Prince – The Black Album

The Black Album is the sixteenth studio album by American musician and songwriter Prince.

Initially intended to be released as untitled album (no artist credit, no title etc.) on 8 December 1987, but canceled on Prince's request just one week prior to release.

The entire 1987 production was subject of a worldwide recall. However, already circulating copies were used for numerous bootleg releases between 1988 and 1993. A second wave of bootlegs (mostly clear or other colored vinyl) surfaced after Prince passed away in 2016.

Meanwhile known as "Black Album", it was finally given a limited time release, which was only available from late November 1994 until 31st January 1995, with a 'The legendary Black Album' hype sticker.

This master-release groups together all known editions - official and unofficial - some of the bootlegs may have additional tracks which are not part of the original album.

How to spot a fake vinyl record:
• The most prominent flaw is the black color '33' [RPM] within the orange triangle on the labels. The original is white.
• The runouts are hand-etched. On original German pressings the matrix is machine stamped and may have some minor etchings.
• Track B4 is misspelled: 'Rockard' [sic: read Rockhard] in a Funky Palce'. This error carries over to almost all bootlegs.
• The legal text in the labels rim-text reads 'OUTISIDE' instead of 'Outside' .
• The publisher credit is incorrectly capitalized: 'G.B. Only' instead of 'G.B. only'.

Remarks:
Only one track, 'When 2 R In Love', was subsequently released on the Lovesexy album and appears on the B-Side of Scandalous!
German studio musicians created cover versions of the entire album (see The Black Album).