An album filled with songs of spiritual and political awakening never released until now.
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The music was never released.
The finished work lingered inPrinces vast, prodigious, unknowable vaultsfor the next decade.
The grooves are airtight and joyous.
But the musicians who helped make them are unfazed by this trajectory.
Its hitting on every cylinder as to whats happening today.
This is their story and, by proxy, the story of Princes America.
What are you going to do for your people?
In 2010, youd just had the financial collapse.
You had people losing homes.
You had people turning inward, people living on Instagram.
You didnt know what was real or what wasnt.
It was the beginning of all this misinformation.
Everybody right now is talking about critical race theory.
Prince was also talking about understanding that not everything we were taught is the truth.
What are you going to do for your people?
I want you to find me the drummer.
Bass players and drummers you guys gotta like each other.
I called four people up and didnt tell them what it was for.
Like, Come jam.
Prince picked his favorite, Chris Coleman.
We recorded the wholeWelcome 2 Americaalbum in March and April of 2010.
Wed never been in the studio with him before.
Wed only jammed once as a group.
Then the vocalists overdubbed their vocals to the basic tracks we made as a trio.
Liv Warfield,backing vocalist: I came to be a part of NPG when Marva King was leaving.
I met her at a gig in Atlanta.
She said, Prince is looking for another background vocalist.
I was like, First off, dont send a video.
Im not even up to par.
kindly dont do that.
Video was sent anyhow, and Prince saw me singing Gimme Shelter.
Im told that Prince is calling from a private number.
He said, Liv?
I love your voice.
I want to work with you.
Do you want to go somewhere warm?
Im thinking,What?
Really?I went to Paisley Park, and he was as warm and as inviting as could be.
It was everything that I wanted, everything that I didnt know that I needed.
What does this mean?
Hayes:The song I really love is Born 2 Die.
Prince told me he was watching Dr. Cornel West videos on YouTube.
Prince would get on the internet and go down a wormhole and be binge-watching a bunch of stuff.
He got on Dr. West, who was talking about freedom fighters and Curtis Mayfield.
He said, Prince is great, but hes no Curtis Mayfield.
Prince was like, Okay, well see, and wrote Born 2 Die.
When we hung out with Larry, we didnt talk about music.
They were passionate about studying.
They were both Jehovahs Witnesses.
It comes into the record.
Theres biblical references and also stuff about the music industry.
Theres also all the racial injustice hes focusing on, and whats happening politically.
He liked looking at what was going on, but he always used other peoples devices.
He didnt really use his own phone to call people.
I know he had a computer.
He was very ahead of his time.
Thats what gives me peace: knowing he got there.
We talked about being woke and having that third eye.
I think this music is a call from him free yourself.
There could be freedom for all of us.
There could be light for all of us.
Theres a world that he wants to see beside what were doing here.
I dont know how thats going to happen, but I want it to happen.
What, yall cant do it?
Our blend had to be right.
There is no breathing.
and then did it himself.
He just gave this look.
You know Prince be giving looks.
He did it and said, Now you girls go do it.
Then he walked out of the room.
Hayes:Thats the mark of a truly great producer.
He used to tell me sometimes, Morris, it is very difficult for people to produce themselves.
You really have to take yourself outside of yourself.
Most people dont go the extra mile.
You have to have that pushed out of you.
But he knew how to push that out and bring the next level out of everybody he worked with.
It was like when youre trying to prove yourself to your parents, trying to make them proud.
Hayes:Some days, hed be on me like, Man, Morris, come on, man.
Other days, were joking: Hot Summer is just one of them grooves.
We drove around the arboretum.
I just remember everybodys head nodding.
That place was banging.
The darn car was going right and left.
Hayes:I hate to tell on him, but Prince was a terrible driver.
He went too fast.
He was so excited to be playing us fully mixed tracks.
He was definitely into the music.
People were pulling up in limos dressed in Grammy attire.
Then I dont know what happened.
I never had an inkling the album was coming out.
When it comes out, thats when I know its coming out.
I think he just put the album away, thinking maybe it wasnt the right time.
He was writing 1999 in 1982.Welcome 2 Americawas like a little time capsule he put aside.
The album was done.
They even had a listening party.
If he felt like playing with a band and doing live stuff, thats what he would do.
He called us in to sing, and we would just sing.
We didnt ask, What is this for?
Thats not how it flowed.
It was very organic.
Sometimes he might say, Yeah, this is for the new album.
And sometimes he would change his mind.
We were doing a three-hour show.
It was different music, but we were singing the lyrics.
The fans were like,Okay, what is this?
Hayes:Prince always, always could put together a crazy show.
He knew how to take any song and very quickly arrange it, even a song everybody knows.
He put his own thing on it and made it come alive.
Its going somewhere else.
I wore [the title of musical director] very loosely.
Prince MD-ed his own set.
He put his show together.
I just maintained some writing orders whenever hed step away.
Warfield:Frequency was everything.
I didnt understand that until I got onstage with him.
We just had to be on.
We had to all be there together as one, as a unit.
Hes like, All right, were starting rehearsals for the Super Bowl in a week.
It was life-altering, life-changing.
He kept calling, and I kept showing up.
I found that to be true.
There doesnt have to be any rhyme or reason.
It doesnt have to be logical.
Everybodys always trying to pin a logic on Prince.
He didnt have to be logical for you and me.
Wilkenfeld:He was focused on the music industry and how it was structured based on his bad experiences.
Wed spend hours talking about why I shouldnt sign this record deal.
Hed say, you gotta put out your records yourself.
He was very passionate about having control of your own music and image and this and that.
Music flowed through him.
Thoughts and energies flowed through him.
And you had to be able to roll with that.
Some people need to know the answer to everything.
They need explanations all the time.
Thats just not the way it worked in Princes world.
These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.
*This article appears in the July 19, 2021, issue ofNew YorkMagazine.
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