Questlove shares a love letter to Prince on 30th anniversary of Sign O’ The Times

The Roots drummer looks back on Prince’s career fondly

Questlove has shared a post today (31 March), paying tribute to The Purple One and his classic album Sign O’ The Times.

Accompanying an image from the album cover’s shoot, he captions, “#SignOTheTimes was essentially a catalog album showing a collection of his range and perfect songwriting, pop craftsmanship. ace musicianship, and just plain weirdo magic.”

He goes on to say,”… most artists get 2 albums to blow our minds before they start coasting on autopilot. the fact that Prince has 12-14 albums worth of grade A material is a miracle… each album making you “WHOA!” more than the last time. this is Jordan winning 6 rings on The Bulls. This is Curry shooting 8 3pt shots in a row from half court. i can’t come up with a more explosive definition of why on its 30th anniversary, Sign O’ The Times is just as magic today is it ALWAYS was.”

Sign O’ The Times was released on 31 March, 1987 via Park Paisley Records and Warner Bros Records to critical acclaim. The album was the first to be released after Prince’s disbanding of The Revolution. It pulled material from two projects that the artist had been working on prior to the album’s release – Dream Factory with The Revolution and the solo effort Camille.

See the post below.

there will be no high like the high music fans felt when Prince was releasing magic every year like it was chewing gum. he made it look THAT easy. i feel some sort of way about Sign O The Times. I’m one of those spoiled cats that appreciate his output. but i also cap “the genius period” from 78-88 (and if you REALLY wanna get to the zone, i say 1982-1987 were the core years in the magic 10)— #SignOTheTimes was essentially a catalog album showing a collection of his range and perfect songwriting, pop craftsmanship. ace musicianship, and just plain weirdo magic. this would mark the last time Prince’s music would shock and surprise me. not to be mistaken for “the last time Prince made music i cared about” or “his last good album”—most artists get 2 albums to blow our minds before they start coasting on autopilot. the fact that Prince has 12-14 albums worth of grade A material is a miracle (dont forget his prolific pen game on Sheila E., Vanity/Apollonia 6, The Time/The Family & Jill Jones projects) each album making you “WHOA!” more than the last time. this is Jordan winning 6 rings on The Bulls. This is Curry shooting 8 3pt shots in a row from half court. i can’t come up with a more explosive definition of why on its 30th anniversary, Sign O’ The Times is just as magic today is it ALWAYS was. if you are in the “what’s the big deal?” zone. brush up on your history. songwriting and arranging is a dangerous game. you gotta be effective. hit bullseye. be original. shocking, digestible, and 14 other things i haven’t mentioned. if you are a @prince newbie i say start from the top w 78’s For You and move forward. or the very end and work backwards. this way you get the full scope of his range. it doesn’t get any better than this. Happy 30th Anniversary #SignOTheTimes

A post shared by Questlove Gomez (@questlove) on