« The Black Album »

The Black Album is the sixteenth studio album by American musician and songwriter [a28795]. Initially intended to be released as untitled album (no artist credit, no title etc.) on 8 December 1987, but canceled on Prince’s request just one week prior to release. The entire 1987 production was subject of a worldwide recall. However, already circulating copies were used for numerous bootleg releases between 1988 and 1993. A second wave of bootlegs (mostly clear or other colored vinyl) surfaced after Prince passed away in 2016. Meanwhile known as “Black Album, it was finally given a limited time release, which was only available from late November 1994 until 31^st January 1995, with a The legendary Black Album hype sticker. This master–release groups together all known editions — official and unofficial — some of the bootlegs may have additional tracks which are not part of the original album. How to spot a fake vinyl record: • The most prominent flaw is the black color 33 [RPM] within the orange triangle on the labels. The original is white. • The runouts are hand–etched. On original German pressings the matrix is machine stamped and may have some minor etchings. • Track B4 is misspelled: Rockard [sic: read Rockhard] in a Funky Palce’. This error carries over to almost all bootlegs. • The legal text in the labels rim–text reads OUTISIDE instead of Outside . • The publisher credit is incorrectly capitalized: G.B. Only instead of G.B. only . Remarks: Only one track, When 2 R In Love , was subsequently released on the [m