Prince Gained a &x27;Newfound Respect for the Music&x27; He Contributed to Spike Lee&x27;s "Girl 6" Soundtrack, Released 30 Years Ago Angela AndaloroFri, March 27, 2026 at 3:45 PM UTC 0 Prince and Spike Lee at a New York Knicks gameCredit: Timothy A. CLARY / AFP via Getty Prince was in a period of personal transformation in the mid1990s as he sought to redefine his artistry In 1996, Prince agreed to lend his music to Spike Lee for the Girl 6 soundtrack, comprised entirely of songs written and produced by him Spike Lee chatted with Prince for Interview Magazine that same year about this time in...
Prince Gained a 'Newfound Respect for the Music' He Contributed to Spike Lee's "Girl 6" Soundtrack, Released 30 Years Ago
Angela AndaloroFri, March 27, 2026 at 3:45 PM UTC
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Prince and Spike Lee at a New York Knicks gameCredit: Timothy A. CLARY / AFP via Getty -
Prince was in a period of personal transformation in the mid-1990s as he sought to redefine his artistry
In 1996, Prince agreed to lend his music to Spike Lee for the Girl 6 soundtrack, comprised entirely of songs written and produced by him
Spike Lee chatted with Prince for Interview Magazine that same year about this time in his life
Spike Lee and Prince collaborated during a cathartic time in the artist's life.
In 1996, the two teamed up for Girl 6, the story of a down-on-her-luck actress who finds herself unable to secure jobs after objecting to a role with nudity, putting her on a journey to find other ways of making ends meet. The film's soundtrack was completely written and performed by Prince, who was on a transformative journey of his own.
In an Interview Magazine chat between Prince and Lee that same year, the artist talked about swapping his name for a symbol three years prior and the many changes going on in his life at that time.
Of the film and its soundtrack, Lee asked what Prince thought of the finished product. "Some worked stronger than others, but overall, musically, I didn't know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised and I like the film for the style in which you did it," Prince shared.
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Prince and Spike LeeCredit: Howard Simmons/NY Daily News via Getty
"I'd never seen that done before. The scene at Coney Island, where you used "How Come U Don't Call Me Any More," is my favorite scene. In fact, it forced me to put that song back into our set. I said I would never play it again because I used to think I couldn't do it better than I did with my band, the Revolution. But your film gave me newfound respect for the music."
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Today, the film is often panned among Lee's impressive body of work, but both the soundtrack and the film speak to the friendship and admiration between Lee and Prince, who passed away in 2016 at the age of 57.
At the same time as the two celebrated Girl 6, Prince was also promoting his album Emancipation, which would be released that November. When Lee asked him about the feeling of freedom, Prince replied, "There is something that happens when you get emancipated. You approach life differently. You eat differently. You respect yourself more. You respect the gift you have been given."
Prince performs in 1996Credit: KMazur/WireImage
"Everything has changed for me since I've changed my name. It's one thing to be called Prince but it's better to actually be one. I have such a reverence for life now. And I have stopped eating all animal products," he shared.
The shift was an intentional move away from some of the associations that came with Prince's early career, with the artist admitting, "Towards the end I was a little ashamed of what Prince had become."
"I really felt like a product, and then I started turning in work that reflected that. I had no problem with people saying I was repeating myself. I knew where I was headed and just needed direction.
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Source: Entertainment
Published: March 27, 2026 at 12:00PM on Source: PRIME TIME
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