Hitnrun Phase One

HITnRUN Phase One
Prince's studio album
Publication (s)	September 7, 2015
admission	2014-2015
Label (s)	NPG Records / Tidal
Format (s)	Compact disc , download
Genre (s)	R&B , funk , soul , pop music
Title (number)	11
running time	37:59
occupation	All songs were produced, arranged, composed and performed by Prince . The following musicians completed the recordings: Joshua Aaron Michael Welton - all instruments except guitar and bass guitar (contributions are not precisely defined) Judith Hill - singing on Million $ Show Rita Ora - vocals in Ain't About 2 Stop 3rdEyeGirl - Backing Vocals in Ain't About 2 Stop Donna Grantis - lead guitarist on Ain't About 2 Stop Curly Fryz - Rap in Like a Mack NPG Hornz - brass instruments in Like a Mack Lianne La Havas - vocals in Mr. Nelson The Hornheads - brass instruments on Million $ Show and Fallinlove2nite Michael B. Nelson - brass instrument arrangement and producer on Million $ Show and Fallinlove2nite Stringenius - Strings in Million $ Show and Fallinlove2nite Adi Yeshava - arrangements of string instruments Rob Genadek - recording the string instruments Prince, Joshua Aaron Michael Welton - Mixing and Mastering Martin Homent - cover design
production	Prince , Joshua Aaron Michael Welton (Co-Producer)
Studio (s)	Paisley Park Studio ( Chanhassen )
chronology Art Official Age (2014) HITnRUN Phase One HITnRUN Phase Two (2015)
Single releases 17th March 2014 Fallinlove2nite July 7, 2015 Hard rock sweater August 28, 2015 This Could B Us

Hitnrun Phase One ( stylized as HITnRUN Phase One ; from "hit and run phase one") is the 38th studio album by US musician Prince . It was released on September 7, 2015 on his own label NPG Records and was initially only available for purchase from the music streaming service Tidal . The album was released on compact disc on September 14, 2015.

The music of HITnRUN Phase One belongs to the genres R&B , funk , soul and pop music . Guest singers include 3rdEyeGirl , Judith Hill , Lianne La Havas and Rita Ora . Music critics rated the album mostly positive. From a commercial point of view, HITnRUN Phase One could not achieve a top ten placement internationally and neither achieve gold nor platinum status.

Emergence

Prince first used the term "hit and run" in 1986, when he appropriately named his US tour for the album Parade . In 2000, 2001, 2014 and 2015 he also called his tours Hit and Run , with Prince completing the latter tour before the album was released. The tours titled "Hit and Run" were live concerts he played, where tickets were sold only a few days before the start of the concert, sometimes even on the day of the concert itself.

At the end of July 2015, Prince's backing band 3rdEyeGirl said in an interview that the album HITnRUN Phase One was for “super hardcore Prince fans who know all the songs he has ever recorded.” In addition, for fans “who want to hear, what Prince has to say instead of wanting to hear the classic Purple Rain sound over and over again . "

Prince recorded all the songs on the HITnRUN Phase One album in his Paisley Park Studio in Chanhassen in 2014 and 2015. He wrote the song 1000 X's & O’s at the end of April 1992 and recorded it under the title 1,000 Hugs and Kisses in Studios 301 in Sydney when he was on his Diamonds and Pearls tour in Australia. In the original version, Rosie Gaines sings the lead vocals. In late 1993, Prince reworked the piece at Paisley Park Studio and this time Nona Gaye took over the lead vocals. The version on HITnRUN Phase One was only created in 2014 and could be heard over the PA system on November 16 at a Prince concert in Paisley Park Studio . Prince wrote the play Fallinlove2nite specifically for the American sitcom New Girl , in which he was seen in a guest role as an actor and played himself on February 2, 2014. Together with Zooey Deschanel , he performed the song in playback . The version on HITnRUN Phase One has been revised but Prince and Deschanel are not involved. Shut This Down was heard over the PA system on June 1, 2014 at a Prince concert in Paris in the Zénith concert hall .

The main vocals in Is not About 2 stop has Rita Ora taken. The song was originally supposed to appear on their second studio album in January 2015, but the album's release has been postponed indefinitely to the public for unknown reasons. The play X's Face played Prince for the first time at a live concert on March 14, 2015 Louisville in Kentucky as part of a keyboard - medleys . The song Million $ Show was heard on April 9, 2015 at a Prince concert in Detroit , Michigan, as a sample of the concert intro there. Hard Rock Lover took Prince in late June 2015 and could be up to the album release account at Soundcloud be heard. He recorded June on the same day as Hardrocklover . This Could B Us and Mr. Nelson are remix versions of This Could Be Us and Clouds , the original versions of which can be heard on the previous album Art Official Age (2014). There is no reliable information about the recording of Like a Mack . The co-producer of the album HITnRUN Phase One is Joshua Aaron Michael Welton (* October 21, 1990), who also carried out this activity at Art Official Age . Welton is the husband of 3rdEyeGirl drummer Hannah Ford-Welton.

On August 9, 2015, Prince invited a small group of ten journalists to a meeting at Paisley Park Studio. He again emphasized the importance for musicians to critically question the contracts with recording companies and explained: “Record contracts are like - I'll say the word - slavery. I would say to any young artist ... don't sign! ” Music labels are forcing musicians to distribute their music on streaming services , regardless of whether they benefit financially or artistically - it is time for musicians to decide who to work with want to work together: "As soon as we have our own resources, we can offer what we need ourselves". He wants to support the streaming service Tidal , initiated by musicians and owned by artists : “ Jay Z has done it with Tidal and invested 100 million dollars of his private fortune in this streaming service. We have to show solidarity for such projects ”. He also said: “In a meeting with Jay Z it was immediately clear to me that he and his team are visionaries. And Tidal is a platform that benefits artists. ”The concept of Tidal is reminiscent of the film company United Artists ; In 1919, actors and directors led by Charlie Chaplin founded their own production company to defend themselves against the low fees imposed by the studios. Prince withdrew his own music catalog from other streaming services and gave it to Tidal for distribution.

Design of the cover

The creative director and typographer Martin Homent designed the album cover . This shows Prince's head, which was depicted in a cartoon-like manner by Homent. The booklet consists of six pages and the lyrics of the individual pieces are printed except for Like a Mack . Photos are not included in the booklet.

music

The music of HITnRUN Phase One belongs to the genres R&B , funk , soul and pop music . Guest singers include Curly Fryz, Judith Hill , Lianne La Havas and Rita Ora . Curly Fryz is a duo that consists of the rapper Charli and the singer Danielle Curiel. In addition, both are songwriters , dancers and models . In addition, Danielle Curiel (born December 20, 1994) worked in September 2013 as the director of the Prince music video Breakfast Can Wait . The lyrics of hit n run sings Prince both in his characteristic falsetto vocals and in deeper tones of voice.

The first track from the album is called Million $ Show (read: "Million Dollar Show") and the intro consists of the Prince songs For You (1978), 1999 (1982) and Let's Go Crazy (1984). Judith Hill is a guest vocalist, with whom Prince had worked since 2015. The rap passages on the song Like a Mack were performed by Curly Fryz, with whom Prince collaborated for the first time. Two songs from HITnRUN Phase One are available in a remix version, the original versions of which can be found on the previous album Art Official Age (2014); This Could B Us is originally called This Could Be Us and the track Mr. Nelson is a remix version by Clouds . Lianne La Havas acts as a singer on both Mr. Nelson and Clouds .

The version of Fallinlove2nite on the album was recorded by Prince without the vocals of Zooey Deschanel . Hardrocklover's album version is ten seconds shorter than the single version; since the previous song X's Face merges seamlessly into hard rock over, the first few seconds are not played. The letters “X” and “O” in the song 1000 X's & O’s mean “Kisses and Hugs” in net jargon , although Prince sings “Hugs and Kisses” in the lyrics.

List of titles and publications

No.	song	author	length
01	Million $ Show (featuring Judith Hill )	Prince	3:10
02	Shut This Down	Prince	3:03
03	Ain't About 2 Stop (featuring Rita Ora )	Prince	3:38
04th	Like a Mack (featuring Curly Fryz)	Prince	4:04
05	This Could B Us	Prince	4:10
06th	Fallinlove2nite	Prince	3:12
07th	X's face	Prince	2:38
08th	Hard rock sweater	Prince	3:42
09	Mr. Nelson (featuring Lianne La Havas )	Prince	2:27
010	1000 X's & O's	Prince	2:27
011	June	Prince	3:21

On September 7, 2015, HITnRUN Phase One was released as a download from Tidal and has also been available as a compact disc since September 14, 2015 . Prince did not produce music videos for songs on the album. Three months after the release of HITnRUN Phase One , Prince released his next album, HITnRUN Phase Two .

Single releases

Three singles were released from the album; Fallinlove2nite was released on March 17th, 2014, a year and a half before the album release of HITnRUN Phase One . Hardrocklover was released on July 7th, 2015 and This Could B Us on August 28th, 2015. The three singles are only available as a download.

reception

Press

Music critics rated HITnRUN Phase One mostly positively. Dave Simpson from the British daily The Guardian was even enthusiastic and gave four out of five stars. In his opinion "it's been a long time since a Prince album sounded so pleasant and enjoyable". The US daily USA Today selected HITnRUN Phase One as “Album of the Week”.

Joseph Stannard from the New Musical Express also praised the album and gave it seven out of ten points. The “most successful” songs can be found “right in the party zone”, such as Shut This Down , Ain't About 2 Stop and X's Face . But "smoother songs" like Fallinlove2nite and This Could B Us are "disposable". In addition, Stannard said, compared to the previous albums Art Official Age and PlectrumElectrum (both released in 2014) " HITnRUN Phase One feels like an emergency solution". The focus of the album would be "more on the groove than on the songwriting ". HITnRUN Phase One is "neither one of Prince's best nor worst albums".

Jon Dolan of the US magazine Rolling Stone gave three out of five possible stars and said that HITnRUN Phase One was "on the verge of luck"; Dance numbers like Ain't About 2 Stop and Fallinlove2nite “punch bossily enough”, but “experimental dangling” like the song X's Face sounds “tormented”. In addition, Dolan wrote that although Prince sings the lyrics “Sade and Babyface / R&B ain't got no place” in the guitar-heavy song Hardrocklover, among other things, “ Sade Adu and Babyface / For contemporary R&B is no place”. the soft and wet sensuality of R&B often offers the warmth and indulgence in Prince's music ”. This comes through with the songs 1000 X's & O’s and June .

Jon Pareles of The New York Times said that Prince's interaction with other musicians worked "well". As a conclusion Pareles wrote, "All in all, the songs on HitNRun [sic] add up to a typical Prince of the last decade: skillfully and according to the watering can principle ."

Kai Butterweck from the online magazine laut.de wrote, “ HITnRUN Phase One is by no means a musical snap shot. The part grooves like hell - at least in phases. Especially in the first third, the funk dervish flits across the dance floor like in the good old days. ”He praised the songs Million $ Show , Shut This Down , Ain't About 2 Stop , Like a Mack and X's Face . Butterweck didn't like the tracks This Could B Us , Fallinlove2nite , Mr. Nelson and June . In conclusion, he drew: “It's a shame, actually. HITnRUN Phase One could have been a really great EP . "

Seth Colter Walls of music website Pitchfork Media was more cautious about praise, giving it four and a half out of ten. He thought that if you leave the album's "disappointments and missed opportunities" aside, "us" Prince's vocals in 1000 X's & O's are "more than anything else on HITnRUN Phase One ".

Chris Gerard from the online magazine PopMatters.com was very disappointed with the album and only gave two out of ten stars. In his opinion the best songs are Fallinlove2nite , Hardrocklover and 1000 X's & O’s . "The rest" is however "mediocre to badly terrifying".

After Prince's death in April 2016, the music journalists Albert Koch and Thomas Weiland from the German music magazine Musikexpress reviewed the album HITnRUN Phase One and gave it three and a half out of six stars. They praised the songs This Could B Us and 1000 X's & O’s , "in which Prince shows himself as an old-school seducer".

Charts

Charts	Top ranking	Weeks
Chart placements
Germany (GfK)	53 (2 weeks)	2
Austria (Ö3)	53 (3 weeks)	3
Switzerland (IFPI)	27 (6 weeks)	6th
United Kingdom (OCC)	50 (3 weeks)	3
United States (Billboard)	48 (7 weeks)	7th

HITnRUN Phase One achieved the highest ranking in the countries mentioned in May 2016 after Prince's death. In 2015 the album reached number 95 in Germany, number 73 in Austria, number 31 in Switzerland and number 70 in the USA as the highest position. The singles Fallinlove2nite , Hardrocklover and This Could B Us could not place in the international charts.

literature

• Jason Draper: Prince - Life & Times (Revised & Updated Edition). Chartwell Books, New York 2016, ISBN 978-0-7858-3497-7 .
• Ronin Ro: Prince - Inside The Music And The Masks. St. Martin's Press, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-312-38300-8 , OCLC 428027211 .

Web links

• Information about the album HITnRUN Phase One . Princevault.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Booklet of the CD Hitnrun Phase One by Prince, NPG Records, 2015
2. ↑ Hitnrun Phase One. In: Princevault.com. December 11, 2016, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
3. ^ Ro (2011), p. 147.
4. ^ Prince's band 3rdEyeGirl confirm new album for 2015. In: bbc.com. July 24, 2015, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
5. ↑ 1000 X's & O's. In: Princevault.com. January 24, 2017, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
6. ↑ Draper (2016), p. 196.
7. ↑ Shut This Down. In: Princevault.com. October 20, 2016, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
8. ↑ Ain't About To Stop. In: Princevault.com. October 20, 2016, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
9. ↑ X's Face. In: Princevault.com. October 20, 2016, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
10. ↑ Million $ Show. In: Princevault.com. October 20, 2016, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
11. ↑ Hard rock over. In: Princevault.com. February 27, 2016, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
12. ↑ June. In: Princevault.com. February 27, 2016, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
13. ↑ Like A Mack. In: Princevault.com. February 27, 2016, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
14. ↑ Joshua Aaron Michael Welton: Joshua Aaron Michael Weltonn. In: Facebook.com. 2017, accessed on June 22, 2017 . 
15. ↑ Joshua AM Welton: Joshua AM Welton. In: Twitter.com. February 12, 2017, accessed June 22, 2017 . 
16. ↑ Miles Marshall Lewis: Is Producing Prince Impossible? Ask Joshua Welton (interview). In: Ebony.com. August 28, 2015, accessed June 22, 2017 . 
17. ↑ Prince the businessman: a trail blazer who bent the music industry to his will. In: Theguardian.com. February 22, 2016, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
18. ↑ Miles Marshall Lewis: Prince Makes King Move with Tidal [interview]. In: Ebony.com. August 28, 2015, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
19. ↑ Tamara Güclü: PRINCE: "Record contracts are like slavery". In: Musikexpress.de. August 10, 2015, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
20. ↑ Laura Sydell: Beyond Streaming: How Will Future Fans Discover Prince's Music? In: npr.org. April 26, 2016, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
21. ↑ Berthold Seliger: There can only be one. In: Jungle-world.com. May 13, 2015, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
22. ↑ Eric Deggans: Prince Compares Record Contracts To Slavery In Rare Meeting With Media. In: npr.org. September 15, 2015, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
23. ↑ Kay Wichelmann: Prince: New album 'HitNRun' will be released in September exclusively by TIDAL. In: Rollingstone.de. August 10, 2015, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
24. ↑ Felix Bayer: Jay-Z turns pop stars into partners. In: Spiegel.de. March 31, 2015, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
25. ↑ Andreas Wilkens: Prince removes his music from streaming services. In: Heise.de. July 2, 2015, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
26. ↑ Martin Homet: Homepage of Martin Homet. In: Martinhomet.com. 2017, accessed on March 25, 2017 . 
27. ↑ Curly Fryz: homepage Curly Fryz. In: Curlyfryz.com. 2014, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
28. ↑ This Could Be Us. In: Princevault.com. July 6, 2016, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
29. ↑ Draper (2016), pp. 203-204.
30. ↑ Draper (2016), p. 198.
31. ↑ Hard rock over. In: Princevault.com. February 27, 2016, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
32. ^ This Could B Us. In: Princevault.com. February 27, 2016, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
33. ↑ Dave Simpson: Prince - HITNRUN Phase One first listen review: 'His most experimental and shapeshifting album in years'. In: Theguardian.com. September 7, 2015, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
34. ↑ Draper (2016), p. 204.
35. ↑ Rhian Daly: Prince - 'HITNRUN Phase One'. In: nme.com. September 14, 2015, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
36. ↑ Jon Dolan: Prince: Hit N Run: Phase One. In: Rollingstone.com. September 18, 2015, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
37. ↑ Jon Pareles: Review: On 'HitNRun Phase One', Prince Plays Well With Others. In: Nytimes.com. September 7, 2015, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
38. ↑ Kai Butterweck: Prince - HITnRUN Phase One. In: laut.de. September 14, 2015, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
39. ↑ Seth Colter Walls: Prince - HITNRUN Phase One. In: Pitchfork.com. September 10, 2015, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
40. ↑ Chris Gerard: Prince - HITNRUN Phase One. In: Popmatters.com. September 9, 2015, accessed March 25, 2017 . 
41. ^ ME editors: From the big Prince special - an overview of all albums. In: Musikexpress.de. May 22, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2017 . 
42. ↑ Prince. officialcharts.de, accessed on February 16, 2019 . 
43. ↑ Prince. austriancharts.at, accessed on February 16, 2019 . 
44. ↑ Prince. hitparade.ch, accessed on February 16, 2019 . 
45. ↑ Prince. officialcharts.com, accessed February 16, 2019 . 
46. ^ Prince - Chart History. billboard.com, accessed February 16, 2019 .