Jamie Foster Brown shares her unique experience with Prince

Jamie Foster Brown, publisher, owner and publisher of Sister 2 Sister Magazine has over the years, made an incredible contribution to media. Not just urban media or female media, but media period. Following the passing of music icon Prince, we hopped on the line to talk about her unique experience with the legend, both as a journalist and as someone whom Prince sought out.

Everybody knows about Sister 2 Sister and your award winning accomplishments. We have the foundational information, but you had an interesting relationship with Prince.

It was unusual. Years ago I went to Paisley Park along with Jack the Rapper who was like the godfather of the R&B music industry at one point with the Mellow Yellows, his biography that he had out. We were there together and there were a bunch of us talking. Prince was just talking to us about music and life, that sort of thing. Jack and I, we were sneaking away because we wanted to see Paisley Park. It was like going into the abode of Oz from the Wizard of Oz. It was so beautiful, so colorful. We were looking into the bedrooms and just sneaking around. We had to sneak because he had high security everywhere. We didn’t get caught. That was interesting.

After one of the, I think it was the NAACP event out in LA, there was a very secret jam session that Prince was having. People were trying to get up in the hills of LA. Christina Aguilera, her car got dented. Cars would get messed up in that place. Stevie Wonder was jamming in there. What was interesting about that was that all of those celebrities were just in awe of being in the house of Prince, in his home up there. Everyone was just so glad to be there. Prince wasn’t letting you take pictures. He wasn’t doing many interviews or anything. You know he was one of the first artists to really go up against a major label because he wrote slave on his face because he wanted control of his own music.

We never had access to him until about last year. I was invited to come to this club up in New York. There was a black young lady and a white group that he thought were phenomenal. He had their music, and he was introducing them to that New York crowd up there. We’re in this nightclub andI had seen him earlier downstairs where most of the celebrities were. Wendy Williams came by to say hello to him. Tamron Hall was on air up there, big news person. She was down there talking to him. I didn’t say anything to him. I was kind of sitting on my own. We go upstairs and the place is crowded. There’s a sort of a stage where the DJ is, and the groups are up there. The young lady he’s presenting as well as the group.

They’re talking. I’m standing on the other side of the stanchion. The stanchion that keeps crowds from coming up to the sage and going up those stairs. There’s a bodyguard there. He says, “You. You don’t stand out there. You come inside.” He beckons me inside. I thought it was Doug E. Fresh‘s bodyguard G Money. He beckoned me to come inside. He says, “You stand over here with us.” He had me stand by the desk and then up to the VIP area. I’m listening to the music, and all of a sudden I see a little white arm, like a child’s arm and hand, reaching out to me from the left side behind the body guard. I just see this hand. I look, and then Prince sticks his head out behind the bodyguard and he says, “Can you take me out of here?” I said, “Okay.” I guess I’m the security now.

He leaves everybody, all these artists, leaves the DJ booth, leaves the security, and comes, and I hold him, I actually held him, like I was holding a child. His arm was like a child’s arm. I remember thinking, “This is the arm of a six-year-old.” Like a six-year-old. It was small. His skin was white. It was smooth. I held him and walked him downstairs. Once I got downstairs he started telling me about how much I meant to the industry. That he had watched me over the years, and that I had done so much to help so many other artists, and he was very proud of me. Then he also said, “And you’re still looking good.” I was shocked because he had never said anything all these years. Then he said, “We’re going to talk some more tonight because we have a lot to discuss.”

A swarm of people came down. It was like this is in New York. I was like “Wait a minute. His managers just told me that Prince doesn’t go to bed at 6 am and he will talk to until 6 am in the morning.” I thought, “I have a husband, I can’t.”

I had to interject at this point because how would she explain that one to her husband, staying out til 6am with Prince!

Yeah. Don’t come in here telling me you talked to Prince until 6 am, he don’t even talk to nobody. Now, actually no, I got a call. He was so overwhelmed when people came down there. First of all, they were shocked that the bodyguards … Everybody was in awe like “What? He is leaving the security to go out with Jamie?” That was my contact with him and the lovely things that he’s said to me. I know that he has done a lot for so many people and his leaving us so early saddens so many people.

What I want to leave you all with is this. I recognize that God sends some of us down here and we are over-talented. There is an extra kiss put on their foreheads to make them incredibly talented. The Whitney Houston’s, the Michael Jackson’s, the Prince. A lot of time those beings are tortured. They are misunderstood, they are villainized and sometimes I think God takes them back early. He just says “Okay.” I think about that. Whitney was very tortured. You know what I mean, and Michael. Nobody talks about Michael giving away 300 million dollars to charity. They only say bad things.

Wasn’t that right after he bought The Beatles catalog and then he donated that money?

Yeah. You have to think about that. I love what Prince brought to us. At first, when he first brought it I was programming BET and like “What is this? Man, we are talking about sex and everything, is that all the world is going to come to in the end?” That was exactly it. It’s disgusting man. Prince made so many of us, millions and millions of people so happy. I’m just blessed to have met him and to spoken with him and for him to entrust his faith with me that night and to say the nice things that he did say. He has done so much for so many and I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to talk about that.

I appreciate you trusting The Hype Magazine with your story … You’ve been interviewed about Michael Jackson and many more by other outlets. I’m glad we’ve had the opportunity to speak to you about Prince and getting some insight. He’s right. You are an important part of music history and our culture for music and entertainment. Having the ability to document this version of your experience is an honor.

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Tags: Christina Aguilera, Features, Jamie Foster Brown, Michael Jackson, prince, Prince (musician), Sister 2 Sister, The Hype Magazine, Whitney Houston

About the Author

Dr. Jerry Doby Editor-in-Chief of The Hype Magazine, Media and SEO Consultant, Journalist, Ph.D. and retired combat vet. 2023 recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Partner at THM Media Group. Member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, the United States Press Agency and ForbesBLK.