Black Album (Prince album)
| Black album | ||||
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| Prince's studio album | ||||
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Publication |
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admission |
September 1986 - October 1987 |
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| Label (s) | Warner Bros. Records | |||
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Format (s) |
LP, CD, music cassette |
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Title (number) |
8th |
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44:43 |
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| occupation | All songs were produced, arranged, composed and performed by Prince . His band members added to the recordings as follows:
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Prince |
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Studio (s) |
Galpin Blvd Home Studio ( Chanhassen ) |
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The Black Album ( English for Black Album ) is the 16th studio album of the US musician Prince . It was released on November 21, 1994 on the Warner Bros. Records label . Prince had recorded the album back in 1986 and 1987, and Warner Bros. Records originally planned to release it on December 8, 1987. However, Prince withdrew the album a week before the planned release date for no reason. It then developed into one of the best-selling bootlegs in music history, with over 250,000 copies , until it was officially released seven years later.
When the Black Album was released in 1994, Prince had given up his stage name and was in a dispute with Warner Bros. Records, to which he was still under contract. Neither he nor the recording company did any noteworthy advertising for the album. It could not achieve gold or platinum status internationally. The music on the album belongs to the funk genre , the lyrics are mostly about sex , lust and love.
Emergence
Original planning
Most of the songs of the working title The Funk Bible called Black Album took on Prince between September 1986 and March 1987th In his home studio Galpin Blvd Home Studio in Chanhassen , Minnesota, he played the first song Superfunkycalifragisexy in September 1986 , which he reworked in January 1987 at the Washington Avenue Warehouse recording studio in Eden Prairie , also in Minneapolis. In October 1986 he recorded the song Rockhard in a Funky Place at Sunset Sound Studio in Los Angeles , California . Three other songs from the album, Le Grind , Bob George and 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton , Prince recorded in December 1986 also in the Sunset Sound studio for the birthday party of drummer Sheila E. , who turned 29 on December 12th . According to Prince's then sound engineer Susan Rogers (* 1956), he initially had no plans to publish the songs on an album. "Only after the publication of Sign" ☮ "the Times [30. March 1987] we put the tracks in order and made an album out of them, ”she said after Prince's death in 2016.
Prince recorded the songs Cindy C. and Dead on It in his home studio in March 1987. In early October 1987 he recorded the last song When 2 R in Love for the album in his then newly opened Paisley Park Studio in Chanhassen. In addition, the saxophonists Atlanta Bliss (* 1952) and Eric Leeds (* 1952) contributed their part for the songs Le Grind and Cindy C. , as well as Sheila E. and Boni Boyer (* July 28, 1958; † December 4, 1996) the backing song. For Cindy C. steered dancer Cat one (1964 *) Rap at. Prince also recorded a "party scene" that precedes the song 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton .
In November 1987 appeared in the schedule of new releases from Warner Bros. Records an LP “ Something ” (German: “Etwas”) by the artist “ Somebody ” (German: “Jemand”); the mysterious statement was assigned to Prince. When Prince presented the finished, untitled album, which then became known as the Black Album , to the company, he also wanted to influence the marketing's product policy: He said that the cover design of the album should not include the name "Prince" or any other references contain; apart from the catalog number, the album cover should be black on the front and back. The people in charge at Warner were not very enthusiastic about Prince's proposal, but 500,000 copies of the album were pressed for it to be released on December 8, 1987. However, a week before the scheduled release date, Prince contacted Mo Ostin , then Chairman of the Board of Directors of Warner Bros. Records, and asked him to cancel the release. Ostin accepted Prince's request without questioning it. Marylou Badeaux, then vice president of Warner Bros. Records, confirmed that Prince was determined and urgent to request it. Warner Bros. Records officially said that Prince had banned the release of the Black Album .
The 500,000 pressed LPs then had to be crushed. Alan Leeds (* 1947), older brother of Eric Leeds and Prince's tour manager at the time, said: “It was a logistical nightmare. In the loading docks, albums were packed, addressed and ready for dispatch, so in a great mood of panic they had to find a way to stop the delivery process without creating an in-house theft situation, because of course it was clear that it would become a collector's item immediately. "Three days after Prince 'Death in April 2016, Mo Ostin said in an interview that Prince had paid for all costs incurred in making the album. "And he actually paid us from his royalties ," added Ostin.
Several Warner board members received original copies of the Black Album, and Prince himself kept copies that he gave away to friends. Apart from that, there are around a hundred LPs and around ten original CDs around the world. The Black album became a coveted bootleg until it was officially released on Warner Bros. Records in November 1994.
In the 1980s, Prince gave no reason for withdrawing the Black Album . In the program booklet for his lovesexy tour in 1988 there was a cryptic reference to the album; In it, Prince wrote that "Camille", which was interpreted as his alter ego , had overstretched its negative side. In 1990, Prince explained in an interview with the US music magazine Rolling Stone why he did not want to publish the Black Album . Prince said he realized then that you could die at any moment and that it would be judged by what was last left behind.
Official edition
In the years after the canceled first release, Warner Bros. Records tried to convince Prince to bring the Black Album out after all. For example, in 1991 there were considerations to release the Black Album in combination with a Greatest Hits compilation by Prince as a double CD. Warner saw a certain danger that Prince with his multitude of new releases could oversaturate the music market with his music. The plans were initially rejected. In 1993 there were differences between Prince and his record company. Prince then gave up his stage name for seven years and until 2000 was mostly referred to as "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince".
On November 21, 1994, Warner Bros. Records released the Black Album . According to Warner spokesman Bob Merlis, the record company had complied with Prince's request and signed a contract with him. However, according to Prince's then spokeswoman Karen Lee, the artist was against it. He had to give his consent because he had contractually no other choice. In addition, Prince had a different attitude in 1994 than in 1987, when the Black Album was recorded . He was very angry at the time and never wanted to release the Black Album . Bob Merlis replied, "All I can tell you is that on October 25th [1994] he [Prince] signed a contract allowing us to publish it".
Warner employees in Burbank dressed completely in black on the day the Black Album was released and turned off the light for 15 minutes as a “blackout”. In an advertisement for the album, which was not entirely serious, Warner Bros. Records made a "pardon" offer to people who had the Black Album as a bootleg : the first 1,000 people to send their bootleg copies back to Warner would receive new editions of the Black Album receive. However, this offer was hardly taken up and the publication of the Black Album generally met with little media interest.
Prince is said to have received an honorarium of approximately one million US dollars for the release of the Black Album - as part of a three-party contract that included the Black Album , the album The Gold Experience and an unspecified soundtrack to a movie. However, he later canceled this contract.
Design of the cover
As planned for the original release on December 8, 1987, the Black Album was released on November 21, 1994 in a plain black front and back cover. There was only a sticker on one side of the cover with the catalog number and the words "Prince - the legendary Black Album - limited Edition" in orange letters. Neither the LP nor the CD contain an accompanying booklet and the lyrics of the individual songs are not printed. Musicians and other contributors are not mentioned.
Music and lyrics
The Black Album is characterized by funk , rap influences are also present. Prince's voice can be heard in different pitches on the album: In the pitch-shifting vocals a little higher and faster with Rockhard in a Funky Place , then with a slowed voice in Le Grind , as a deep hum in Bob George and in the falsetto vocals on When 2 R in love . Furthermore, hectic accompanying chants and shouted instructions can be heard, which give the album a party atmosphere.
In the lyrics, Prince addresses the topics of sex and lust , but also love and spirituality . The Black Album was one of the first albums in 1987 with the warning “ Parental Advisory - Explicit Lyrics ” on the front cover. As Prince remarked to the US music magazine Rolling Stone in 1990 , he was very often angry when he recorded the album, and this is reflected in the music on the album.
Le Grind is a rhythmic up-tempo song with a leitmotif of trumpets and percussion lines. In the background, a party atmosphere is created through occasional conversations, repeated instructions - for example, "put it where it feels good" - and breathless gasping. Overall, Le Grind is a jam session on a single chord . After about 30 seconds, Prince mumbles in the background: "Come dance with us: Funk Bible - the New Testament ". The main message of the lyrics is the desire for personal liberation, expressed through a "new dance" called Le Grind . Here, girls and boys get closer and “don't need to be afraid”. The chorus reads, among other things, “Up and down, that's good, like a horse does”.
Cindy C. is a fast song with a pounding beat, trumpet - and saxophone - riffs and percussion fills . The song mainly focuses on the vocal interplay between Prince, Sheila E. and background singer Boni Boyer. Dancer Cat controls a rap at that on the song Music is the Key of Steve Hurley is based from the year 1985th Model Cindy Crawford inspired Prince to write the lyrics, which are about a "first-class model over in Paris, France". However, the title character is sometimes placed in the vicinity of a prostitute ; For example, the lyrics say: "Cindy C., play with me, I will pay the usual fee".
The song title of Dead on It is the name of the album Hustle !!! (Dead on It) loaned from James Brown in 1975. Dead on It is a funk song to drum computer , bass line and rhythm guitar . In the lyrics, Prince makes fun of rap; Sound engineer Susan Rogers recalled, “We had these discussions about whether or not rap was useful. He [Prince] didn't really like rap, but he realized he had to bring rap in some form; although he didn't know how. He believed that he was making real music and didn't like artists who couldn't sing or who tried to but couldn't find any notes. But it became more and more clear that rap was not just a flash in the pan, but a new movement ”.
When 2 R in Love is the only ballad on the Black album . The song is very sparingly orchestrated with a harpsichord- like sounding synthesizer , bass synthesizer and a Linn drum computer. Prince sings in five different tones of voice and sometimes changes within a single verse from one to the other register. The lyrics of the song are about love and sex: "Take a bath with me / Let's drown in our feelings / Let's rub ourselves with perfume and lotion". When 2 R in Love also appeared on Prince's album Lovesexy in 1988 .
Prince composed the song title by Bob George from the names Bob Cavallo (* 1939) and Nelson George . Cavallo was one of his personal managers at the time and George was then a music journalist for the major trade and industry journal Billboard . Susan Rogers later said, “Prince felt that all of a sudden Nelson George was very critical of him. […] Bob Cavallo had ticked him [Prince], for whatever reason, too, but the song was by no means created out of a dark or angry mood. We laughed so much when we recorded the song. It was nothing more than male aggression. " Bob George is an unconventional, with a simple arrangement computer handclaps and - bass drum played 12-bar blues . A guitar kicks in as the song progresses, accompanied by synthesizer chords. The lyrics are only spoken by Prince: He takes on the role of a misogynist with anti-social personality disorder who gets into an argument with his girlfriend - but the girlfriend's answers are not heard throughout the song. Prince shows self-irony when the man he is playing asks his girlfriend in the course of the argument: “Who did you get this diamond ring from? From Bob? Isn't that that rich asshole? How does he earn his money? He manages rock stars? Whom? Prince? Isn't that that whore with the high voice? ”Originally, Prince recorded the song in his normal voice, but pitch-shifting made his voice very low.
For the unusual song title Superfunkycalifragisexy , Prince was inspired by the song Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from the 1964 film Mary Poppins . Superfunkycalifragisexy is a fast funk number, instrumented with guitar, drum computer and an ostinate bassline. The text is about bondage and masturbation . Prince also sings about "squirrel meat", which is used as ambrosia for an aphrodisiac . When will however drunk by this aphrodisiac too much, would "your skin sensitive to touch - the first person who touches you, you want to fuck " ( "your skin will be sensitive to the touch, the first person to touch you, you'll want to fuck ").
At the beginning of the song 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton , Cat says, among other things, “Serve it up, Frankie!”, Which means the US DJ Frankie Knuckles , who Prince knew from the warehouse in Chicago , Illinois. 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton is a seven minute jam session with both Sheila E. and Prince playing live drums. Prince played all the other instruments himself. West Compton is a city outside of Los Angeles that is predominantly African American .
Originally the song Rockhard in a Funky Place was planned for an album with the working title Camille planned for January 1987 . It did not materialize, however, instead using some of the songs in March 1987 on the double album Sign "the" the Times . With the song Rockhard in a Funky Place , Prince changed his voice again with technical aids and thus created an alter ego called "Camille". Susannah Melvoin , the twin sister of The Revolution guitarist Wendy Melvoin, sings in the background . The song has a funky groove with synth, trumpets - and saxophone - phrases .
Title list and publications
| No. | song | author | length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Le Grind | Prince | 6:44 |
| 2 | Cindy C. | Prince | 6:15 |
| 3 | Dead on It | Prince | 4:37 |
| 4th | When 2 R in Love | Prince | 3:59 |
| 5 | Bob George | Prince | 5:36 |
| 6th | Superfunkycalifragisexy | Prince | 5:55 |
| 7th | 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton | Prince | 7:01 |
| 8th | Rockhard in a Funky Place | Prince | 4:31 |
The Black Album was released on November 21, 1994 in Germany and Great Britain, and one day later in the USA. It was released on compact disc , music cassette and record .
Music videos
The music video for Alphabet St. dated April 1988 from the album Love Sexy contains after about 26 seconds following hidden message: " Do not Buy the Black Album, I'm Sorry " (German: "The Black Album not buy, I'm sorry" ). Following the sung line of text “she'll want me from my head to my feet”, Prince takes a small step forward and then seems to disappear in the middle of the screen. The message then appears from the same place for about half a second and runs vertically across the screen in dark letters.
On the occasion of the release of the Black Album in 1994, Warner Bros. Records produced a music video for the song When 2 R in Love . The video only shows a black screen on which the lyrics sung by Prince are displayed in white letters at the bottom of the screen. The karaoke- like video was directed by David May; it was made without any influence from Prince.
Cover versions
In the spring of 1989 the Frankfurt record company TnT Enterprises hired a few studio musicians to play the entire then unreleased Black Album and record it on LP. The result received the “Record of the Week” award on Radio Luxemburg .
The song When 2 R in Love was recorded by the Japanese singer-songwriter EPO in 1991 , Bob Belden in 1994 and Johntá Austin in 2010 . In 1996, jazz musician TJ Kirk released a live version of a medley from the James Brown song Get on the Good Foot (1972) and from Rockhard in a Funky Place . Jim McMillen, also a jazz musician, recorded a new version of Rockhard in a Funky Place in 2001 .
reception
Bootleg from 1987
After the Black Album was withdrawn in 1987, it became one of the best-selling bootlegs in music history. According to the US magazine Musicians , more than 250,000 illegal copies of the album were sold in vinyl or CD form, not counting music cassettes. So the bootleg reached similar sales figures as the first unreleased album Smile of the Beach Boys from 1967. According to the music magazine Music Express - then known as ME / Sounds familiar - was Black Album for up to 200 US dollars traded. According to the British magazine The Face, a British music lover paid 12,000 pounds (at that time around 40,000 D-Marks ) for an album that was already provided with the catalog number "WX 147". Those responsible at WEA Records denied that this copy came from German pressing. “ 70,000 copies were crushed in Alsdorf . It is nonsense that copies have come outside from there or have even been sold, "was a statement from the recording company . In the book Music Master Price Guide , the value of the original pressings was estimated at US $ 1,500, but added that they "appear so rarely on the market that their value must be speculative." In 1989 you could buy black copies of the Black Album at flea markets for around 20 D-Marks.
In 1987, interim injunctions were obtained in Germany against the music magazine Network Press and the national broadcaster NDR, among others . Network Press had presented the withdrawn Black Album and the NDR had played songs from the album on the radio night program. At that time, WEA Records published a press release “Schwarz Hören &ehen is expensive!” And demanded a declaration of cease and desist from the NDR under threat of a six-digit D-Mark claim for damages. The news magazine Der Spiegel wrote about the non- publication of the album: "As a master of media flirtation, he [Prince] has driven the expectations of the fan base to a lucrative boiling point."
Alan Leeds, Prince's tour manager at the time, was convinced that the Black Album would have been considered an important record at the time: “It would have been a milestone in his [Prince '] career, a turning point for better or for worse, and at that a time when he badly needed something like that. It would have made a bigger impression than Parade , Sign "☮" the Times, or Lovesexy . That doesn't mean it sold better, but it would have meant a lot more to the people who actually bought it. ”Readers of US music magazine Rolling Stone voted the Black Album one of the best albums of the year, though it was unpublished. The lifestyle magazine Tempo described the musical style of the album as "[a] single, huge mega-mix for discos."
Published in 1994
When the Black Album was officially released in November 1994, the reviews were mixed. In the course of music styles such as gangsta rap , death metal and hardcore punk it no longer seemed as unusual as it did in 1987; seven years later, the lyrics seemed less provocative. The US news magazine Time said that in 1987 listeners "[...] probably didn't know what to do with the bitter attitude of the album, today it sounds almost normal". The time of the Black Album was clearly over, was another opinion. The Detroit Free Press concluded that the Black Album was “little more than an interesting piece of contemporary history”.
Billboard magazine gave the Black Album four out of five stars. It is a “great little record that continues to delight. Even if its mysterious atmosphere has now faded. ”Danny Kelly of Q magazine also gave it four out of five stars and said the Black Album was“ an almost indispensable must-have ”for“ anyone who has always had an interest in this little, mysterious guy [Prince] had “. The American rock critic Robert Christgau awarded the album an A- , with A + being the best possible award. He believed that people "who crave heavy funk " should buy the album. The US music magazine Rolling Stone described the style of the Black Album as "great, real funk".
The British writer Hanif Kureishi addresses the album in his novel The Black Album from 1995, which was also staged as a play in 2009.
Posthumous (since 2016)
After Prince's death in April 2016, the music journalists Albert Koch and Thomas Weiland from the German music magazine Musikexpress reviewed the Black Album and gave it four out of six stars. They wrote that Prince “doesn't always want to just sit on the pop throne, but rather keep his closeness to black R'n'B. So the black album sounds like a mixture of James Brown and Controversy (1981) ”. Sassan Niasseri from the German edition of the US music magazine Rolling Stone also gave a verdict on the Black Album after Prince's death . He gave two and a half stars out of five and said, "Party gibberish that could have remained unpublished". He wrote about the opener Le Grind : "The fact that the piece is breaking up is symptomatic of the entire record, much silted up in effects, swarming, in a big celebration that the listener only notices from outside or whose code words he does not understand". The rap performed in the song Cindy C. sounds "like a sheet of paper" and the lyrics of Dead on It are "silly, not funny, and unprofessional".
Posthumously at an auction on February 15, 2018 in Boston , Massachusetts, an original sealed record from the Black Album was auctioned for 42,298 US dollars (around 37,500 euros at the time) and in August 2018 the online database Discogs sold an original Promo LP for 27,500 US dollars (then about 23,700 euros), which is the most expensive sound carrier in the history of Discogs until today (as of 2021). The previously most expensive record on Discogs was also the Black Album for 15,000 US dollars (then about 13,200 euros), dated April 2016 - immediately after Prince's death.
Charts
| ChartsChart placements | Top ranking | Weeks |
|---|---|---|
 Germany (GfK)
|
49 (9 weeks) | 9 |
 Austria (Ö3)
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7th (8 weeks) | 8th |
 Switzerland (IFPI)
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8th (11 weeks) | 11 |
 United Kingdom (OCC)
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36 (5 weeks) | 5 |
 United States (Billboard)
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47 (11 weeks) | 11 |
The Black Album has been sold around 500,000 copies worldwide since 1994, of which about 295,000 copies were sold in the United States. (Status: 2004) Singles were not decoupled from the album.
literature
- Alex Hahn: Obsessed - Prince's turbulent life . Hannibal Verlag, Höfen 2016, ISBN 978-3-85445-610-0 .
- Ben Greenman: Dig If You Will the Picture - Funk, Sex and God in the Music of Prince. Faber & Faber Ltd, London 2017, ISBN 978-0-571-33326-4 .
- Dave Hill: Prince - A Pop Life. Droemer Knaur, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-426-04036-0 .
- Jake Brown: Prince in the Studio (1975-1995). Colossus Books, Phoenix 2010, ISBN 978-0-9790976-6-9 .
- Jason Draper: Prince - Life & Times (Revised & Updated Edition). Chartwell Books, New York 2016, ISBN 978-0-7858-3497-7 .
- Jon Ewing: Prince - CD Books : Carlton Books, Rastatt 1994, ISBN 3-8118-3986-1 .
- Jürgen Seibold : Prince. Verlagsunion Erich Pabel-Arthur Moewig, Rastatt 1991, ISBN 3-8118-3078-3 .
- Matt Thorne: Prince. Faber and Faber, London 2012, ISBN 978-0-571-27349-2 .
- Mobeen Azhar: Prince 1958–2016: His life in pictures and text. Edition Olms, Oetwil am See / Zurich 2016, ISBN 978-3-283-01265-6 .
- Per Nilsen: DanceMusicSexRomance - Prince: The First Decade. Firefly Publishing, London 1999, ISBN 0-946719-23-3 .
- Roland Mischke: From Nobody to Pop Prince. Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1989, ISBN 3-404-61157-8 .
- Ronin Ro: Prince - Inside the Music and the Masks. St. Martin's Press, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-312-38300-8 .
- Uptown: The Vault - The Definitive Guide to the Musical World of Prince. Nilsen Publishing, Linköping 2004, ISBN 91-631-5482-X .
Web links
- Princevault , Black Album information
- Works by and about Prince in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Uptown (2004), p. 396.
- ↑ a b c d e Nilsen (1999), p. 244.
- ↑ Azhar (2016), p. 51
- ↑ Boni Boyer. In: discogs.com. 2019, accessed on November 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), pp. 244 and 269.
- ↑ Nilsen (1999), p. 243.
- ↑ a b Hahn (2016), p. 181.
- ↑ Greenman (2017), p. 128.
- ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 87.
- ↑ a b Hahn (2016), p. 184.
- ↑ Seibold (1991), p. 71.
- ↑ a b Nilsen (1999), p. 247.
- ↑ Jem Aswad: Former Warner Bros. CEO Mo Ostin Recalls His Long Relationship With Prince: 'He Was a Fearless Artist'. In: billboard.com. April 26, 2016, accessed February 16, 2021 .
- ↑ a b c d e Ro (2011), p. 263.
- ↑ Ewing (1994), p. 76.
- ↑ Ewing (1994), p. 77.
- ^ Ro (2011), p. 213.
- ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 170.
- ↑ a b c d Draper (2016), p. 119.
- ↑ Vinyl album and CD edition of Prince's Black Album , Warner Bros. Records, 1994
- ↑ a b Nilsen (1999), p. 245.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Uptown (2004), p. 397.
- ↑ Draper (2016), p. 83.
- ^ Ro (2011), p. 170.
- ^ Ro (2011), p. 168.
- ↑ Brown (2010), p. 136.
- ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 379 and p. 397.
- ↑ Hill (1989), p. 286., "Come bathe with me / Let's drown each other in each other's emotion / Let's cover each other with perfume and lotion"
- ↑ Mischke (1989), p. 200.
- ↑ a b Mischke (1989), p. 194.
- ↑ a b c Uptown (2004), p. 398.
- ↑ Azhar (2016), p. 53
- ^ The Black Album . In: Princevault.com. January 28, 2019, accessed November 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Uptown (2004), pp. 623-624.
- ↑ Hahn (2016), p. 188.
- ↑ Uptown (2004), p. 629.
- ↑ a b c Seibold (1991), p. 72.
- ↑ Cover.info. In: Cover.info. 2019, accessed November 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Prince on SecondHandSongs
- ↑ Prince on WhoSampled
- ↑ a b Brown (2010), p. 138.
- ↑ a b Nilsen (1999), p. 249.
- ↑ Ewing (1994), pp. 75-76.
- ↑ a b c Mischke (1989), p. 192.
- ↑ Mischke (1989), pp. 193-194.
- ↑ Hahn (2016), p. 190.
- ↑ a b Nilsen (1999), p. 250.
- ↑ Danny Kelly: Prince - The Black Album. In: princetext.tripod.com. 2019, accessed on November 18, 2019 .
- ^ Robert Christgau: Prince. In: robertchristgau.com. April 29, 2016, accessed November 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Brown (2010), p. 138.
- ↑ Thorne (2012), p. 204.
- ↑ Press reviews: The Black Album. In: bbc.co.uk. July 23, 2009, accessed November 18, 2019 .
- ↑ ME editors: From the big Prince special - an overview of all albums. In: Musikexpress.de. May 22, 2016, accessed November 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Sassan Niasseri: Prince - The Black Album. In: Rollingstone.de. December 15, 2017. Retrieved November 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Lisa Bownman: Prince's super rare 'The Black Album' resurfaces online. In: nme.com. June 5, 2018, accessed November 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Rare Prince 'The Black Album' tops $ 42K at RR Auction. In: liveauctioneers.com. February 20, 2018, accessed November 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Ben Beaumont-Thomas: Copy of Prince's The Black Album sells for record-breaking $ 27,500. In: theguardian.com. August 6, 2018, accessed November 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Prince. officialcharts.de, accessed on November 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Prince. austriancharts.at, accessed on November 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Prince. hitparade.ch, accessed on November 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Prince. officialcharts.com, accessed November 18, 2019 .
- ^ Prince - Chart History. billboard.com, accessed November 19, 2019 .
