Publication: Washington Post [US]
Date: December 7, 1994
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Title: Black Album Review
Reviewed By: Geoffrey Himes

At the end of 1987, Prince's publicists revealed the he would follow his "Sign of the Times" [sic] album with an untitled recording in an all-black cover (an obvious takeoff on the Beatles' "White Album"). Advance orders reportedly reached a million, and several hundred thousand copies were pressed, but in the spring of 1988, Warner Bros. announced that "The Black Album" had been canceled by Prince himself and replaced by "Lovesexy." "The Black Album," full of hard-core funk and hip-hop rhythms as well as X-rated lyrics, quickly became the most bootlegged recording since Bob Dylan's "Basement Tapes."

Now, 6 1/2 years later, Warner Bros. has finally released "The Black Album" intact (though for a limited time: According to the label, the album will be taken off the market Jan. 25). In 1994, the offhanded obscenities and insults on "The Black Album" are less than shocking(less shocking, certainly, than the taboo-challenging lyrics of Prince's "Dirty Mind" and "The B Sides."), and its lack of real melodies and fully shaped songs is disappointing (in fact, the only conventional song, the infectiously romantic ballad "When 2 R in Love" was the one composition recycled for "Lovesexy").

But the rhythm tracks for "The Black Album" are genuinely exciting. Prince is a genius at putting dance beats together, and on this project you can hear him do so without the distraction of melodies or metaphors. This is hip-hop territory, of course, and Prince proves himself a master of the form, even if he's never really been accepted in the rap world. If "The Black Album" had been released as planned, Prince might have better street credentials today, what with the album's dead-on P-Funk impersonation ("Superfunkycalifragisexy"), its turf-battle dissing of non-Minnesotans ("Dead On It") and its tribute to L.A. hip-hop("2 Nigs United 4 West Compton"). In retrospect, Prince was right in deciding that "Lovesexy" was a better work than "The Black Album," but Warner Bros. was wrong in making it impossible for him to release both. At the center of the company's dispute with the erstwhile star (who has renamed himself an unpronounceable symbol) is a corporate insistence that he release only one album per year.

Prince creates a lot more than 50 minutes of interesting music each year, and we should be able to hear all of it. Even "The Black Album" with its unfortunate misogyny and throw-away lyrics, contains some of the most original dance tracks of 1988, and it should have been released then.