The estate that handles all of the music left behind by Prince after his unfortunate death in 2016 has announced that they will be releasing a new album from the singer titled Welcome 2 America. Although in life Prince did go on the “Welcome 2” tour from 2010 to 2012 the songs on the album are not from this tour. They are 12 previously unreleased tracks that Prince had recorded and shelved in his Paisley Park Studios back in 2010.
Prince fans can preorder the album via the official store of the Prince estate. Also, the song “Welcome 2 America” is already available on Youtube and other platforms. Leave it to Prince to write a song about how people are “distracted by the features of the iPhone” and talk about how we “have an application to fix your situation”. The references on the song from 2010 still ring true today. That could be one of the main reasons why the estate didn’t want to wait longer to release some of these songs.
From the time that Prince unexpectedly passed away the singer’s estate had revealed that they were in the possession of a wide number of unreleased tracks by the singer. The number of unreleased tracks that are shelved in the Paisley Park Studios is said to be in the hundreds or even the thousands. The fans could be getting new Prince albums for years and years to come. Unless of course, some legal battles were to get in the way of that. The road to this release has certainly not been easy for the estate.
This particular album is going to be released by a division of Sony Music Entertainment. The estate previously had a deal with Universal Music. There was also a Warner contract that came into play. With Prince dying without a will, everything became a total mess. The estate was also facing tax problems. The IRS was putting the estate in hot water. Since the government agency claimed the valuation of the assets was almost double what the estate had reported. Long story short, the IRS wanted more tax money. This new album could be used to cover some of those debts.
As was mentioned before, the album is going to feature 12 completely unreleased songs. Most of which were recorded between 2010 and 2012. The titles on some of the tracks include, “Running Game (Son of a Slave Master),” “Born 2 Die” and “One Day We Will All B Free.” The title track Welcome 2 America is already available. The album is set to drop on July 30th. It’s going to be available on Spotify, Apple Music and on sale through the Prince estate in a deluxe version with a custom cover.
