Kamilah Cummings
Kamilah Cummings
ATWIAD #2 Presentation
Colorful People
Reclaiming the Psychedelic Soul Roots of Prince’s Around the World in a Day
Following Purple Rain, Prince’s Around the World in a Day album marked what appeared to be a radical sonic and thematic departure. Many critics hastily labeled it “Prince’s Beatles album,” continuing the practice of crediting musical innovation to whiteness. This presentation challenges this persistent mischaracterization and instead situates the album within the lineage of psychedelic soul music. By reframing the album as a continuation of the innovative work of artists such as Charles Stepney, Norman Whitfield, Funkadelic, The Chambers Brothers, and Sly and the Family Stone, this discussion highlights the ways in which Prince was not imitating white psychedelic rock but rather expanding upon the work of his Black musical influences, who have been historically overlooked.
Blending funk, soul, blues, gospel, and rock with sophisticated orchestration and social commentary—both overt and coded, Around the World in a Day is more musically varied and thematically complex than the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band album, which is frequently and inaccurately positioned as its primary influence—despite Prince, himself, stating that it was not. On this album, Prince, like his Black predecessors, used psychedelia as a space for cultural critique, escapism, and sonic experimentation. This analysis firmly positions Around the World in a Day not as a departure from Black musical tradition, but as a progression of it—an affirmation of its limitlessness.
Kamilah Cummings is a writer, editor, and visiting senior lecturer at DePaul University in Chicago. She has presented on Prince at Purple Reign, the first academic Prince conference (University of Salford, UK), and polished solid Prince symposia at New York University, Spelman College, and online. She has also presented on Prince at The 2021 Pop Convergence (PopCon).
Her work on Prince has been published in the Howard Journal of Communications, the Journal of Popular Music Studies, AMP: American Music Perspectives, and Prince and Popular Music: Critical Perspectives on an Interdisciplinary Life (Bloomsbury). She has also created the course, Prince: A New Breed Leader.
A House music researcher as well, she created the course The House Chicago Built, has presented on House music at Black Portraiture[s] IV (Harvard University), and appears as a featured speaker in the documentary The Woodstock of House. She is passionate about exploring the intersections of race and identity in media and pop culture, with a particular focus on centering Blackness in the narratives of Black people.
Violet Brown
Violet Brown
Romance 1600 Roundtable
Violet Brown is a Civil Rights Attorney, Constitutional Law Professor, Musician, and … PrinceGirl4Ever. Raised by two Prince Fam Parents (dad especially) she grew up on his music; Purple Rain being the first song she learned to play on keys, Musicology being the tour that changed her life. In addition to helping cultivate diversity in the Minnesota Law School and Legal Worlds, Violet plays bass, keeps positivity flowing about Prince, music in general, and all things related via her social media, and has traveled the globe visiting Prince-related historical locations, attending concerts, and continuing to support The Work of Real Music by Real Musicians.
Tonya Pendleton
Tonya Pendleton
Romance 1600 Roundtable
Tonya Pendleton is a cultural critic, entertainment industry veteran writer, editor, broadcaster, and multimedia journalist with a two-decade history in news, sports, lifestyle, and entertainment reporting. In her current position as “Things To Do” curator for WHYY, she crafts content for a local and global audience. The Philadelphia resident was born and raised in New York City and is a graduate of The New School and host of “Reality Check on WURD Radio”.
Tonya Giddens
Tonya Giddens
Romance 1600 Roundtable
Tonya Giddens has always had a passion for fashion and music. A former plus-size model, she has graced numerous runways and served as the Beauty Director for Full Figured Fashion Week®—a groundbreaking event that celebrates the visibility and style of plus-size women.
Tammy Sharpe
Tammy Sharpe
The Family Roundtable
Tammy Sharpe, a Brooklyn native, is a Visual Merchandising Manager, Stylist, Event Planner, and Creative Designer. She’s had the pleasure of styling Janet Jackson, Leslie Uggams, Rosie O’Donnell, Natalie Merchant, Roberta Flack, Cynthia Nixon, and more.
From the tender age of 5, she has embarked on a lifelong purple journey. She has since amassed a formidable collection of memories, having attended a plethora of his shows over the years.
Indelibly influenced by the legendary Prince, she has meticulously crafted her approach to fashion down to the tiniest details. Prince’s impact on her style is undeniable—a constant source of inspiration.
“Style is not thinking about style. So let me stop.” ~Prince
Ricky Wyatt
Ricky Wyatt
The Family Roundtable
Ricky Wyatt, “The Ricker,” is a bassist, performer, comic book author, long time Prince fan and a disciple of the MPLS sound. A native of Atlanta, GA, currently living in Richmond, VA. Ricky leads the jazz-funk unit “SoWhut?!” and the R&B unit “Footprints.” A graduate of Virginia State University’s Department of Political Science, and a student of Prince’s purple grooves since ’79, Ricky teaches History at the Binford Middle Arts & Integration Program for Richmond Public Schools and maintains an active performance schedule. Ricky often guests on What Did Prince Do This Week?
Rhonda Nicole
Rhonda Nicole
The Family Presentation
Echoing Like a Volcano
The Fantastic Love Story That Is “The Screams of Passion”
In this gorgeously poetic masterpiece, one of the finest from his oeuvre, Prince entices us to embark on the romantic journey of a lifetime in the song “The Screams of Passion.” Animated by the palpable chemistry between The Family’s lead vocalists St. Paul and Susannah, the third track from the band’s eponymous debut blends Prince’s signature funk with sumptuous lyrics that lead us down the long, twisting corridors of intimacy on the way to sexual ecstasy.
Come, follow me…
Rhonda Nicole is a Los Angeles-based independent singer/songwriter, music journalist, and social and digital marketing executive whose life officially turned purple in 1984. As the managing editor for the now-defunct SoulTrain.com, she interviewed a number of Prince-related artists including Jill Jones, Taja Sevelle, fDeluxe, Liv Warfield, and Andy Allo. Blending her passion for music and expertise in digital marketing, Rhonda Nicole developed and led social media strategy for the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville. She’s a proud member of the Los Angeles chapter of the Recording Academy where she serves on the Advocacy Committee; Songwriters of North America (SONA); and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Rhonda Nicole’s 2010 debut EP, ‘Nuda Veritas’, and self-produced releases ‘Radical Ecstasy’, ‘Home’, ‘LOVER’, her 2024 single ”Love Letters,” and her newest single “Brand New Thing” are available on Bandcamp and all streaming platforms.
Randy Ferguson
Randy Ferguson
Romance 1600 Roundtable
Randy Ferguson is a DJ, musician, playlist curator, musicologist, and diversity & inclusion professional. He received his bachelor’s in Economics and his master’s in Higher Educational Administration, both at Stony Brook University. He currently works at NewYork-Presbyterian as a Program Manager in Diversity and Inclusion.
His love of music has been with him all his life. He went into music as a hobby, as he started writing lyrics and composing music by the age of 12. He started learning how to produce music by the age of 14. Then, he started DJing by 19, which he currently does.
His curated playlists, as he describes his playlists “as an album listening experience.” He has curated up to 20 playlists. He is a huge fan of Prince, Michael Jackson, and Stevie Wonder (his top 3 artists of all time) and studied their music and life, which opened the doors for him to become a musicologist. He hopes to dedicate his life to music by starting hisHe hopes to dedicate his life to music by starting his own entertainment conglomerate company.
Melissa A. Weber
Melissa A. Weber
The Family Roundtable
Melissa A. Weber is an artist-scholar and music historian whose areas of interest and expertise include 20th century popular music, the music and culture of her native New Orleans, and archives. Her expertise and research has resulted in writing and/or presentations for the American Musicological Society, Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), International Association for the Study of Popular Music, Pop Conference, Radio Preservation Task Force at the Library of Congress, and Society for Ethnomusicology, among others.
Professionally, she serves as curator of the Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz, a unit of Tulane University Special Collections. As an adjunct professor, she teaches History of Urban Music at Loyola University New Orleans.
In her spare time, and under the moniker of Soul Sister, she has hosted her Soul Power show on WWOZ FM New Orleans community radio station for over 30 years as of 2024. As a performance DJ, she has shared stages with artists ranging from Questlove to George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic and was the first DJ to receive a prestigious Big Easy Entertainment Award. Her broadcast programs and live performances feature only the music she loves, from her personal collection of vinyl: 1970s and 1980s R&B, funk, disco, jazz, rare groove, rare groove, jazz fusion, true school hip hop and more.
Her record collection earned her a spot in the 2014 book Dust & Grooves: Adventures in Record Collecting and the documentary Dig We Must, slated for summer 2025 release.
Her writing includes pieces for the Journal of Popular Music Studies, Wax Poetics, Red Bull Music Academy; Vinyl Me, Please; and an essay about Parliament-Funkadelic in the 2024 book How Women Made Music: A Revolutionary History from NPR Music.
She first fell in love with Prince in 1980 with the 45 she owned of “Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad” (and “Baby” on the B-side). She has thrown Prince-themed gatherings, including dance parties, film screenings, and talks, in New Orleans since 2013, and opened (as DJ Soul Sister) for The Revolution in 2018.
L*A*W
L.A.W.
The Family Roundtable
Most fans know L*A*W as the singer / rapper / dancer / producer & multi-instrumentalist In Funk Legend George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic and various offshoots of the legendary P-Funk camp but millions have seen him on national television back at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards & David Letterman in his white kangol glory singing & dancing behind the late legendary British sensation Amy Winehouse as well as being her opening act for her sold-out shows in New York City with his own fiery red-hot 7-piece musically diverse, notorious high energy band, The Planet 12 Movement Being the grandson of Long Island Music Hall Of Fame Inductee / Blues-Soul legend The Late Sam “Bluzman” Taylor & Coming from one of the most famous families in music history, this Brooklyn hood boy from the Crown Heights section has been known to make Hip-Hop (Underground & Commercial styles) work in his favor fusing Funk, Blues, Rock & Roll, R&B/Soul & elements while embracing Country, Pop, Jazz & even Techno exist under one roof while at the same time balancing the commercial element but still staying true to his underground roots. This has resulted in 3 Critically Acclaimed albums that turned into over 40 licensed songs to various networks VH-1, NBA, TV-1, Oxygen, Bravo, A&E, Lifetime & popular MTV shows like “The Real World: Brooklyn & Hollywood” In addition to the P-Funk camp, L*A*W’s musical reputation has firmly placed him among the elite in the Minneapolis camp of his #1 idol Prince thanks to his touring with Morris Day & The Time & more recently, the popular song “She Can Get It” which he not only wrote & produced but also features Minneapolis legends Jellybean Johnson, Monte Moir & Tony M Of The New Power Generation. L*A*W’s historic stint with Amy Winehouse can be captured in the Grammy & Oscar Award Winning Documentary “Amy” which has cemented L*A*W as one of the best & most sought after singer/dancers in the music industry. With a platinum roster of artists, he’s either opened up for or worked with like Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Marva King, Bruno Mars, Black Eyed Peas, Ne-Yo, Lionel Richie, Eric Burdon, Rick James, Chaka Khan, Harry Connick Jr, Fishbone, James Ingram, Jeffrey Osborne, Dionne Warwick & Deniece Williams, L*A*W continues to be an independent but major musical force that’s causing the industry to rewrite their terms and now with his hot buzzing Planet 12 Podcast on Instagram where he showcases his notorious extreme music knowledge & having convos with everyone from Vanessa Williams to Big Daddy Kane. There’s no stopping the Planet 12 Movement soon!