Welcome 2 America, the first new studio album release since Prince’s untimelydeath in 2016, has been rightly hailed as “unheard” music. Of course there are a few people—a handful of the musician’s creative collaborators—who had the opportunity to hear the album’s 12 tracks before this summer’s release.
In an exclusive interview, Hayes recalls a conversation with Prince around the time that the album was being recorded in 2010. Prince had asked him to come to Paisley Park and listen to something he’d been working on. Rather than head to the studio, they went to Prince’s black Mercedes truck. “He told me to hop in,” says Hayes. Prince popped in a CD, and, as if testing the groove under real-life listening conditions, “he did that thing—when he heard something funky he’d make that face.” Prince would turn over several raw tracks to Hayes with instructions to " ‘overproduce it—I’ll take away whatever I don’t need.’ It was liberating. He gave me an open palette to try new things."
However prescient, the album’s social statements never get in the way of its sound. OnWelcome,Prince lets the funk rise to the top as he bends genres from jazz to funk to hip-hop. One song, “Born 2 Die,” is a fond clap back at his friend Dr. Cornel West, who had teased that Prince was good but was no Curtis Mayfield. “Prince was like, ‘Oh, really? I got something for you,’ " says Hayes. “He was like, ‘I will let Dr. West know I can do Curtis, but Curtis can’t do me.’ "
Mike Ruiz
PEOPLE’s updated reissue ofCelebrating Princeis available now wherever magazines are sold.
source: people.com
