regicide?

I’m so sorry. I think I may have
killed The Artist
Formerly Known As
Prince. (well, first he was Prince
Rogers Nelson, then he was
Prince, then he was a Symbol,
then he was The Artist Formerly
Known As Prince, then he was
Prince again. now he’s back
to being former.)
Always a prince though;
he didn’t want
to be King, so is it
really regicide?

how did I cause
his demise, you ask?
I fear it was hearing
the way I butchered the beats
on our compilation
that probably made him
shuffle off his mortal coil.
at least I can picture the scene,
his lawyers telling him
that some bunch of weirdos
from the East Village
covered his songs
without permission –

but I’ll have your ghostly Highness
know two things: I didn’t sample
anything, I made those
terrible beats and assorted weird sounds
all by myself, thank you, and secondly
I bought your originals
from iTunes –

so anyway
TAFKAP was probably digging it
until he got to my tracks
and then the arrhythmia
of my beats infected
his heart and it was maybe just
too much for him. again,
I truly, madly, deeply apologize
and if throwing me in jail
will bring him back, please feel free
to lock me up and throw away
the key.