Hear Prince’s Previously Unreleased “Welcome 2 America”

Hear Prince’s Previously Unreleased “Welcome 2 America”

When he died in 2016, Prince famously left behind a massive amount of unreleased music. In the past few years, Prince’s estate has been releasing that music, a little bit at a time. Last year, for instance, there was a massive deluxe edition of the landmark album Sign O’ The Times, which featured 63 unreleased tracks. And this summer, Prince’s estate will release a whole studio album that Prince recorded in 2010 and never released.

At the end of 2010, Prince headed out on his Welcome 2 American tour, which included a 21-night residency at the Forum in Inglewood. But Prince never released Welcome 2 America, the album that he recorded shortly before that tour. In July, that album will get a release. Prince recorded it with many of his old New Power Generation collaborators, and it randomly includes a cover of “Stand Up And Be Strong,” a 2006 song from Prince’s fellow Minneapolis veterans Soul Asylum. (Naturally, Prince retitled it “Stand Up And B Strong.”) A deluxe edition of the album will also feature a concert film of one of Prince’s Inglewood shows, and that show features Prince covering songs like Roxy Music’s “More Than This,” Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love,” and Janet Jackson’s “What Have You Done For Me Lately.”

In announcing the album, Prince’s estate has also shared the album-opening title track. “Welcome 2 America” works a little like the title track from Sign O’ The Times, with Prince reciting many of the problems of the day over a funky backing track. Since the problems of 2010 are mostly still problems today, it still hits. Also, the chorus flips the melody of Parliament’s 1975 classic “P. Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up),” so that’s cool, too. Below, listen to “Welcome 2 America” and check out the album’s tracklist.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Welcome 2 America”
02 “Running Game (Son Of A Slave Master)”
03 “Born 2 Die”
04 “1000 Light Years From Here”
05 “Hot Summer”
06 “Stand Up and B Strong”
07 “Check The Record”
08 “Same Page, Different Book”
09 “When She Comes”
10 “1010 (Rin Tin Tin)”
11 “Yes”
12 “One Day We Will All B Free”

Welcome 2 America is out 7/30. Pre-order it here.

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