Prince wrote 'slave' on his face to escape Warner Bros. (1990s)

What happened

Prince signed with Warner Bros. Records in 1977, at 19. By the early 1990s the relationship had broken down over two issues: he wanted to own his master recordings, and he wanted to release music far more often than the label's schedule allowed. Warner refused, arguing that its investment in his career justified its ownership and its control of the release pace.

The "slave" protest

In 1993, Prince abandoned his name in favor of an unpronounceable "Love Symbol," becoming "the artist formerly known as Prince." In 1994 he began performing with the word "slave" written on his cheek, saying that a contract denying him ownership of his own creations amounted to a kind of bondage.

How it resolved

Rather than break the contract, Prince fulfilled it — delivering the albums he owed so he could leave. In 1996 he exited Warner Bros. and released Emancipation through his own NPG Records. The fight was, at root, about masters and autonomy, and he chose to grind out the deal to get free of it.

Years later, in 2014, Prince and Warner reached a new agreement under which he regained ownership of his master recordings — nearly two decades after the dispute boiled over, and a vindication of the principle he'd protested for.

Why it matters

Prince had enormous fame and leverage, and it still took him decades to control his own catalog. For the thousands of artists with far less power, the lesson was blunt: under the standard deal, the label owns the work, and getting it back — if it's possible at all — can take a career. See masters ownership for the underlying mechanic.