be admired
Now you're wanting happiness
To be evermore
And I should be happy and even overjoyed
But my heart is telling me
Deep inside I know
Best of friends is as far as we go
If only I could be
In love like you want me to
Life would be so fine
If only all the love
In your heart for me
Could be here for you in mine
I know how it feels inside
To have love unreturned
I know that it seems your love will forever burn
How I wish that I could be
The way you were for me
And give you all the things that your heart needs
If only I could be
In love like you want me to
Then your eyes would not cry
If only all the love
That you feel for me
I could feel for you inside, ohhh
There's nothing i can do
I'm not in love with you
If only I could be
In love like you want me to, oh-ohhh
Life would be so fine
If only all the love
In your heart for me
Could be here for you in mine
If only I could be
In love like you want me to
Life would be so fine
If only
I title it If Only. I don't know who this is about and let's just leave it at that. This is going to be one long ass Christmas.
When Prince was done recording, Dave said he would get the completed video, edited and all, in a month or so. With that Prince left in the outfit that he was recording the video in and we went to go pick up Angela. So now, it is Prince and I in the front and Angela in the back asking a million and one questions. "Is Kenya gonna be there? She said she was going to make me a dress. She better bring it." Angela ask with much attitude.
I giggle at her newfound bubbly persona. "Yeah, she will be there." I say, answering her question.
"Good. By the way, I'm digging the outfit, Prince." Angela compliments.
He sheepishly smiles before accepting the compliment. "Thanks." Prince shyly says.
We pull up in front of Prince's house, behind Morris' bright green car, to find Morris, Andre, and Kenya sitting on the stoop, holding on to their coats for dear life. "It's about mutha-fuckin' time y'all showed the fuck up! It's colder than a motherfucker out here. You act like we got time to adapt to this weather and shit." Morris complains while rising to his feet and walking up the stairs.
We all exit the car and walk up the stairs too. "You want me to give you more time to adapt to this weather then?" Prince fires back while putting his hands in his pocket, not reaching for the keys.
He need to hurry up because I'm cold out here too, shit. "Nah man, just open the damn door." Morris whines.
"Yeah, keep running your big ass mouth and I will leave your ass right out here." Prince says while opening up the door, letting everyone and closing it square in Morris' face.
Morris sucks his teeth before ringing the doorbell at least hundred times. "Yes what do you need?" Prince asks with a Minnesotan accent as he opens the door up to speak to Morris.
"Can you please let me in?" Morris pleads with a fake smile plastered on his face.
Everybody laughs at the whole scene. "Sure cuzzin, why not?" Prince rhetorically asks as if nothing happened at all, letting Morris in.
Everyone hangs their coat on the hook and sit. "So we can either get Chinese or pizza. All those for Chinese, raise a hand." Prince announces as he settles on the couch next to me.
Everyone raises a hand except Kenya and Andre. "Well, Chinese food it is. What do y'all want?" He ask everybody.
"Chicken wings and French fries." Morris explains.
"Shrimp egg fu young, please." Angela adds.
"Chicken with broccoli." Kenya says.
"Same thing." Andre quickly replies before turning back to flipping through tv channels.
Before I could even say Sesame Chicken, P speaks. "And for you sesame chicken with brown rice and two egg rolls, right?" He asks in a confident tone.
That's the same order I got when we had Chinese food back in the studio over a year ago. That's all I ever eat when it comes to Chinese food. I remember that day, too. It was the first time I really got to know him and he got to know me.
I nod with a chuckle. "Yeah. That's it. And for you, stir fried noodles, correct?" I question in the same manner.
"You know it. Let me go make the orders. I'll be right back." P says before getting up and heading to the kitchen to place the order.
"Well dang. Y'all know each other like the back of your hands, huh?" Morris asks.
"I guess, I don't know." I truthfully say unknowingly.
"It sure seems like it. I'm not surprised, though. Y'all cute." Andre adds in.
"Yeah, yeah. Can y'all stop talking bout the two love birds and find a movie to watch on tv? It's boring up in here." Kenya says saving me from one of the most awkward conversations of my whole life.
I am ecstatic that God made Kenya and I best friends because I don't know what I would do without her crazy self in my life. She always knew how I felt even when I spoke zero words or performed zero "out of the ordinary" actions. She always just knew, you know? The only other people I have that kind of connection with is Angela and Prince. I thought I had some kind of close relationship with Charles but I'm not even going to get into that bull crap. Before anyone could make the situation weirder, P walks into the living room and takes his seat back on the couch. "So the food should be here in about 20 to 25 minutes so what do y'all wanna do until then?" Prince asks.
"Gifts!" Kenya screams in excitement.
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The little get together is over now but boy was the party extremely fun. We were constantly cracking jokes on each other. Andre brought over some old photos of him and the guys. They were so adorable but man, they swore that they were some players back then. I mean, not much changed for Morris or Andre or Prince because they still strongly believe that, but you really couldn't tell them nothing back then. But Prince was so adorable when he was younger. I mean, he is growing up to look fine but back then he was adorable.
And then of course, Kenya had to pull out the old photo book, too. I wasn't too much of a looker like Kenya was. I mean, Kenya was, and still is, drop dead gorgeous.
I, on the other hand, I am still developing. I guess I have changed a bit but that is beyond the point. The point is that in high school, I was just cute.
It just wasn't until my curves came and my braids stated trending that men were lining up to meet me, not to mention the buzz I was getting in the jazz world that had gained me some more popularity. Then of course, people wanted to get close to me because of the fame but that is a whole other story that we won't get into right now. But the last picture in the embarrassing photo album was more recent of me at a photo shoot for the Pizzaz album.
I will forever have a 12 year old face, huh?
Anyways, after we looked at the photo albums, Kenya insisted on exchanging gifts. We had previously worked out the arrangements so I got Andre's gift (a watch), Andre got Kenya's gift (a book on sewing), Kenya got Morris' gift (a mirror as a joke and then a ring with an M on it), Morris got Angela's gift (a poster that said "Q: How many lawyers does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Three, One to climb the ladder. One to shake it. And one to sue the ladder company" which she found extremely hilarious), Angela got Prince'a gift (a bag of guitar picks) and Prince got my gift (the a-track for the album Fire It Up by Rick James).
People are shocked to know that I'm a huge Rick James fan because I am a jazz musician but it's whatever to me. His music is dope and I enjoy it. Hmph.
After we exchanged gifts, we ate Chinese food and watched Christmas Lilies of the Field. P and Andre didn't really want to watch it because it sounded boring but it was four against two, once again. Kenya, Angela and I wanted to see Billy Dee Williams while Morris wanted to see Fay Hauser so Christmas Lilies of the Field it was. I thought the movie was beautiful and so did everyone else, for the most part but P fell asleep with his head in my lap and Morris fell asleep in the chair.
By then, the movie was over and it was time to go so we all said our goodbyes and headed on out. When I got home, I called P as promised. We talked for a little bit but I fell asleep like twice so he finally let me go. Overall tonight was fun and one of the best Christmas nights I have had. If only it was always Christmas.
Anyways, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight.