Sophomore Prince Chone dropped his album “The Prophecy” on Sept. 7.
The album has been years in the making, and by that, I mean that Chone started writing the music for it when he was around 10 and 11 years old.
Chone is an international student originally from Maputo, Mozambique. His career started at the ripe age of six years when his music teacher, professor Orlando da Conceição, gained interest in his musical abilities and offered to teach him how to play the alto saxophone. From there, he was recruited to play in an orchestra at age nine.
“The name is ‘The Prophecy’ because this is just the first step of the confirmation of what was once prophesized,” Chone said. Since he started playing as a child, Crone said that people have told his parents that he would be a very big artist.
When Chone got to high school, he started his solo career. After trying different activities like basketball and other sports, it was during quarantine that he started to take his music career more seriously.
“It really brought a lot more time for me to think and go back into my passions and find my purpose again,” Chone said. “I never stopped playing the saxophone, just doing it more frequently.”
With quarantine came the video shorts Chone would post on Instagram. The musician started organizing live sessions where he would invite local artists to play along. With DJs like Mad K and Kevin Edilson, Chone would show off his talents from the comfort of his bedroom.
Chone was still in Mozambique while his videos were reaching viewers in the U.S., the U.K., France, Belgium, Portugal and other countries around the world.
“It opened doors for me to connect to a lot of bigger artists in the industry, not only in Mozambique but in Africa,” Chone said. “That’s why I wanted to come to LSU and Louisiana specifically because this is where jazz was born, and I make jazz music for a living.”
Those doors opened him to a world of opportunities, including working with Sean Combs, better known as P. Diddy. Chone produced the score for the background song for the Cîroc Summer Citrus commercial. After that, he started to focus on his album.
Chone and his band, The Takeover, worked on “The Prophecy” from 2020 until 2022. He recruited every single member of the group, some from church and others he “met along life.”
“I believe that a strong part of music is the bond that the people that make the music have,” Chone said.
Chone said that most international musicians go to places like Los Angeles and New York, but Baton Rouge has warmly welcomed him. In his time here, he has hosted a performance at the Greek Amphitheater and at the downtown museum.
“I really wanted to have the D1 college experience but also be in a place of art and music simultaneously,” he said. “I’ve been loving the environment, the artists, the people, and it’s just been a very nice place to grow.”
“The Prophecy“ is available on all streaming platforms, and Chone’s live streams can be found on his Instagram @princechone.
