Supposedly this came out after Sign O The Times but it was never released.

What are the stories behind this album? I read Wiki but you can never trust that site.

Any place where you can hear the songs?

It was released a few years later.

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Album-Pr...3332739&sr=8-1

Yeah, Prince wanted something that would give him more funk cred. The album's just alright, imo.

You should be able to find it in many different less than legal places. He briefly issued it officially in 1994 as a way to push him closer to out of his Warner contract, but it was only in print for two months and many felt the time had passed because the "shocking" aspects of the album were actually rather tame in the era of gangsta rap.

I like some of the album, Bob George is hilarious, RockHard In A Funky Place is a good jam. When 2 R In Love made it onto Lovesexy. Its more of a curiosity than one of his better albums IMO.

Or you can get it on eBay. In fact, one of the ORIGINAL cds, not reissue, is on eBay right now with a starting bid of $1999.

http://cgi.ebay.com/PRINCE-Ultra-Rar...item336a6b24b4

I think The Black Album is a far better album than the one he chose to release instead, Lovesexy. Easily my LEAST favorite Prince album.

We had several of these in the music store back when it was officially released and we couldn't give them away. Even those of us who liked Prince thought it was a weak album and none of us bought it. Kinda wish I had now though I likely would have gotten rid of it long before it hit $2000.

Unless you are a Prince completist, you aren't missing much.

The officially released ones aren't the ones that are going for thousands of dollars. It's the small handful that made it past Prince's call-for-destruction before it could be released to the public.

Even less than Emancipation and some of the other 90's stuff he did?

Lovesexy was definitely a huge dropoff after SOTT and everything before though IMO.

Thanks for the clarification. I was wondering...

I have the cd, bought it when it first came out.
Also have a version on vinyl that is probably not an official version. I can't really tell.

Not a great album but is interesting to hear. Lots of cursing.

I remember Lovesexy where there are no separate tracks on the CD and you have to listen to the whole album without skipping.

I remember this being sold at a record show in '88 all hush-hush like. When I finally heard the album I was more than underwhelmed.

Me too. That was incredibly annoying.

There's a tracked version of Lovesexy out there, but it sells for a bit higher than the regular non-tracked release.