Jay-Z is producing an album of unreleased Prince material
Here's what we know so far...
Prolific artist and businessman Jay-Z has announced he is producing a new album consisting of unreleased Prince material.
Set to be released in 2019, the project will be comprised entirely of previously unreleased music from Prince’s vault and will initially stream exclusively on Tidal for two weeks.
The announcement comes after a 2016 lawsuit filed by Prince's estate against Jay-Z's Roc Nation over Tidal’s exclusive streaming rights of Prince’s catalog. That lawsuit has since been resolved and the new album is officially coming together.
JAY-Z spoke about the project in a press release: “Our only goal is to share Prince’s music with his fans as he wanted... After thoughtful and honest conversation with him, he chose TIDAL as his partner for 'HITnRUN Phase One' and 'HITnRUN Phase Two', and we will continue to respect and honor Prince’s enduring legacy and wishes with this new collection.”
Back in 2017, Prince's albums signed to Warner Bros were made available on various streaming platforms including Spotify and Apple Music. The recent press release notes that partnership with Tidal “does not involve any of Prince’s music catalogue that is subject to prior agreements with Warner Brothers Records.”
In January of 2018, Prince's estate announced that more unreleased music was being mixed. Troy Carter, the official adviser for Prince's estate, described the music as "mind-blowing". Then in April, the original and previously unheard rendition of his single ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ was released. Listen here
In other Prince related news, five of Prince's rarest and most expensive copies of 'The Black Album' were sold for up to $20,000 each.
Look for more information regarding Jay-Z's upcoming Prince album coming soon.