It never occurred to me that Prince was capable of dying until I saw the first reports that he had done just that on Thursday. He always seemed like this mythical figure that existed outside the boundaries that the rest of us occupied, and that he would go on forever being totally bizarre and effortlessly cool. He could do just about anything, and everyone would just agree that it was great.
The stories about Prince have poured in from all over, and serve as a reminder of just how singular he was as a person. We've all seen it a thousand times, but the Chappelle's Show sketch with Charlie Murphy and Prince was still one of the funniest things I've ever seen.
He once commanded Questlove to throw him a party after a show, then kicked the dude out of the DJ booth in favor of a copy of Finding Nemo.
Basically anywhere you look on the internet, there's amazing Prince stories. Talib Kweli's Twitter timeline is loaded with them. There are a bunch more stories here that I hadn't heard before, including this pearl:
"When we were leaving around 3:30 a.m., my friends and I were walking to the car when a figure emerged riding a bike toward us. We realized it was Prince wearing a white onesie riding a beach cruiser toward us. He stops and says ‘Where ya'll going? The party's just getting started.' He then laughed, rode in circles, and then rode his bike back into the building, a security guard shutting the door behind him. It was the most perfect experience to live up to his myth and completely surreal."
For a full and proper remembrance, I highly recommend this one from Bomani Jones in Playboy.
I don't know what else to say. We won't see another talent like this for a while.