Prince is one of my favorite artists of all time — I'll take to my grave the exhilaration of seeing him live at the Philadelphia Spectrum on the Purple Rain tour — but he's overreaching in the lyrics to his newly released single, "Baltimore." ("Prince has a new protest song called 'Baltimore,'" May 9.) Big time.
No one who read the grand jury, Department of Justice and independent pathology reports surrounding the death of Michael Brown can reasonably liken his circumstances to those of Freddie Gray. Since his output has been largely mediocre for far too long, Prince is plainly endeavoring to make his music relevant again by opportunistically addressing topical social memes. To wit, the visual focal point of his "tribute to the people of Baltimore" features a caricature of himself, as opposed to anything relating to my beloved hometown. And Prince has still not revealed precisely what percentage of the proceeds from his Sunday concert will be devoted to charitable causes or, for that matter, the identity of those causes.
The circumstances surrounding Freddie Gray's evidently unjust death, and the social unrest that it precipitated, should be substantively addressed by those who can affect the necessary changes to our criminal justice system. Conversely, the last thing Baltimore needs is a conniving, artistically bereft has-been looking to pad his bank account.
Robert C. Knott, Baltimore