Literally. Prince was the complete human experience in one package.  He was yin and yang, fire and ice, gin and juice, diamonds and pearls.  Had he lived longer to see us contact alien civilizations, I would have voted for The Purple One to be sent into space as our global ambassador.  In the history of the world who else has seamlessly embodied mankind’s greatest traits, contradictions, and emotions?

Before scriptures were translated into other languages, God, or Elohim, was genderless. Now go get your Old Testament and swap out Elohim for   and tell me you don’t gain a greater respect for The Artist.  The closest thing we have in the English language to help us wrap our head around this concept is the word androgynous; and it would be just that, a word, had Prince not given us the prototypical living example. On the real, Prince transcended gender identity; Prince was hyper masculine and uber feminine at the same damn time.  He had the dopest facial hair and hairdos simultaneously. His voice was baritone, yet he sang soprano like a champ.  He was hairier than Chewbacca yet, he wore eyeliner.  And it worked.  Prince was the only dude that could pair a butt out pantsuit with high heel shoes and still have women (and some men) fawning over him left and right.  Nobody will ever be able to pull that off again!

But this isn’t just about Prince exhibiting the best of both genders. It’s much more than that. Like I said, Prince was EVERYTHING. Go revisit the 1989 Batman soundtrack.  Prince was Bruce Wayne and the Joker for a whole album. In fact, on that album and all his other albums, you can’t even put a genre on the projects.  Prince was Rock, Funk, Blues, Jazz, Hip Hop, R&B… man, even EDM before EDM was known as EDM.  Prince played damn near every instrument; he transcended genres!

In fact, Prince transcended music altogether. While the world knew Prince, the entertainer, we’re just starting to learn about Prince, the humanitarian.  I watched Van Jones break down while describing how Prince funded grassroots movements and disaster relief through his concerts.   That just goes to show that despite how famous he was, Prince was in large part unknown. With perpetual pressure to be what society expects us to be – prudent, straight, and predictable, Prince was eccentric, eclectic, and nonconforming.  More than anything, Prince was himself.  Thus, the biggest lesson to be learned from his existence is: do you.  And that right there is the key to EVERYTHING.