Precocious Prince Revealed in Rare Footage

Screenshot: WCCO - CBS Minnesota

The keen eye of Minnesota news production manager Matt Liddy, unearthed a long-lost treasure recently in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

A Minnesota native, Liddy, was looking through archival footage for WCCO, where he works, last month when he spotted a familiar face in a story about a school strike that took place in 1970.

The resemblance to Minnesota's Muse, the Purple One himself —Prince, as an 11-year-old speaking in support of the teacher's strike was so stunning that Liddy immediately ran to the newsroom to confirm that he was not crazy.

"I immediately just went out to the newsroom and started showing people [the footage] and saying, 'I'm not going to tell you who I think this is, but who do you think this is?" he told WCCO.

According to Liddy, every single person responded "Prince."

Still, after being advised by experts that pre-teen videos of Prince are nearly nonexistent, the team at WCCO had to go the extra mile to verify the video and confirm that their footage contained a rare look at the legend who came to embody the Minnesota music scene as a child.

After restoring the video, the station found Kristen Zschomler, a professional historian, archeologist and researcher who has written extensively on his journey from Minneapolis’ northside to Paisley Park and the world.

When she was shown the clip, in which the young boy is called Skipper by his classmates (a nickname Prince had as a child), she was convinced it was the star immediately.

“I think that’s him, definitely. Oh my gosh! Yeah, I think that’s definitely Prince,” Zschomler said. “This definitely looks like Lincoln Junior High School where he would have been attending school in April of 1970."

The news team got its final confirmation when it hunted down Terrance Jackson, a childhood friend and former neighbor who was also in the singer’s first band, Grand Central, as teens.

“We go far back as kindergarten at John Hay Elementary in north Minneapolis,” Jackson told WCCO.

“That is Prince! Standing right there with the hat on, right? That’s Skipper! Oh my God!" Jackson exclaimed.

So, what did the star, who died at age 57 in 2016 from a fentanyl overdose, have to say about the striking teachers?

“I think they should get some more money because they be working extra hours for us," he said.

Watch the clip below for the entire story:

Video Surfaces of Dead Rapper, Goonew, on Display at Memoriam Party in DC Nightclub

©Instagram

While most of the music world was focused on the 2022 Grammy Awards Sunday night —with more than a few viewers tuned in to see if the celebration would top the fireworks at the Academy Awards the previous week —a party in memoriam of rapper Goonew, went viral for a moment more shocking than Will Smith's Oscar-night slap of Chris Rock.

The Baltimore, Maryland, based musician, born Markelle Morrow, who died after being found shot last month in a parking lot at the age of 24, had his corpse put on display at a shocking memorial service at Washington, DC’s Bliss nightclub.

Video leaked from the event shows Morrow's body propped up on stage with a crown on his head while patrons danced and drank at the event, which was reportedly set up by the rapper's friends and family to honor his memory and required a $40 entry fee.

Reaction to the display was swift once the footage hit social media with most people decrying the display as disrespectful and demeaning to the deceased.

Tbh goonew deserved way better in my opinion, long live him tho❤️ pic.twitter.com/BdNs9fX6tB

— t3❤️‍🔥 (@3babyrackz) April 3, 2022

if y’all saw that video with Goonew’s body y’all can’t tell me this society ain’t already collapsed…

— silent hater (@doompeyton) April 4, 2022

Monday, Bliss posted an apology on Instagram saying the venue was not aware of the details of the service before it took place.

“Our deepest condolences to Goonew’s family, friends and fans,” the venue wrote. “Bliss was contacted by a local funeral home to rent out our venue for Goonew’s home-going celebration.

“Bliss was never made aware of what would transpire. We sincerely apologize to all those who may be upset or offended,” the venue continued. “Please keep Goonew’s family and friends in your prayers at this difficult time.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BLISS NIGHTCLUB : D.C. (@blissclubdc)

The Prince George’s County Police Department’s Homicide Unit detectives are still investigating Morrow's death, which the family believes was a robbery that ended in murder and are working to identify and arrest the suspect or suspects who shot and killed him. There is currently a $25,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest of a suspect in the shooting.

UCLA Taps Public Enemy Frontman, Chuck D, to Help Establish School as Leading Center for Hip-Hop Studies

Courtesy of California African American Museum

Chuck D will be the first artist-in-residence for a program aimed at establishing UCLA as a "leading center for hip-hop studies."

Monday, the school's Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies announced that the Public Enemy frontman will begin participating this week in a series of on-campus events that bring together artists and members of the community.

UCLA's Hip Hop Initiative will employ artist residencies, community engagement programs, a book series, an oral history and digital archive project, postdoctoral fellowships and more to amplify the voices of the medium the school identifies as "one of modern history's most powerful cultural movements and most visible symbols of contemporary Black performance and protest."

Anthropology professor H. Samy Alim, who is heading the initiative, has been working towards it for decades with his colleagues. UCLA says it builds on the wealth of hip-hop scholarship produced at UCLA and across institutes of higher education since the 1990s.

Courtesy UCLA

A sampling of books on hip-hop and Black culture by UCLA faculty members who will play an integral role in the new Hip Hop Initiative

"As we celebrate 50 years of hip-hop music and cultural history, the rigorous study of the culture offers us a wealth of intellectual insight into the massive social and political impact of Black music, Black history and Black people on global culture — from language, dance, visual art and fashion to electoral politics, political activism and more," Alim said.

Co-leading the initiative with Alim are Bunche Center assistant director Tabia Shawel and Samuel Lamontagne, a doctoral candidate in the department of ethnomusicology.

Lamontagne, whose dissertation reexamines Los Angeles' hip-hop history, said that with the launch of the initiative the school will become the first major West Coast destination for scholarly explorations of hip-hop culture.

"Our goal," he said, "is also to advance the legacy of UCLA by producing original, creative, public-facing, social justice–oriented work and building bridges between academia and the community by discussing the implications of scholarly research and how it can serve Black and brown communities in Los Angeles."