Prince had a fair idea of what 2021 would be like. Recorded in the early years of the Barack Obama administration, Welcome 2 America was supposed to be the album that reflected on a community divided, reality TV culture, disinformation and the power of money. That also pretty much summed up 2021. The 2010 record never released but a tour with the same title was given thumbs up. The album has finally been made public, five years after the death of the Purple One.
The singer’s estate continues to deliver unreleased music from his vault, this being the third posthumous release but unlike the other two, this one is a stand-alone album, just the way the man had conceptualised.
The tour went just fine, delighting fans at select gigs with the loaded political message of the title track — Welcome/ Hope and change, everything takes forever/ And truth is a new minority (truth)/ Oh, welcome to America — but audiences were not told that an album was ready.
Welcome 2 America was recorded when his grooves were funkier than ever before, and vastly different from the edgy ’80s or the experimental 90s. By the time the album was ready, he had already released another one in 2010 — 20TEN and the man was a big attraction on tours.
Most of the tracks came with loaded messages — Born 2 Die takes into account struggles of street life, Running Game (Son of a Slave Master) says 21st century/ It’s still about greed and fame, 1010 (Rin Tin Tin) comes with a cryptic message (What could be stranger than the times we’re in?/ Earthquake, flood, better hurry, kin) while Same Page, Different Book speaks about the meaninglessness of religious conflicts.
Morris Hayes, who had been an integral part of Prince’s band The New Power Generation and helped co-produce Welcome 2 America, has recently said in an interview: “Considering all the things that have happened with the George Floyd situation and what’s going on with what we found out from Snowden, how they’re using technology, now is the time.”
The lighter moments on the album are offered through Hot Summer and Yes while the sexier side is heard in When She Comes: When she comes/ A lemoncello ballet/ A psychedelic cabaret in his mind. And Curtis Mayfield homage is unmistakably there in Born 2 Die.
Hand in hand with the political undertone of the album is an imagining of a better future. On 1000 Light Years from Here he sings Good life, liberty/ Innovation/ Every child/ No matter what colour while One Day We Will All B Free — the round-off track — has him look at a better future for those who are patient.
We don’t know how Welcome 2 America would have been perceived had it released in 2010 when the world was tuning into Justin Bieber’s My World 2.0 and Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream. But what we do know is that Prince’s music never was caged in an era. He made music that was relevant, funky, sexy and mysterious.