Tony M.

Tony M. (born Anthony Mosely) is a rapper best known as a member of Prince's band, the New Power Generation. Mosely began his association with Prince as an extra in the film "Purple Rain". He can be seen dancing with Kirk Johnson and Damon Dickson during various performances at the First Avenue club. The trio continued to associate with Prince over the years, dancing as a group in the music videos for "Glam Slam" and with the band Madhouse. Around the time of the "Graffiti Bridge", Prince recruited the trio as a dance group called the "Gameboyz" for the film and his touring band.

During soundchecks, Mosely would rap while testing the microphone. Prince observed this and began to allow Mosely to gradually add his raps into live performances. Believing that rap would benefit his "street" credibility with his declining black audience, Prince decided to elevate Mosely's position in the group. Mosely provided a rap on a remix for the "New Power Generation" maxi-single in 1990. Apparently satisfied with the results, Prince would allow Mosely to write raps for a good portion of the album "Diamonds and Pearls". Indeed, the album was more than half rap during an early cut. Before the album was released however, Prince replaced a few of the tracks but the album still had a significant input by Mosely.

Fans' reaction to Mosely was mixed. Many longtime fans believed his contributions were unnecessary and distracting. In concert, Mosely would often add a street edge, which Prince also picked up. As a result, performances starting to contain more and more harsh language, which also had a very mixed reaction with fans. Mosely continued with the NPG for another album (which was more well received by hardcore-fans, if not the general public) and when the NPG went "solo", he became the frontman for the group. One album was released - 1993's "Goldnigga".

However, after the album was released, Prince trimmed down the NPG and retained them for his backing band once again. Mosely's relationship with Prince soured after a point.

In October 1998, Mosely (along with Levi Seacer, Jr.) filed a lawsuit against Prince, claiming that Prince hadn’t shared royalties that Levi and Tony were owed for songs they had co-written for Prince’s NPG Publishing, including "Sexy MF" and "My Name Is Prince". In the end Mosely and Seacer settled for approximately $40,000 each (apparently, not even enough to pay their legal expenses), having sued Prince for $800,000. [http://groups.google.com/group/alt.music.prince/msg/41f781b47323b648]

Under the new stage name, "Deacon", Mosely recorded a song, "Fast Break" for the "Hoop Dreams" soundtrack. He had a few small roles in films.