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“Whatever metaphor you wish to employ, Pepé Willie lit the fuse, fanned the flames, and fueled the fire of the rebellious yet finessed musical movement that would become known as the Minneapolis Sound,” writes Jonathan Kirby, producer of the Grammy Award-nominated “Purple Snow: Forecasting the Minneapolis Sound.” The 33-song compilation, which, in addition to Willie’s classic “If You See Me,” features previously unreleased tracks from local legends Flyte Tyme, Andrè Cymone, Sue Ann Carwell, Alexander O’Neal, The Girls, and The Lewis Connection.
Born and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, the music stood front and center from the beginning of Willie’s life, where pretty much everyone on his mother’s side sang, played an instrument, or both. Although at the time Willie was too young to remember, Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk were just a few of the musical frequent visitors to his grandfather’s Carlton Avenue home.
Before Willie turned 10, his uncle Clarence Collins founded The Chesters, which later became the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Little Anthony and the Imperials. As a teenage valet for the Imperials, Willie learned the business of music firsthand, likewise literally studying at the feet of a “Who’s Who” of rock, pop and soul legends of the 1960s.
“There were these big Rock and Roll revues all the time, first at the Brooklyn Paramount and then the Brooklyn Fox Theatre,” recalls Willie. “I was backstage working for artists like Chubby Checker, The Ronettes, Ray Charles, Dusty Springfield, Mary Wells, The Temptations, and a young Stevie Wonder. Just about everyone signed to Motown, for that matter.”
Determined to make his way in the music world, Willie benefited from the tutelage of Teddy Randazzo, who would later be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. “Teddy taught me so much,” he says. “How to construct and produce a song from start to finish—the verses, chorus, bridge, and of course the hook. Plus, everything in between.”
In 1969, a chance encounter at New York City’s famed Copacabana nightclub introduced Willie to his future wife, Minneapolis native Shauntel Manderville. When he was on leave from the Army in December 1970, Willie first visited the City of Lakes, where he met Manderville’s young cousin, 12-year-old Prince Rogers Nelson.
“Prince was so small. He looked like he was only eight. I didn’t pay him much attention then,” laughs Willie.
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Four years later Willie made Minneapolis his permanent home, where he began sharing his knowledge with Prince and his band Grand Central, a roster that included Cymone and Morris Day.
“I was impressed with how well they took direction,” Willie told Minnesota Public Radio in 2020. “It didn’t take but another rehearsal or two to see them get the hang of it—not just with their songwriting and musicianship, but with their whole approach to learning new things.
“Their attitude delighted me,” he said. “They were young and hungry. You could see it in their eyes. The way they walked. The way they talked. These kids were serious.”
So awestruck with Prince was Willie that he tapped the precocious teenager to play guitar on a five-song demo for his band 94 East. It was on the strength of those sessions, later dubbed “The Cookhouse Five,” that Willie landed a contract with Polydor Records. Today, those master recordings are housed in the Library & Archives of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
His close relationship with Prince continued in the ensuing years. Among the many contributions Willie and his company Pepé Music Inc. made to Prince’s career are helping him establish his first publishing company, Ecnirp Music; serving as his interim manager; producing Prince’s first-ever professional concerts at the historic Capri Theater; and opening his home for six-months so that Prince and his band, which history would later come to know as The Revolution, had somewhere to rehearse in advance of said concerts.
Prince and a myriad of Minneapolis Sound royalty felt Willie’s influence, including Cymone and Day, Dez Dickerson, Sue Ann Carwell, Bobby ‘Z’ Rivkin, Matt (Dr.) Fink, Cynthia Johnson, Jesse Johnson, Rockie Robbins, Ricky, and Paul Peterson.
In 1988, Willie was inducted into the Minnesota Black Music Hall of Fame. All told, Prince performed on 19 of Willie’s compositions in the 1970s, which can be found on albums such as “Minneapolis Genius: The Historic 1977 Recordings,” “Symbolic Beginnings,” and the self-titled “94 East.”
One of those numbers, the aforementioned “If You See Me,” was re-recorded by Prince under the title “Do Yourself a Favor” and has the distinction of being the only song not penned by Prince on the 77-track Super Deluxe edition of his landmark album “1999.”
In 2020, Willie released the memoir “If You See Me: My Six-Decade Journey in Rock and Roll.” Willie says, “Growing up in Bed-Stuy, I never thought I’d make it to 16. Couldn’t have imagined things would turn out like this. Music saved my life.”
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