Prince has never been a stranger to controversy. He constantly challenged gender and sex norms both musically and aesthetically. Back in the 80s, it was extremely taboo to try and tackle any of those kinds of ideas. But he released enough timeless records and fantastic albums at such a prolific rate, it was impossible to ignore him.
However, there is one song in his catalogue that has gone under the radar for years, and it’s his most controversial by far. Back in 1980, Prince released his subversive, rugged album Dirty Mind. Towards the end of the album, there’s “Sister”, an inflammatory song about incest. He sang about being 16 years old and being preyed upon by his 32-year-old sister and how it sparked his sexual awakening.
“My sister never made love to anyone else but me/She’s the reason for my, uh, sexuality/Showed me where it’s supposed to go/A blow job doesn’t mean blow/Incest is everything it’s said to be,” the Minnesotan legend cooed.
Naturally, fans and skeptics alike were aghast at how he could sing about such a wild topic. Moreover, it begged the question: did he actually have sex with his sister?
Prince Released an Insanely Controversial Song About Incest Back in 1980
The Purple Rain star never made it explicitly clear whether or not “Sister” came from a real place or not. The initial instinct is to believe that he’s trying to spark a reaction from the audience, given the rest of the X-rated songwriting on Dirty Mind.
However, a 1981 interview with the Kingsport Times-News suggested that Prince only wanted to write from his own experiences. Not doing so made him especially thorny towards the state of the industry at the time.
“I only write about things that occur,” he told the publication. “I’m not going to sit around and make up a bunch of phony stories about fantasies and such and put that out. That would make me a lot of money, but it’s not the way it should be done. I’m not going to bow down to the establishment to make records like they want me to make. That’s why there’s a record sales slump.”
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Prince talked about it as just another part of life. “It’s something that’s inside of all of us to some degree, whether we like it or not. We may think about it or encounter it in some form or other,” he said.
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