Portrait of Prince in a blue jacket with polka-dot collar

Prince

2014image macroclassic

Published September 23, 2026

Prince Rogers Nelson, the Minneapolis pop musician behind Purple Rain and 1999, became one of the internet's most memed celebrities during his lifetime and after his April 21, 2016 death at Paisley Park. His music, purple wardrobe, and a still from Purple Rain fueled the 'This Could Be Us But You Playin' image macro, while his passing triggered nearly 5 million tweets in a single afternoon and a wave of brand tributes that defined online mourning that year.

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Overview

Prince the meme really means two overlapping things online. The first is the 'This Could Be Us But You Playin' image macro, built on a still of Prince and Apollonia Kotero riding a purple motorcycle in the 1984 film Purple Rain3. Users pair the caption with anything they wish a flaky crush, friend, or coworker would just commit to, from Netflix binges to fast food orders. The joke works because Prince in full 1984 regalia looks impossibly cool and impossibly serious, so any mundane pairing lands as absurd.

The second layer is the sprawl of Prince tributes, edits, and fan art that flooded feeds after his death on April 21, 20161. Fans recast him as the Little Prince, brands scrambled to post purple graphics, and celebrities like Mike Tyson photoshopped their faces onto his body as what Tyson called a 'Super Tribute'3. Prince's own Twitter avatar switched from his 'third eye' sunglasses illustration to an image of him with two eyes closed and the third open3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Tumblr / Twitter (viral spread)
Date
2014

The 'This Could Be Us But You Playin' macro predates any single documented post and circulated on Tumblr and Twitter before mainstream coverage. Prince himself confirmed the meme's existence in a June 23, 2014 Minneapolis Star Tribune interview about his 37th album Art Official Age, telling the paper that the track 'This Could Be Us' was directly inspired by the image macro parodying the Purple Rain motorcycle still3. That an artist as guarded with his image as Prince would name a song after a fan meme is what fixed the format in meme history.

Prince's second act as an internet subject began October 22, 2015, when he launched his official Instagram account under his stage name3. Nicknamed 'Princestagram,' the feed mixed decades of concert photos with image macros of himself and pulled in more than 100,000 followers in its first five days, reaching roughly 270,000 by the time of his death3.

How It Spread

The 'This Could Be Us' macro spread through Tumblr reblogs and Twitter quote-tweets across 2013 and 2014, hitting enough mass by mid-2014 that Prince built an album track around it3. The format lived alongside Prince's aggressive copyright posture: in 2007 he hired Web Sheriff to hunt down clips and prepared lawsuits against YouTube, eBay, and The Pirate Bay, with Web Sheriff's John Giacobbi telling CNET they had pulled roughly 2,000 clips from YouTube in two weeks alone1. Prince's team later issued takedowns against fan sites, prompting fans to organize as 'Prince Fans United' to keep using his likeness3.

The biggest single spike of Prince content online came on April 21, 2016. By 5 p.m. that day, nearly 5 million tweets used the word 'Prince'3. Minneapolis station 89.3 The Current dropped its schedule and played nothing but Prince in chronological order, one of the few legal ways to stream him at the time2. NPR, KEXP, and other stations followed with all-Prince blocks, while the Google Doodle ran a Purple Rain animation and the New York Post ran a 'Purple Rain' weather forecast for April 22 that got heavily reshared3.

Brand tributes were mixed. Cheerios and Hamburger Helper posted purple graphics that were quickly deleted after backlash for using a death for marketing, while the Minnesota Twins' stadium tribute and NASA's purple nebula tweet were received warmly3. The 'Little Prince' edits, third-eye avatar swaps, and Mike Tyson face-swap kept circulating for weeks as the defining visual language of that mourning wave3.

Timeline

1984

Purple Rain film releases, providing the motorcycle still later used in the 'This Could Be Us But You Playin' image macro.

2007

Prince hires Web Sheriff and prepares lawsuits against YouTube, eBay, and The Pirate Bay for hosting his copyrighted material.

2014-06-23

Minneapolis Star Tribune reports Prince named the Art Official Age track 'This Could Be Us' after the fan-made image macro.

2015-10-22

Prince launches his official Instagram account, dubbed 'Princestagram,' hitting 100,000 followers in five days.

2016-04-15

Prince's plane makes an emergency landing and he is hospitalized; he tells fans the next day it was just the flu.

2016-04-21

Prince dies at Paisley Park; nearly 5 million tweets mentioning him post by 5 p.m., and his official Twitter avatar switches to a 'third eye open' image.

2016-04-21

89.3 The Current in Minneapolis begins streaming only Prince in chronological order as a tribute.

2016-04-22

Google Doodle runs a Purple Rain animation; brand tributes from Cheerios and Hamburger Helper are posted and later deleted after backlash.

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