This is Prince’s second posthumous album: Welcome 2 America released Friday July 30 in stores, five years after the death of the singer. The twelve songs are pretty funky. Above all, they have a very political tone.
The songs on the album have been around for a long time. They were stored in “The Vault”, a vault that belonged to the artist, which was like a cave of Prince Ali Baba. Its content is greatly fantasized by fans and kept as a state secret by its beneficiaries. This album was recorded in 2010 but has never been released since.
More amazing, during the tour Welcome 2 America tour which had followed the recording, none of the tracks had been played. “We thought it was strange but it’s Prince, his way of deciding and doing things!”, laughs Morris Hayes, keyboardist of the artist and producer of the album.“For the Diamonds and Pearls tour, in 1992, there was a piano on stage. I asked him why and he replied that it was for a track on the next album. He was always ahead and had his own reasons for making choices. “
On the twelve titles, some are dispensable but the pleasure of finding Prince is not sulky. It is especially the fans who will be delighted. The box set also contains an entire concert given in Los Angeles in 2011. We hear a political Prince, who evokes the fate of African Americans in the United States. The words resonate with acuity, even 11 years later.
There is a real social conscience of America in its positions. Awareness of how we look at racial relations, people of color and the various issues of the time, which continue today.
Morris Hayes, Prince’s keyboardist and album producer
to franceinfo
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“These are matters worth discussing, especially for the plight of non-whites.” The producer also confirms that there are still thousands of songs in Prince’s “vault” in Minneapolis. This means that this posthumous second album is far from the last
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