Five Years After His Death, New Music Arrives from Prince
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Senior National Correspondent / April 21, 2021
Prince playing at Cochella, 2008. / Wikimedia Commons
The new “Welcome 2 America” CD marks the first time Prince’s estate is releasing never-before-heard music from the megastar’s famous Paisley Park vault.
Fans got a preview on CBS’s Minutes, and Prince’s longtime guitarist, Brown Mark, recently sat for a special interview with the Black Press.
The 12-track disc was recorded in 2010 to accompany a tour of the same name but never released.
The estate plans to debut the new music on July 30.
“Welcome 2 America is a document of Prince’s concerns, hopes and visions for a shifting society, presciently foreshadowing an era of political division, disinformation and a renewed fight for racial justice,” Prince’s estate noted in a statement.
Never a big fan of social media, Prince sings about how superficial social media could be, corporate monopolies in music and reality television.
On the title track, Prince sings: “Welcome 2 America, the land of the free – home of the slave.”
Prince fans know that track is reminiscent of his 1985 song, “America,” from his “Around the World in a Day” album.
In that song, the Purple One sings: “Aristocrats on a mountain climb, making money, losing time/Communism is just a word, but if the government turn over, it’ll be the only word that’s heard/America, America/God shed his grace on thee/America, America Keep the children free.”
Songs from the new CD include “Running Game (Son of a Slave Master),” “Born 2 Die” and “One Day We Will All B Free.”
Prince also sings about “Distracted by the features of the iPhone/Got an application, 2 fix Ur situation.”
During the “Welcome 2 America” tour, which lasted for three years beginning in 2010, Prince performed over 80 shows. The estate doesn’t explain why he never released the accompanying CD.
Prince died on April 21, 2016, at the age of 57.
