Prince’s estate will release a finished album from the mercurial artist’s famous music vault soon, the first never-before-heard album since his shocking death five years ago.
“Welcome 2 America,” a 12-track album completed in 2010 but shelved in Prince’s Paisley Park complex in Minneapolis for reasons unknown, provides a prophetic glimpse into today’s societal challenges, delving into racism, political conflict, technology, and disinformation.
The pop chameleon Prince sings of America as the “country of the free / home of the slave,” blending urgent poetry with languorous funk.
The artist, who died on April 21, 2016, at the age of 57, from an accidental fentanyl overdose, could not have predicted that his beloved hometown would erupt in outrage and protest in the years after his death, following the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man.
Prince, on the other hand, was a lifelong activist who advocated for Black people’s empowerment in the recording industry and beyond.
On the closing track, “One Day We Will All Be Free,” Prince sings, “You go to school merely to study / about what never existed.”
“However, if your history is only going to burn / it’s wiser to resist.”
Prince’s new album, “A Laser-Focused Assault on the Condition of America,” will be released on July 30. Morris Hayes, Prince’s longtime keyboardist and musical director, described the album as “a laser-focused assault on the condition of America.”
“What’s going on with social media, social justice, and social consciousness,” Hayes, who also co-produced the record, stated.
“I liked how raw it was, and in terms of my production, I just wanted to make it as raw as possible so I didn’t get in the way of what he was trying to express.”
