From the moment that Prince’s death was made public, there has been much speculation about how the seemingly healthy superstar, who two days before held a party at Paisley Park, wound-up dead at the same location 48 hours later. Seemingly from the moment the news seared through social media, loose chatter began to circulate about was the cause of Prince’s untimely passing.

When Brian Williams interviewed Aretha Franklin on MSNBC that afternoon, the Queen of Soul contributed her own diagnosis. "They're saying flu-like symptoms," Franklin said. "I'm wondering if it has anything to do with this Zika virus." In the forthcoming days and weeks, loose lips would declare that Prince was some kind of addict, that he had AIDs, that he was murdered or he was a blood sacrifice for the so-called Illuminati.

“It’s almost like the children’s game ‘telephone’ where one person says one thing, but by the time it gets to the last person it has become something completely different,” Tonya Pendleton, contributing editor for Black American Web, says. Since Prince’s passing, Pendleton, a fan since she was a teenager, has filed many stories covering the various death theories. “From the very beginning of his career, Prince has been known for his clean living lifestyle, but now there are all these contradicting reports about doctors and pills that are just crazy. It’s like some people are just trying to trash him. But, in the same way that the Beyhive rides for Beyoncé, the Purple Army is down to defend Prince and his music.”

Read more at EBONY http://www.ebony.com/entertainment-culture/prince-death-rumors#ixzz48Yze7ih4