The Minneapolis Sound

A basement in North Minneapolis, 1958. A band called the Big Ms—students from North High School—cut Minnesota's first R&B record in someone's house. Prince Rogers Nelson was born that same year. The timing reads like destiny now, but the connection runs deeper: those Big Ms created a template. Black kids in a segregated city making music on their own terms. No permission, no proper studios, because the infrastructure wouldn't have them anyway.