I Wonder U

How Prince Went beyond Race and Back

Author: Adilifu Nama

I Wonder U purposefully straddles the fence between academic and trade book and uniquely situates this book as having a high degree of commercial crossover appeal.. Commercially, I Wonder U is a compelling project to an extremely large audience of music, film, popular culture and Prince enthusiasts The first book to situate race as the driving force to capture the vibrant and compelling meaning and ideological import of the content, nature and style of Prince's music, film and video work. The written analysis is impactful and accessible by a writing style that is a mix of the popular parlance found in black culture with a post-structural interpretive sensibility. The book is also academic in the sense that I do not skimp on the rigor of the racial analysis and tackling the combustible topic of race in America

Revealing how he continually subverted cultural expectations, I Wonder U examines the entirety of Prince's diverse career as a singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, record label mogul, movie star, and director.

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Featured in the 2020 Association of University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show

In 1993, Prince infamously changed his name to a unique, unpronounceable symbol. Yet this was only one of a long string of self-reinventions orchestrated by Prince as he refused to be typecast by the music industry's limiting definitions of masculinity and femininity, of straightness and queerness, of authenticity and artifice, or of black music and white music.

Revealing how he continually subverted cultural expectations, I Wonder U examines the entirety of Prince's diverse career as a singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, record label mogul, movie star, and director. It shows how, by blending elements of R&B, rock, and new wave into an extremely videogenic package, Prince was able to overcome the color barrier that kept black artists off of MTV. Yet even at his greatest crossover success, he still worked hard to retain his credibility among black music fans. In this way, Adilifu Nama suggests, Prince was able to assert a distinctly black political sensibility while still being perceived as a unique musical genius whose appeal transcended racial boundaries.

Critic Reviews

“"Dr. Nama explores the life of Prince through the lens of racial politics and the American music industry to illuminate the ways that Prince acted as a racial 'shape shifter.' This book will make you think, make you laugh and make you critically reflect on the constant shifting gendered and racial attitudes American society continues to grapple with."”

"A must for Prince fans and for readers interested in his impact on the music industry, pop culture, and race and gender theory."— Library Journal
“Adilifu Nama’s work is a sharp, incisive, and fresh take on the life and career of Prince Rogers Nelson. He seamlessly weaves in a critical yet thoughtful analysis of the intersections of race, masculinity, and sexuality while simultaneously chronicling the evolution of Prince’s music. For the Prince fan, it is a must read.”— Matthew Oware, author of I Got Something to Say: Gender, Race, and Social Consciousness in Rap Music
— Sheena Howard, author of Encyclopedia of Black Comics
"A must for cultural studies practitioners, especially those who analyze the work of iconic figures."— Cercles

About the Author

ADILIFU NAMA is a professor of African American Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He has written numerous books about the intersection between African American Studies and pop culture, including Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes and Race on the QT: Blackness and the Films of Quentin Tarantino.

More on this Book

Featured in the 2020 Association of University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show In 1993, Prince infamously changed his name to a unique, unpronounceable symbol. Yet this was only one of a long string of self-reinventions orchestrated by Prince as he refused to be typecast by the music industry?s limiting definitions of masculinity and femininity, of straightness and queerness, of authenticity and artifice, or of black music and white music. Revealing how he continually subverted cultural expectations, I Wonder U examines the entirety of Prince?s diverse career as a singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, record label mogul, movie star, and director. It shows how, by blending elements of R&B, rock, and new wave into an extremely videogenic package, Prince was able to overcome the color barrier that kept black artists off of MTV. Yet even at his greatest crossover success, he still worked hard to retain his credibility among black music fans. In this way, Adilifu Nama suggests, Prince was able to assert a distinctly black political sensibility while still being perceived as a unique musical genius whose appeal transcended racial boundaries.