Prince: The Album Too Dangerous To Release

After a brief hiatus, Ava Cyr returns to The Violet Vault with the first of two special back-to-back episodes exploring one of the most fascinating chapters in Prince’s career. This week, we unravel the mystery of The Black Album—the infamous 1987 release Prince ordered destroyed just days before it was scheduled to hit stores. From its dark, aggressive funk sound and controversial themes to the spiritual awakening that reportedly led Prince to cancel the project, this episode examines the album’s creation, its legendary bootleg status, and the enduring myths that surround it. Ava also explores how The Black Album served as the stark opposite of the uplifting Lovesexy, revealing a pivotal moment in Prince’s artistic and personal evolution. Join us as we dive into one of music history’s greatest unsolved mysteries and discover why The Black Album remains one of the most debated records in Prince’s catalog.

Transcript

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The first time Ava Steer heard Prince was the day he passed. At 12 years old, she sat in her room listening to Purple Rain, and something in her changed. Now, years later, that moment lives on through the Violet Vault, a podcast exploring Prince's legacy, his music, and the world he created. Join Ava Steer as she opens the vault. One story, one era, one purple mystery at a time.

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Hello and welcome back to the Violet Vault. I'm your host, Ava Steer, and I know it's been a while. I unfortunately was getting over a fold last week, but I hope you all enjoyed celebration if you had the chance to go, or if you celebrated Prince's life in your own way. I know I got to go to Prince Knight at the Twins, and I also was at the block party, so if you saw a girl walking around with a Raspberry Beret and a lace top, that was me. Um, and as promised, this week I will be releasing two episodes to make up for my absence last week. But it's interesting because these two episodes do make sense to be released back to back since that's what essentially happened to these two albums in the late 80s. And I'm talking about Prince's infamous black album and the sexually spirited charged album that followed, Love Sexy. So today we're diving into one of the greatest mysteries in popular music history, a record so controversial that Prince even ordered it to be destroyed just days after its release. It's an album that became legendary before most people ever heard a note of it, and it's one of the most bootleg albums in the history of music. But to understand the black album, you have to understand where Prince was in the year 1987. So at this point, Prince was arguably at the peak of his power. He had released Purple Rain and became a global superstar, and followed it with a string of ambitious projects such as Around the World A Day, Parade, and of course another film. And in March of 1987, he released the critically acclaimed double album Sign of the Times. And it's a record many fans and critics consider his masterpiece. However, during this period, Prince was also dealing with personal issues internally, such as the breakup of his band, The Revolution, a few years prior, and the end of his engagement with Susannah Malvoy. Now, most artists would have probably just toured behind that success and taken a break, but not Prince. Instead, he immediately began working on another project. But this new record was very different. Gone were many of the polished pop ambitions of Sign of the Times, and what emerged was darker, funkier, meaner, and more confrontational. So Prince referred to this album as the Funk Bible. The album was conceived as a return to Hard Funk and was partly a response to criticism that he had become too pop-oriented and had drifted away from the black audiences that first embraced him. Even the packaging reflected the mood. There was no title, no artwork, no artist name, it was just an entirely black sleeve. It was as if Prince wanted the music and the mystery to speak for itself. And the album's track list felt like Prince at his most unfiltered state. Songs like Le Grind, Cindy C, Bob George, and Rock Hard in a Funky Place delivered a stripped-down, groove-heavy experience. And actually, the song Cindy C emerged after Prince had an interaction with the supermodel at a party. He attempted to dance by her and she just was not having it, which was very odd for Prince because, as you know, he was a womanizer and a lot of women fell to his feet at this time. But he ended up creating a song after that, and uh Cindy Crawford actually didn't know of the song until years later, and somebody was like, hey, you know Prince Santa's song about you, and it's not the greatest look ever, but that is where the inspiration for that song came from. But the rest of the record was full of humor, sexuality, satire, and aggressive funk. And some tracks, like Bob George, actually mocked the critics. So it's been said that the title of the song kind of comes from his manager Bob Cavallo at the time, which it is unknown as to why he was annoyed with his manager. But the George portion comes from Nelson George, who was a music critic at the time, and he heavily criticized Prince's previous album, Side of the Times. And now many of these songs pushed Prince's fascination with alter egos and theatrical storytelling into some stranger territory. And that's important because the black album wasn't just another Prince release. It seemed to capture a side of him that even he wasn't entirely comfortable with. Years later, Prince would describe the album as reflecting a period of anger in his life. And he said that the emotional state found its way into the music. And then came the moment that turned the album into legend. The record was scheduled for release in December 1987, and Warner Bros. had already manufactured hundreds of thousands of copies, and promotional copies had been distributed, and the album was effectively finished and ready to hit stores. But then Prince changed his mind. Just days before release, he contacted Warner Bros. chairman and demanded the album to be withdrawn. And according to multiple accounts, he even agreed to absorb the manufacturing costs through reductions in his royalties. I couldn't even imagine being a record executive and hearing that call that your superstar artist under your label has finished an album, there's half a million copies sitting in warehouses, and he suddenly wants them destroyed. But that's exactly what happened. Most of the manufactured copies were recalled and reportedly destroyed. But why exactly? Well, that's where the mystery begins. And Prince's explanation has changed over time, but the central theme remained consistent. He described having a spiritual awakening. And according to Prince, he came to believe that the album represented negativity, anger, and impulses he no longer wanted to promote. He later connected the record to a dark alter ego he called the Spooky Electric, which was a character that embodied temptation and destructive behavior. And several people close to Prince have offered different versions of the story. And one widely repeated account suggests that around the time of the album's cancellation, Prince experienced a profound personal revelation after meeting Ingrid Chavez, who would later become an important creative influence in his life. And other stories have kind of involved some unpleasant experiences with ecstasy, and they claimed that Prince had seen God in his visions, and he thought that if he had passed away at that moment, he didn't want the black album to be kind of his parting gift to the world. And so, whatever the trigger was, Prince became convinced that releasing the black album would be a huge mistake. And once Prince made up his mind, there was no changing it. The cancellation created an unintended consequence, but the album became one of the most famous bootlegs in music history. And a small number of copies escaped destruction, promotional records circulated among collectors, tape copies spread from fan to fan, and because the album had been canceled, its reputation only grew. People wanted to hear the Forbidden Prince album, the one he didn't want anyone to own, the one that had been pulled from shelves at last possible moment, and over time bootleg versions became incredibly common among dedicated Prince fans. And in many ways, the mystery surrounding the album became just as important as the music itself. Collectors treated original copies like holy grails, and decades later, authentic 1987 pressings would sell for tens of thousands of dollars. I'm sure that they go for even more nowadays. And what's even more fascinating is what comes next. Prince didn't simply cancel the black album and walk away. Instead, he created a completely different album called Love Sexy, which we'll talk about in the next episode. And where the black album felt dark, cynical, and earthy. Love Sexy was this spiritual, uplifting, and full of redemption themes. And it's interesting because you can kind of see the two records as artistic opposites. The black album had a completely black sleeve, and then Love Sexy, he spit he swapped it, and it's white. There's obviously Prince on it who's mostly pose nude, and then there's flowers, so it's very different. One is very funk-driven and provocative, and the other one is based on faith, positivity, and transcendence. And it's almost as if Prince was having a public conversation with himself through his music. Eventually, after years of rumors and bootlegs, the black album received an official release in 1994. It also didn't come without some push from Warner Brothers as well. But by then, the music was only part of the story. The real fascination was what the album revealed about Prince himself, an artist so powerful that he could stop a major label release at the last minute. And he was an artist that was so prolific that he could scrap an entire completed album and immediately create another one. And he was so unpredictable that even his biggest commercial opportunities could be sacrificed in pursuit of a personal conviction. Today the black album remains one of the most debated records in Prince's catalog, and some people consider it one of his greatest funk statements, and others view it as a fascinating detour that needed to be abandoned so that Love Sexy could exist. But almost everyone kind of agrees on one thing. No other album better captures Prince's willingness to follow his instincts regardless of the consequences. And maybe that's why the legend survives. Not because the black album was canceled, but because its cancellation became part of the art. The mystery, the myth, and kind of a warning. And it was another reminder that Prince never played by anyone's rules. That's all I have for today for the Violet Vault. If you liked this episode, be sure to check out our 10 other episodes in our catalog, as well as following both our Instagram and Facebook pages to stay updated on the latest content and releases. I'm so happy to be back again on this purple journey, and I hope you'll continue to join me each week. I'm your host, Ava Steer. Peace and be wild.

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The Violet Vault is hosted by Avis Deer, celebrating the sound, style, and spirit of Prince. Subscribe wherever you find your podcasts. And follow the Violet Vault on Instagram and Facebook for new episodes and bonus stories.