André Cymone
Prince's childhood friend and bassist on his first three albums who co-wrote early hits and helped establish the Minneapolis Sound's foundation. They shared a household for a time and hung around The Way community center together, absorbing R&B and funk from older musicians like Pierre Lewis and Sonny Thompson. His hard-driving, funky bass lines provided propulsion without dominating the mix, leaving space for synths and guitars. Those early sexual experiences in a Minneapolis basement with Prince and neighborhood girls—the ones Prince referenced in his 1983 Musician interview as shaping the values of his earliest songs—Cymone was there. As Prince told the magazine, those experiences in "a dank, dark Minneapolis basement" mirrored the experiences and insecurity of a liberated generation. The music became a vehicle for exploring loneliness interwoven with sexuality. Cymone's bass work on "For You," "Prince," and "Dirty Mind" established the template: less bass-heavy than traditional funk, with the bottom end creating propulsion rather than domination. He left Prince's band in 1981 as Prince's control tightened and began his solo career in 1982, continuing to explore the Minneapolis Sound's potential outside Prince's shadow.