Customer Reviews

Black Album

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What is there to say about the Black Album that hasn't already been said. This album was supposed to be the follow-up to the 1987 masterpiece Sign o' The Times. The album was made but weeks before it's release Prince refused to put it out there and went to work on another album. The album released instead was Lovesexy, which (if you've heard the Black Album) proves to be great in its own way but the exact opposite of the Black Album. For Prince this was a spiritual thing. He said that something told him not to put out the Black Album. But what Prince didn't know is that while WB destroyed most copies, some of the promotional LPs were sent out. That's when the bootlegging began. The Black Album was one of the most bootlegged albums in history. The Black Album was still alive when Prince began performing some songs on stage during his Lovesexy Tour.

Years went by and in 1994 Prince had to fufill his contract with WB and did something he didn't want to do back in '88. Release the Black Album to the mass public. For years he'd been warning people not to buy the Black Album and now it was available but with a catch, it was limited. The Black Album's shocking lyrics and overt sexuality threw many people off. Here was the guy that sang "Little Red Corvette" talking in this pimped out voice calling a woman something besides her name. But even with all the controversy it was well praised.

Prince's The Black Album is an all out funk fest. With jams like "Le Grind", "Cindy C." and "Superfunkycalifragisexy". The only ballad on the album that was also featured on Lovesexy, "When 2 R In Love" is great and among the greatest Prince songs. "Dead On It" is a cool parody of rappers with an addictive yet simple beat that's sure to having you bobbing your head. "2 Nigs United 4 West Compton" is mostly an instrumental but has a little intro at beginning that has a conversation between Prince and Cat behind the drums of his song "Housequake". But listen closely and you'll hear a slew of voices chattering spewing curse words and conversations of their own. "Rockhard In A Funky Place" is a cool song too, with Prince ripping the guitar while Shiela, Cat and anothers yell "Rock!". But the infamous and controversial "Bob George" takes the crown for the best cut on the album. It is Prince in rare form. A deep voice and a pimp attitude. He's even making suggestions to using a gun, something that shocked critics and even made them come to the conclusion that Prince pioneered "gangsta rap".

To those that love Purple Rain and the legendary status of the man will find this album and "Bob George" in particular somewhat different and very disturbing. But to those that can enjoy Lovesexy and all of his work that the albums that weren't lighting up the pop charts, this is a masterpiece. Enough said.

This album could have been titled "Controversy," mainly because most Prince fans seem to be unable to agree on whether or not it is a good disc. I side with the camp that sees this as a Prince classic. As the intended follow-up to the vaunted Sign 'o' the Times, 1987's Black Album comes straight out of one Prince's most inspired periods. Although the brilliant patchwork of Sign 'o' the Times ultimately yields the finer album, Black Album is Prince's ode to funk, and, as such, is more cohesive, much more of a piece with itself. It is also much more focused and enjoyable than Lovesexy, the album Prince released in place of Black Album, in 1988. Whereas on Lovesexy, Prince obscures his funk with swirls of quasi-religious philosophizing, on Black Album he stays true to one vision: getting it on to the groove.

Here, the Purple One conjures an unrelenting world of joyously insane, black-strap, butt-bumping, booty-grinding funk that struts in with "Le Grind" and doesn't let up until "Rock Hard in a Funky Place" swaggers off into silence. On every track in between, Prince keeps up the pace, refusing to let listeners catch their breath. (One exception to this is the only ballad on the disc, "When 2 R in Love," the one Black Album track to make it onto Lovesexy, where it makes much more sense thematically. On Black Album, it simply doesn't fit in, and is the album's one weakness.) This is not listener-friendly Prince; he is much too hardcore here for casual fans, which could explain why this disc still gets mixed reviews. However, for those who revel in this artist's unique, inspired forays into the fun and unusual, Black Album is just the ticket.

* * *

Officially, this album was not released until 1994, when Warner Bros. put out a limited edition CD. Prior to that, it had been available only on bootleg LPs and cassettes. To my knowledge, this album is now out of print officially, and all forms of it will take some work to find. If you can track down a copy, either official or bootleg, snap it up. It's worth it.

The history of this album is well-documented, but in a nutshell (for those not in the know), Prince wrote and recorded it for Sheila E.'s birthday one night, and eventually decided not to release it due to religious reasons. The acetate got out, however, and the rest is history. This version is the Warner Brothers 1994 re-issue, and it contains no liner notes. The songs are merely listed on the disc itself.

It's unfortunate that the hype machine got ahold of this album before it could be properly reviewed. It contains exactly HALF an album worth of good material, and the rest is experimental at best.

The gems? "2 Nigs United For West Compton"; a funk/fusion classic that probably belonged in a live set somewhere. "Rock Hard In A Funky Place", a low-key funkfest that's similar to "Housequake", but way more minimalistic. "Superfunkicalifragisexy", a rave-up that surely belonged on "Parade".

If you don't know the story behind Prince's Black Album, here is a quick rundown. After the break-up of the Revolution and the commercial failure of the excellent Sign O' The Times, Prince wanted to reinvent his image, to do something shocking and different to show the music world that not everything was Starfish and Coffee. Hence The Black Album, the supposed follow-up to Sign O' The Times. It was supposed to be his most controversial album to date, and was a key starting point for his feud with Warner Brothers.

The label, looking for Prince to deliver another Purple Rain, instead received The Black Album, which contained no material suitable for a hit single. And worse, Prince insisted that the cover of both sides of the case to be black with no writing, and his name nor the album title was to appear anywhere on the album. Obviosly, the record label was not thrilled but went into production with the hope that the bizarre marketing strategy and Prince's name alone could carry the album.

With the album days away from release, and hundreds of thousands of albums already produced, Prince called the label and demanded them to pull the album. The label reluctantly agreed and most of the albums were destroyed. A few leaked out to the general public, bootlegs were sold, and the legendary status behind the album grew.

The explanation for Prince's abandonment of the album was that he had a religious revelation, and that God told him the album was evil (there have been rumors that he received this "revelation" while under the influence of ecstasy, but there is no substantial evidence to support this). So Prince went into the studio to create the opposite of The Black Album, Lovesexy.

Warner Brothers reissued the album in 1994 during the height of their feud with The Artist, and it was virtually ignored by Prince and the general public. But with such a history, could this album actually be any good? The answer is surprisingly yes.

While it does contain many instances of Prince's self-indulgence that plague many of his albums, The Black Album contains some of the funkiest songs that The Artist has ever laid down. The lyrics, while uncharacteristically violent and sexist for Prince, are not nearly as bad as what rap artists of today are producing.

It is a shame that this album was dropped with no promotion because it is a very solid album. While not in the same league as his classics, it is better than Lovesexy and pretty much anything he has released since except for The Gold Experience.

Because this album is hard to find and will cost around $30 for a good used copy, and upwords of $100 new, it is not for everyone. Any casual fan expecting a Purple Rain experience should stay away. But for diehards and completists, this is a definate must have. It is the lost gem from The Artist's extensive cannon.

Painless, quick, easy sale.

And this album is fantastic. There are some "odd" moments and choices on it, but if you've heard the apocryphal stories (or listened to the lyrics to supercalifunkifragisexy) then it might make sense, especially in context of the era.

But WOW, this album is a blast. Dance funk, primarily electro, but the incomparable Sheila E. is all over this record as well. From the crazy bassline of Le Grind to the sexy love-groove of When 2 R n Love, Sheila's mind-blowing pocket on 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton to Prince's quoting Jeff Beck guitar lines on Rock Hard in a Funky Place, this record is a hot little gem. Oh, and did I mention the funky drunken-stumble horn line in that last track? It's squeal-worthy.

Basically, if you enjoy the weirder, more experimental side of Prince's output, you will dig this CD. If you like Prince only for his hit singles and pop anthems, then stay away. I love this time period of Prince's career, and I stood up and cheered when this was offically released....allowing me to throw away my hissy bootleg copy. This is actually one of my favorite Prince records.

This Prince album was scheduled for a release in 1987 but weeks before it's release date it was discarded for unknown reasons and Prince released "LoveSexy" instead, and the "Black Album" got this mythical status and was heavily bootlegged to the point that it was officially released in 1994. For those of you that don't know the story behind this let me give a short explenation. Prince had been making alot of commercial music at the time, alot of Pop-Rock and less of the Funky R&B he recorded in the beginning of his career. The "Black Community" weren't happy with this and wanted more Funk, so Prince decided to content them with a raw funk album. But the album never saw daylight and alot of rumours came about about it. Some said it was cause of religious reasons that Prince rather released the mellow love album "LoveSexy", others said it was cause of the explicit lyrics the album had or maybe Prince simply realized that it wasn't good enough, thus giving up the project and releasing something that worked better for radio. The unreleased album without a title became known as the "Black Album" cause it didn't have a proper cover, just a black frame. People were ofcourse curious about it and some lucky people managed to get a copy of it and thereafter the album was spread through bootlegs making it an Urban Legend. But is it really that good? And how does it sound? Read on to find out.

Like aformentioned it's a very funky uptempo album with more beats and rhythm then melody and structure. It also got some quite daring lyrics, not too surprising when it comes to Prince but still. "Le Grind" in an 6.30 minute long orgy of funk, while it's a funky party song it isn't very memorable and lacks good melody and hook. Second song "Cindy C" a plea to supermodel Cindy Crawford is very simular to it's predecessor while "Dead on It" has to be one of the corniest things he ever done. This songs is critisizing the violence in Hip Hop lyrics but it's obvious that Prince didn't know alot about the Hip Hop culture when he wrote it. Ironically he would record alot of Hip Hop songs himself later on with the NPG. "When 2 R In Love" a love song that doesn't really fit into this album later appeared on "LoveSexy". Funk-Rock on the infomous "Bob George" where Prince has a guitar riff sounding like a Machine-Gun and thanks to computers his voice became deeper and he sounds like a thug, but he's talking in the entire song!. More uptempo funk on the daring "Superfunkicalifragisexy" and very enjoyable James Brown infleunced funk on "2 Nigs United for West Compton". An instrumental, but the flashiest song of the album. On the Closer, Another funk number called "RockHard in a Funky Place" we find Prince's voice speed up instead, yeah the title means what you think!. This album never fail to surprise?.

Overall, For many reasons this album is mythical, but it isn't really a legendary album. Not even one song here got a memorable enough melody or hook, it's just beatoriented upbeat funk without hit potential. Prince probably realized this and decided to release something that worked better commercially instead. As a collectors item, this is a must have based on the history and myths behind it but it's not one of the better Prince albums at all.

When I first bought this CD, (actually cassette) shortly after it was officially released, I didn't know the story behind it. I thought it was a new album. I was impressed by the funk and thought it was going to be one of the great dance albums of all time. When I discovered that it was in fact made 7 years earlier, I was even more amazed at how innovative it was.

Cindy C was in the prime of her career when this was released in 1994, but in 1987, when Prince wrote the song of the same, who knew about her? Prince, that's who.

"Dead On It" was a shot at gansta rap, which was huge in 1994. In 1987 it was not yet on the scene. Who knew it would be big and didnt like it? Prince, that's who.

Those two songs blew me out of the water when I found out when they were written. Prophetic visions aside, the album is great. "Le Grind" and "Cindy C" lead off as funky dance tunes. "Dead On It" and "Bob George" give the album it's infamous darkness. "Bob George" is a deep funk cut about a vengeful husband taking out his wife and her lover. There is some tight guitar playing by the man is this one. "When 2 R In Love" may take a way from the dance groove of the album, however it is a great song. This is one of P's graphic yet beautiful love ballads. Genius! "Superfunkicalifragisexy," "2 Nigs United 4 West Compton," and "Rock Hard in a Funky Place" add more dark funk to finish out the album. "Superfunkicalifragisexy" even goes as far as mentioning drinking blood and eating squirrel meat (as an aphrodisiac). "2 Nigs United 4 West Compton" is actually a cut by Madhouse, Prince's instrumental group of the time period, with Prince on the keyboards. The title seems to be another reference to the gansta rap era of the early 90's, that hadn't happened yet.

To make this long review much simpler, buy it. You should especially buy it if you are a serious Prince fan, or into buying hidden treasures from great artists. This is one of those gems.

There is a funny story about this album. Prince was afraid of dying and having this album being the last one he realeased, and the one he'd be remembered by. That is reportedly why he pulled the plug. Ironically, until he gave up on being called O(+>, that was the case. During that time, he claimed the Prince had "died," and maybe without realizing it, this was the last album released as Prince. So until he began recording as Prince again, he had fulfilled his own prophecy with this. Maybe that's what convinced him to record as Prince again.

The point this legendary bootleg does hit is in it's pure
funkiness but 'The Black Album' isn't the work of pure genius
it's said to be.Most of the songs sound like half-finished
outtakes that didn't make the cut of Prince's better albums.
Plus the lyrics are often too profane even for Prince!So it
revels in it's grooves,talks alot but doesn't say much!

Prince's aborted 1987 follow-up to "Sign 'O' the Times" became the most famous bootleg until it received an official release in 1994. "The Black Album" represents Prince at his funkiest, with a critical assessment of rap ("Dead On It"), a playful tribute to a popular supermodel ("Cindy C") and the shockingly outrageous "Bob George." The only weak spot is "When 2 R in Love" - a lackluster ballad that doesn't fit into the album's overall groove. Not for all tastes, but more cohesive and satisfying than "Lovesexy."