Prince Rogers Nelson, The High Priest of Pop, was a master of many things. Making music? Well, that’s obvious. Visual choral interpretation? Oh, yes. Dance? You know he was good! Acting? Well…..
But Prince’s most honed and sharpened skill? The one he mastered in a style no one else has ever had the pair of, um….fortitudes, to pull off?
Oh, that was shade, and no one could throw it like His Royal Badness.
There’s that time in 2011 that he kicked Kim Kardashian off his stage during the middle of a show because she froze, so starstruck to be near him that she just stood there awkwardly. He did not like it. He kitten-heeled-boot-ed her right off his stage.
Or when an endless parade of earnest celebrities descended onto the stage of the 1995 American Music Awards and performed a very emotive, important version of We Are the World, and Prince was having none of it. He stood front and center with a lollipop in his mouth like he meant something by it. He did.
Do you remember how he would make no effort to hide his musical disdain when other incredibly famous, talented, yet doubtlessly inferior artists covered his songs in front of him? The moment that is actually called a tribute? He hated it. You could see it all over his face. His shady, shady, beautiful face.
And don’t even get me started on his genre defining side eye. He was truly a maestro.
So, dig if you will this entirely shade-themed video from Entertainment Tonight and bask in the cooler-than-cool shade of The Great Purple One:
