mat cat press

The Rise of Prince: 1958-1988 will serve as the definitive account of the iconic artist's first 30 years. More so than any previous book, this 400-page volume provides a dramatic, page-turning narrative of Prince's rise to fame.

This book’s gripping, 50-page prologue provides a nearly day-to-day account of the events that unfolded between November 2015 and April 21, 2016, when Prince tragically died at Paisley Park. The great distance traveled by Prince during his final months – tours of Australia and New Zealand, a funeral in the Bay Area for former muse and lover Denise Matthews, a tour of Canada, and a final return home – in some ways mirrored on a grand scale Prince’s nomadic childhood, to which the book returns after detailing the events of 2016.

Hahn, writing in collaboration with veteran author Tiebert, brings his extraordinary experience to this book, which includes fully updated and expanded elements of his controversial 2003 biography Possessed, a sought-after collector's item that remains a classic of Prince literature.

The Rise of Prince provides a complete reordering of what is known about Prince's formative years based on previously unavailable documents and persons never before interviewed. It provides unknown information about early relationships and collaborations; a detailed account of the no-holds-barred competition with Rick James on the 1981 tour that set the course for Prince’s meteoric rise; a vivid depiction of the recording of Prince’s album at Sunset Sound, including a little-known encounter with Sly Stone; and much more.

Ultimately, the Rise of Prince tells the very human story of how Prince survived great adversity to achieve one of the greatest runs of creativity in pop history, creating an unparalleled universe of side projects, alter-egos and lovers along the way.

The book includes exclusive photos by Paul Natkin, one of the most renowned photographers of Prince.