I want to take time to send my heartfelt condolences to the family of my friend Attrell Cortes.. Most of you know him as "Prince Be" of PM Dawn
An Avid record collector, a superb music producer and business man. We used to hit up dusty record spots all over NYC in the early 90's.. he had and still does have the most EXTENSIVE collection of versions of the classic soul break "Get out My Life Woman" I have ever heard... (i'll never forget that)
Early on he knew the importance of ownership when he was purchasing catalogs of vintage soul labels.. not records... Master copyrights to entire indie labels of soul's golden age... a purist when it came to breaks and production..I learned a lot just being around him.
years before my first placement, my first grammy nomination, my first ..anything...We were all basically kids with dreams and he was like the big brother that "made it" & because of his openness, he's always been an inspiration for me in a business of "withholders".
One of my first industry meetings/placements was with Richard Branson's V2 records..
this was through his introduction...
Prince Be was an early rebel.. an outsider to what many thought "hip hop was supposed to be, look like and represent.. being musically "sensitive" & embracing pop sensibilities while being eclectic is now all the rage among musicians/rappers etc, he definitely had both hands in laying the groundwork for that in hip hop..
I hope he knows how important his being in the business has been to so many people..
