Matthews disbanded Vanity 6 in 1984 and soon signed a deal with Motown.
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Before rappers Lil Kim and Nikki Menage wore lingerie on the stage, Prince protege Vanity and her group Vanity 6 made sexy an art. The 8os pop star lost her battle to kidney disease this week, dying at the age of 57.
Prince protegé Denise “Vanity” Matthews died Monday, February 15 in a Fremont, California hospital.
Born in Niagara Falls, Canada and largely raised in the greater Toronto area, Vanity began her career in entertainment as a model, moving to New York City when she was 17. She and her band members – Susan Moonsie and Brenda Bennett – rose to fame after they released their dance hit “Nasty Girl”, which was written and produced by the “Purple Rain” singer. She also co-starred in several movies, including in the martial arts picture “The Last Dragon”. “She fell ill during the night [and] ended up on life support”.
Unusually conversational and candid, Prince shared with the crowd of 2,000 a fond and amusing memory: “Can I tell you a story about Vanity?”. In 1983, she famously appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone with Prince.
“When I was Vanity, it was all about me”, she said in 1999. On a GoFundMe page, Matthews said four months ago she had been diagnosed with sclerosis encapsulating peritonitis.
“Her and I used to love each other deeply”, he is quoted as saying. “She beloved her time within the ’80s, however I assume she liked her current time extra, as a result of she had been at peace”, Renay Matthews stated. In 1994, a crack cocaine overdose left her kidneys so damaged that she required regular dialysis.
Matthews struggled with drug abuse for years before getting clean and becoming a born-again Christian in the 1990s.
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She told Jet that drug use had almost killed her: She had had renal failure a few years earlier and was told by doctors that she had only three days to live.
