Pop Culture Happy Hour Small Batch: Remembering Prince

Enlarge this image toggle caption Neil Lupin/Redferns/Getty Images Neil Lupin/Redferns/Getty Images

When Linda Holmes and I jumped in to the studio to record this Pop Culture Happy Hour Small Batch on Thursday afternoon, news of Prince Rogers Nelson's death was less than an hour old. So if we seem a little numb in spots, well, there's a reason for that.

But we did want to give shape to Prince's considerable legacy — as a musician we love, as an iconoclast unbound by creative or commercial constraints, as a rebel who challenged the very notion of what rebellion means in pop music, as a supporter (and prolific collaborator) of women musicians, and as someone capable of lighthearted maneuvers, from his bonkers 2007 Super Bowl halftime show to his playful and entirely unexpected 2014 guest spot on the Fox sitcom The New Girl.

In the coming weeks and months, much more will be written and said about Prince's astounding musical legacy and body of work. For now, Linda and I just wanted to gather up our immediate thoughts. Chief among them: that this news completely and utterly sucks.