[Tapper:] Wow. What a great memory that was. Welcome back to THE LEAD. We've seen Prince command a lead like that one. We know he didn't particularly care for interviews. In fact, he described himself as shy. But in the last day or so, we're learning quite a bit about another side of Prince. Many of his friends described as hilarious. They say if he hadn't been a singer, he would have made an incredible comedian. One of my next guests found that out during a show of his own, Cedric the Entertainer joins me on the phone. Also with us, Chuck D., part of the legendary hip hop group, Public Enemy. Thanks to both of you for joining me. Cedric, let me start with you. Tell us how you came to know Prince. I understand, you told a joke about him during one of your shows.
[Cedric The Entertainer:] Yes. He was a guy who loves all kinds of entertainment and so I was in Minneapolis early in my career, you know, smaller venue and I'm doing a joke about, you know, like how your relatives borrow your clothes and I said, Prince has got a nephew or niece, maybe get something out of your closet? He said, I have these pants with the butt cheeks out and he's like, nah, you can keep those. Everybody was laughing and it was a funny joke and then later on in my dressing room, Prince heard that joke and they sent this note and said he invited me out to Paisley Park. It was like crazy, like I couldn't believe he was sitting in the audience in the corner like and saw it and so since then I've been invited to the house several times. I was on stage with him in Los Angeles singing "Raspberry Beret" and stopped the music and said, do you know the words? I said, I know it my way. I worked at five and dime. My boss was Mr. McGee. I do it the way black people sing it. Any way that makes sense to them, we put it in the song.
[Tapper:] Chuck D, you collaborated with Prince on an album and you perform together. What was it like to work with him?
[Chuck D, Member, Public Enemy:] Maestro, like when you put it in the same vernacular, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, I mean, he made everything in the last 50 years for us, because he signified past, present and future. And I recorded with Prince in 1999 at Paisley Park and he had a garage sale on the lawn of Paisley Park. That's how community oriented Paisley Park was to the community. And I'm like, are you having a yard sale? Yes, I'm selling guitars and I'm like, dude. And basketball rims up in there. So, it was a mind-blowing experience and any time that he was on stage and I was in the audience, he would call me up to do what I do and I'm like, OK, I'm awe struck but I better get my head focus and do the thing.
[Tapper:] So incredible. Cedric, in recent years, we've lost several icons, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, David Bowie earlier this year
[Cedric The Entertainer:] Maurice White.
[Tapper:] Yes.
[Cedric:] I mean, you think about it, just losing so many people that mean their music lives on, though. It's the thing about everybody has a great first story how it touches you, how his music made something very specific for you, you know. And I remember the song that came out and I lived in St. Louis and it was such a big hit. I remember that I radio played it like eight times in a row and nobody complained. Like people just people just let the radio play the song over and over again one night. It was just nobody worried about. We just loved that song when it came out and remember, you know, that was the effect that he had on people like that with his songs and his music.
[Tapper:] I think I played "When Doves Cry" six times on my way to work six times today. What about you? What have you been playing, Cedric?
[Cedric:] I'm doing dance music, "Sex for Romance," "Holding my Mead" and all those in the last few days and "Erotic City" is for the deep- voice brothers. That's a song I can actually sing in my range.
[Tapper:] What about you, chuck?
[Chuck D:] Yes. My radio rap station, "Dan Mr. Man," Sign of the Times," did a song called "Undisputed," "Let's Go Crazy." You know, another thing about Prince, remember the time recently that he revolutionized the MP3 movement and digital music and we ran toe to toe in trying to liberate music. And he doesn't get the credit that he deserves to make everybody get the music out or whatever and people also tend to forget when they say he was making too much music, that's impossible because now it's like Picasso. It's not enough and they will be minding his music for the next 50 to 100 years as long as they have players or ears to listen. Prince was always in the future. If you want to talk about anything from the past, I know you kind of remember this, Ced, being from St. Louis, Prince selling out eight in a row Jo Louis arenas on a concert in Detroit. I'm like, eight in a row?
[Cedric:] Dude, he could sell out a show. He was so magical. Prince could sell out a show the day he's coming. You wouldn't even know he's coming.
[Chuck D:] Right.
[Cedric:] That's how quickly, it's gone, like everybody
[Chuck D:] Before the internet, right? It was like, Prince was already on the internet before the internet took hold. How do people know about this gig? Prince sent it out.
[Cedric:] And he would play these great late-night parties that everybody would talk about. He would have somebody cooking and people at his house, and Adam Levine singing and just crazy, like you had to be like breakfast and food and he would be walking around cool just like a regular dude. Amazing.
[Tapper:] Chuck, was he like go ahead, Chuck.
[Chuck D:] Well, another thing, Prince in the last 20 years was saying everything is very relevant to the environment and the world and social status thing, everything up to the last minute with a song called "Baltimore." And he's always liberating women to be musicians and it's like a world is missing a note when he actually, you know, transitioned. We salute him. We salute him with the utmost respect.
[Tapper:] Such an honor to listen to you two. Such an honor to listen to you two, Chuck and Cedric, thank you so much.
[Cedric:] Thank you, Jake. I appreciate it, man. Long live Prince.
[Chuck D:] Yep. Thanks, Jake. Thanks a lot, Ced.
[Tapper:] Thanks, guys. Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life, it means forever and that's a mighty long time, but I'm here to tell you there's something else, the afterworld. Powerful world from Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" being felt now perhaps more than ever. The world has got a look of Prince today. Emotional tributes unfolding across the performer's front gate in Minneapolis and coloring the world's landmarks thousands of miles away. In London, President Obama prepared for a meeting with the British prime minister by listening to a little bit of Prince.
[Barack Obama, President Of The United States Of America:] It so happens our ambassador has a turn table and so this morning we played "Purple Rain" and "Delirious" just to get warmed up.
[Tapper:] Back home in the states, Niagara Falls roared into a new hue. At first, for the birthday of Queen Elizabeth and then for Prince. From the great wheel in Seattle to landmarks in San Francisco and Los Angeles, America turned to the color of rock royalty. New Orleans superdome alight, Baltimore beaming. The rapper, "The Gain" penned a new song in Prince's honor, "Rest in Purple" was posted on Sound Cloud mere hours after the news broke. Not only paying tribute to Prince but to the other icons lost. The song's title, a shared expression among Prince's fans who left flowers and messages at Paisley Park where Prince performed just a few days ago. Fans took Prince with them into the streets as well. Celebrating his life at iconic First Avenue in Minneapolis where he got his start. In Brooklyn, Spike Lee orchestrated a block party for the purple one, it drew thousands.
[Spike Lee, Director:] Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today for this thing called life.
[Tapper:] And for a star this bright, Broadway did not dim its lights. Instead, the cast of "Hamilton" concluded with a dance. And Jennifer Hudson in the cast to sing "What Else." We'll be right back.