On April 21st, 2016 the Minneapolis native, Prince passed in Paisley Park, his recording studio and home in Chanhassen. He was initially believed to have gotten flu which turned into walking pneumonia, but now it is believed that Prince died due to a medical emergency resulting from his opioid addiction.

Prince Nelson was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota to John and Mattie Nelson. When he was young, his interest in music was sparked by his parents: a pianist and a jazz singer, respectively. He wrote his first song, “Funk Machine” at the age of seven on his father’s piano. Prince attended Minneapolis Central High School where he formed a band called Grand Central with his cousin and neighbor.

Prince’s first album “For You” was released in 1978 after he moved from Minneapolis to Sausalito, California. In this album he produced, arranged and and played all 27 instruments as he did for the majority of his music. His single “Soft and Wet” reached 12 on the Hot Soul Singles chart. His career really took off with the release of his self titled album which peaked at 11 on Billboard 100 chart with the single “I Wanna Be Your Lover.”

His greatest hits were arguably Purple Rain, Kiss, and 1999. These songs gave Prince one Academy Award, a Golden Globe, and one of his seven Grammys. Over his career he wrote for a variety of artists including Cyndi Lauper, Alicia Keys, Madonna, MC Hammer, and Chaka Khan. By the end of his career he had sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best selling artists of all time.

Towards the middle of his career, Prince chose to move his studios back to Minnesota to better connect with his roots, so he established Paisley Park in Chanhassen, Minnesota in 1985. It was here where he wrote some of his smash hits such as “Musicology,” “The Song of the Heart,” and “The Gold Experience.”

In the past few years, Prince has made several appearances in mainstream media. Notably his 2007 performance at the Grammy’s brought new life to his career. He also made appearances on shows such as the Muppets and New Girl.

After his death, many of his loyal fans gathered at Paisley Park to pay tribute to him. There were also tribute events at First Avenue and the Twins Stadium where his music and Purple Rain movie were shown. All over the globe companies and landmarks began going purple in honor of Prince. Google, the Apollo, Snapchat, and the I-35W bridge all went purple in reference to Prince’s greatest hit “Purple Rain.”

Currently there is a dispute about who will get the remainder of Prince’s 300 million dollar fortune. Since Prince never wrote a will, his fortune will likely go to his only full sister Tyka Nelson. The debate is over how much his six half-siblings should get.

They may be debate about Prince’s fortune, but there is no debate that the Prince’s legacy, due to his innovative popular music and his cultural impact, is one of the greatest legacies of artists of our time.