The Black Album (Prince album)

The Black Album
Studio album by Prince
Released November 22, 1994
December 8, 1987 (withdrawn)
Recorded 1986–1987
Genre Funk
Length 44:43
Label Warner Bros.
25677 (original pressing)
45793 (second pressing)
Producer Prince
Prince chronology
Come
(1994)		 The Black Album
(1994)		 The Gold Experience
(1995)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Blender[2]
Robert ChristgauA–[3]
Entertainment WeeklyB[4]
Mojo(favorable)[5]
MusicHound2.5/5[6]
New York Times(favorable)[7]
Q[5]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[8]

The Black Album, originally titled The Funk Bible, is the sixteenth studio album by American recording artist Prince. It was released on November 22, 1994 by Warner Bros. Records. The album was originally planned for release on December 7, 1987, as the follow-up to Sign o' the Times[1] and was to appear in an entirely black sleeve with no title or even a credit to Prince; hence it was referred to as The Black Album. Dubbed The Funk Bible by preceding press releases, and in a hidden message within the album itself, the work seemed to be a reaction to criticism that Prince had become too pop-oriented. It was his attempt to regain his African-American audience.[2]

The 1987 promo-only release had no printed title, artist name, production credits or photography printed; a simple black sleeve accompanied the disc. On promotional copies, only a song listing and catalog number—25677—were printed on the disc itself. The commercial version was to only have the catalog number—printed in pink—on the spine.[9] The original compact disc pressing was made by Sony DADC rather than WEA Manufacturing. The album was withdrawn a week before its release date, and was replaced with the album Lovesexy, a brighter pop-oriented album with elements of religious affirmation.

Music

The opening track also mentioned the title of the album as being The Funk Bible, which was a consideration during work on this project. The title refers both to the album's all-black cover design and to Prince's attempt to earn back his credibility among the black pop audience.[10]

The album features one of the most shockingly unusual Prince songs: "Bob George", in which he assumes the identity of a profane man who suspects his girlfriend to have had an affair with a man named Bob. He asks her what the man does for a living and learns that Bob manages Prince, who he dismisses as "that skinny motherfucker with the high voice". The gun-wielding alter ego then kills the woman, and ends up being raided by the police. During live perfomances of the song during the Lovesexy Tour, he ends up being shot. The name for the track was a combination of Bob Cavallo (former manager), and Nelson George who was felt to have become very critical of Prince.[11] "Bob George" features a growling monologue that is slowed down to the point of being almost unrecognizable as Prince. The voice at the end of the song that says "bizarre" is actually a stock sound from the Fairlight CMI IIx library, with its pitch raised.

The Black Album features songs such as the hip-hop parody "Dead on It", which directly makes the accusation that all MCs are tone-deaf and unable to sing, and the playful "Cindy C.", which refers to supermodel Cindy Crawford. The rhyme at the end of the song was originally written by Steve "Silk" Hurley and was included on a song titled "Music is the Key", which was previously released by Chicago house-music group JM Silk, of which Hurley was the founder. Hurley would later go on to remix two of the songs from the "Gett Off" maxi-single, the Housestyle and Flutestramental versions.

The album contains several instances of the portrayal of characters, using either a speeded-up or slowed-down vocal track by Prince (as on "If I Was Your Girlfriend", "U Got the Look", "Strange Relationship", and "Housequake", all from the Sign o' the Times album).

The instrumental jazz-funk jam "2 Nigs United 4 West Compton" was revisited as a live song on the One Nite Alone... Live! album, but it was hardly the same track.

"Rockhard in a Funky Place" was originally considered for inclusion on the planned Crystal Ball album and then the Camille project. After the album's fade out, dissonant feedback fades in, followed by Prince saying "What kind of fuck ending was that?" before fading out again. "When 2 R in Love" is the only ballad on the album, and reappeared on Lovesexy, which was released the same year.

Prince performed "Bob George", parts of "When 2 R in Love", and "Superfunkycalifragisexy" on his Lovesexy Tour. "When 2 R in Love" was usually part of the piano medley in Act II, whereas the other two songs were part of the Act I segment, where Prince's evil side showed through (coinciding with the idea that The Black Album was evil, hence its being pulled from release by Prince). Act II was his born-again segment, with more upbeat spiritual songs, highlighting most of the Lovesexy songs, and top 40 hits.

Samples of "Bob George" would later show up on the "Dub Beats" official promo mix of Madonna's 1989 "Like a Prayer".[12]

Withdrawal and subsequent shelving

Just before The Black Album was released to the market, Prince recalled all copies and abandoned the entire project, leaving roughly 100 European promotional copies in circulation, and several American copies that would be widely bootlegged in the coming years. Several reasons, including speculative ones, have been given as to why the release was derailed:

Further evidence that Prince felt The Black Album was a mistake was that in his first music video of his next album, "Alphabet St.", the video can be paused after it shows him holding a cane (about 0:24 seconds) and the words "Don't buy The Black Album. I'm sorry" can be read running vertically.

Immediately after the decision to pull The Black Album from stores, the album emerged on the streets in bootleg form, arguably becoming popular music's most legendary bootleg since The Beach Boys aborted 1967 album Smile.[15] Several celebrities, including U2's frontmen The Edge and Bono, cited it as one of their favorite albums of 1988 (Rolling Stone magazine celebrity poll).

Legal release

The Black Album was finally released by Warner Bros. Records on November 22, 1994—again, containing only a track listing and the new catalog number 45793 printed onto the disc itself, the copyright date of 1994 (with the exception of "When 2 R in Love", which was released in 1988 on Lovesexy), and only legal copy appearing on the spine. It was released in a strictly limited edition and was deleted on January 27, 1995. It is believed that this release was legitimized so that Prince could get out of his new seven-album contract with the label that he had signed the previous year because he wanted ownership of his master recordings. However, it was later revealed that the release of The Black Album did not count toward the number of albums he owed to Warner Bros. Soon before its release, however, Prince started to appear with the word "slave" written on his face and changed his stage name to an unpronounceable symbol.

On the week of the album's official release, Warner ran an ad at the back of the November 26, 1994, issue of Billboard offering owners of counterfeit copies a free copy of the legal release provided they mail their illegal copy to the label in exchange. This offer was given only to the first thousand who sent in their copies.[16]

Track listing

All songs written by Prince, except #8, music written by Prince and Eric Leeds.

Side 1
  1. "Le Grind" – 6:44
  2. "Cindy C." – 6:15
  3. "Dead on It" – 4:37
  4. "When 2 R in Love" – 3:59 †
Side 2
  1. "Bob George" – 5:36
  2. "Superfunkycalifragisexy" – 5:55
  3. "2 Nigs United 4 West Compton" – 7:01
  4. "Rockhard in a Funky Place" – 4:31

† Also appears on Lovesexy.

Personnel

[17]

Chart performance

Chart (1994) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[18] 15
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[19] 7
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[20] 35
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[21] 51
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[22] 8
UK Albums (OCC)[23] 36
US Billboard 200[24] 47
US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (Billboard)[25] 18

References

Notes
  1. 1 2 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Prince: The Black Album > Review" at AllMusic. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  2. 1 2 Harris, Keith (June–July 2001). "Every Original CD Reviewed - Prince". Blender. No. 1 (Alpha Media Group).
  3. ↑ Christgau, Robert. "Prince". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  4. ↑ Browne, David (2 December 1994). "The Black Album Review". Entertainment Weekly. No. #251 (Time). ISSN 1049-0434. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  5. 1 2 "Prince - Black Album CD Album". CDUniverse.com. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  6. ↑ Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds.) (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide (2nd ed.). Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 899. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.
  7. ↑ Pareles, Jon (22 May 1988). "Prince Twice Is Still Prince Charming". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. OCLC 1645522. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  8. ↑ Hoard (2004), p. 655. Portions posted at "Prince: Album Guide". RollingStone.com. Archived from the original on 20 March 2011. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  9. ↑ "1987 - Welcome to the Funk Bible". The Black Album. theblackalbum.info. 13 August 2006. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  10. ↑ Carcieri, Matthew Prince: A Life in MusiciUniverse.com (2004), p. 49
  11. ↑ Nilsen, Per. Dance Music Sex Romance: Prince: The First Decade. SAF Publishing Ltd; 2nd Revised edition (2003), p. 229
  12. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGxJWdUsF5Y&feature=kp
  13. ↑ "4.3 So what's the deal with the Black Album?". General Prince FAQ. prince.org. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
  14. ↑ Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince, Alex Hahn, p.123
  15. ↑ Nilsen, Per Dance Music Sex Romance: Prince: The First Decade SAF Publishing Ltd; 2nd Revised edition (2003) p305
  16. ↑ Billboard magazine, November 26, 1994 p. 138
  17. ↑ http://princevault.com/index.php/Album:_The_Black_Album
  18. ↑ "Australiancharts.com – Prince – The Black Album". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
  19. ↑ "Austriancharts.at – Prince – The Black Album" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
  20. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – Prince – The Black Album" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
  21. ↑ "Offiziellecharts.de – Prince – The Black Album" (in German). GfK Entertainment. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
  22. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Prince – The Black Album". Hung Medien. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
  23. ↑ "Prince | Artist | Official Charts". UK Albums Chart Retrieved May 1, 2016.
  24. ↑ "Prince – Chart history" Billboard 200 for Prince. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
  25. ↑ "Prince – Chart history" Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums for Prince. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
Sources

External links

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