“When I brought it to the record company, it shocked a lot of people,” Prince told Rolling Stone of Dirty Mind. “But they didn't ask me to go back and change anything, and I'm real grateful. Anyway, I wasn't being deliberately provocative. I was being deliberately me.” 

via Pitchfork - click here for the full article

Even if you know the stories, have heard the album, know about His Royal Badness' bitter history with the "King of Punk Funk" Rick James (bitch) and dig the context, this great Pitchfork article from their next 'review' issue is still a great and insightful read. A lot of people who don't know much about Prince always peg him as a power-balladeering short guy - who might be gay. Which is hugely selling short the notion of a black artist coming out of (traditionally in the mainstream) white Minneapolis, blending R&B, Rock n' Roll, New Wave and (Post?) Punk into a truly crossover music, with a mixed-race, mixed-gender band and a deliberately ambiguous omni-sexual image with religious overtones in the lyrics? In the early '80s?!Read the article. :D