Never turn down an invitation to Paisley Park Studios. Days after receiving an invite to speak with 25-year-old producer Joshua Welton about HitNRun—next month’s Prince album, streaming exclusively on Jay Z’s Tidal service starting September 7—I made my first speedy pilgrimage to Minneapolis. Last year, Prince unveiled the 3rdeyegirl power trio (guitarist Donna Grantis, bassist Ida Kristine Nielsen and drummer Hannah Welton), his first new band since the New Power Generation debuted in 1990. PlectrumElectrum by Prince & 3rdeyegirl dropped alongside Prince’s Welton-coproduced Art Official Age last September. Both albums marked Prince’s most exciting work since his 1996 triple album, Emancipation.

“So when he comes in here, you can just hide that phone,” Welton advised with a laugh. After a run-through of HitNRun (a particularly funky, powerful album with guest appearances by Rita Ora and Judith Hill) and a quick interview, Prince came down to Studio B for a few surprise words about Tidal, music streaming and the record industry. He wore purple and gold like the Minnesota Vikings, MPLS emblazoned across his zip-down jacket. His Afro was back to its 1979 For You fullness. He was laid-back, full of conversation and, as usual, averse to being officially recorded for this exclusive EBONY.com interview.

EBONY: What made you decide to move your catalog to Tidal and away from the other streaming services, and why is HitNRun about to be exclusively available on Tidal?

Prince: Tidal is a new company, it’s brand new. They’re just getting their footing, and I think when there’s a company like that, or the OWN network—situations where we finally get into a position to run things—we all should help. It’s been a lot of fun.

We’ve changed the format of how our music appears. Where it would normally say “RELATED” and have a bunch of random stuff pop up—I love D’Angelo but he’s just getting started, he came way after—what we did is we changed that to INFLUENCES. Then all these black and white pictures come up and you can go back and look at all the people who influenced me. Then in each one of those situations, Tidal allowed us to go and work on those pages.

That’s the problem with these formats is that there’s a lot of laziness out there. They have to do so much, so a lot of times it’s just a program. It’s an algorithm. I didn’t want to be a part of that.

EBONY: What is your perfect model of the music industry? You’ve been vocal about the changes it needs to make for decades now.

Prince: Technology is getting all of humanity to the point where we’re gonna be able to dial up our own experience here. So I may have a version of it, and Jay Z may have a version of it, and Kendrick Lamar may have a version of it. There isn’t gonna be one size fits all. You could see that with hip-hop, really. They didn’t say “courtesy of,” they just jumped on people’s records when they felt like it. You’re talking about grown men asking another grown man permission to sing. So yeah, there is no perfect.

Different situations call for a different approach, a different set up. The Musicology Tour for example, when we bundled the record with the tour, it was perfect for that time.

EBONY: We’ve got this rare audience with you. What would you most like to express to the EBONY readership at the moment?

Prince: I’ve always made it a point when I’ve spoken with EBONY to encourage ownership. Because we can look at situations, with Tidal for example. Apple, Pandora, Rhapsody, Deezer, when you give them your record, you might get paid six months later. Beyoncé, her last album came out, $18 million went into the kitty the very next day. She didn’t get that money. She got paid on a royalty scale, just like all the other artists. That’s what I’m talking about.

LeBron James, his deal is a completely designer deal, completely different than any other basketball player. So that’s what we need for the future. To stay afloat, it’s gonna need the Kanye Wests and the Kendricks and people like that who can make product and get people excited about stuff. And they’re going to dictate what the deal is gonna look like. And that’s what’s fun about the times now.

Miles Marshall Lewis is the Arts & Culture Editor of EBONY.com. He’s also the Harlem-based author of Scars of the Soul Are Why Kids Wear Bandages When They Don’t Have Bruises, There’s a Riot Goin’ On and Irrésistible. Follow MML on Twitter and Instagram @furthermucker.

"I love D’Angelo but he’s just getting started, he came way after—what we did is we changed that to INFLUENCES.".

In other words: D'angelo got a long way to go before he can even be on my level.

True enough, D's debut was what? 17 years after "For You"?.

Anyway, this is a pretty good interview.

Looking to hearing whatever track he's recorded with Judith.

[Edited 8/28/15 14:35pm]

V10LETBLUES said:

lezama said:

Prince is full of it.

bashraka said:

Days after receiving an invite to speak with 25-year-old producer Joshua Welton about HitNRun—next month’s Prince album, streaming exclusively on Jay Z’s Tidal service starting September 7—I made my first speedy pilgrimage to Minneapolis. .

nice how the article then doesn't mention HITNRUN apart from saying it's funky and has 2 guest

vocalists. how very informative again.

plus, like others said: a reporter goes to paisley park and all he gets back with is this?

i guess prince only dropped in for a few minutes and talked his usual

but why not write some more about the album? lol. no one cares about prince's albums, not the

press, not prince oh wait, we do. yeah, we do. but who are we, anyway?

warning2all said:

I would love to hear him actually talk in depth about the craft of songwriting and musicianship and the process of making good his albums.

Me too.

IstenSzek said:

Exactly what does a producer do?

damn, that was a tiny interview...

thedoorkeeper said:

Does anyone else get the feeling that,20 years from now,Prince is gonna be in his 70s still talking about these issues?

Sounds like he was speaking candidly.

V10LETBLUES said:

thedoorkeeper said:

You seem to have a low opinion of the journalist...why would you care what he has to say about HITNRUN? He heard the album and said it was funky & powerful. Plus he confirmed 2 guests artists. What would you expect him to report? The track list? A description of each song?

Funky and powerful gtfoh lol. Funky fresh for the 90's This guy is exactly the type of writer I was talking about on my thread about pandering and patronizing writers. Why not send a qualified music writer to talk to the legend and get a little more insight. And no, not Travis Smiley.

that

i don't expect him to write a song by song description (although, actually, why not?) but a bit

more about the actual album would be nice, he did fly out there -originally- to listen to and to

talk about the album with co-producer josh. i don't see him writing anything about what josh

had to say about the album, it's recording, his involvement etc etc etc.

and to just call an album "funky and powerful" is beyond cliché. i'm actually surprised he did
not state that it was his best since Diamonds & Pearls but then, he just stated that AOA
and PLEC were his most exciting since Emancipation.

but i guess we can wait for the formal reviews to be beat around the head with that tired old
line again, along with another 4 paragraphs of dull as dishwater cut & paste jobs that seem to
substitute for an actual review these last 10 years or so. you know, about how prince changed

his name in 1993 and then went back to being called prince and how he waged war on warners

and how he's a 'pint sized rocker' or a 'purple yoda', to conclude with a short, non-paragraph at

the very end, naming 2 or 3 songs (getting a title slightly wrong as well) and saying they are a

true sultry and sexy balads, 'the hardest prince has ever rocked' or old skool prince funky.

anyway, to get back to your point, i don't have a low oppinion of this writer, but i do dislike the

piece he wrote here. that's just me, expecting someone who flew out to paisley park to listen
to the album and talk to his producer, to actually write about that *as well as* reproducing the

short intervieuw he had with prince.

and why would i want to know what he has to say about HITNRUN? seriously? come on man

because i'm excited about new prince music.

V10LETBLUES said:

thedoorkeeper said:

You seem to have a low opinion of the journalist...why would you care what he has to say about HITNRUN? He heard the album and said it was funky & powerful. Plus he confirmed 2 guests artists. What would you expect him to report? The track list? A description of each song?

Funky and powerful gtfoh lol. Funky fresh for the 90's This guy is exactly the type of writer I was talking about on my thread about pandering and patronizing writers. Why not send a qualified music writer to talk to the legend and get a little more insight. And no, not Travis Smiley.

I don't think this guy is a critic, just someone reporting they had a great time listening to his music.

Aerogram said:

Aerogram said:

Sounds like he was speaking candidly.

Yep, it was just him speaking his mind. Of course that won't stop people from manufacturing something to gripe about.

Meh... I know Prince is blocked sometimes in what he can do, and it looks like he tends to jump at whatever deal enables his latest whim. He's proving to me that he's too old for this shit. He can still make great music from time to time, but his perception of the world is old. He thinks like an old person. He's focused on old shit and missing the bigger picture completely. Prince's decades-too-long distrust is real business people has bit him the ass I think. This TIDAL situation is messy and beneath his energies, imo.

warning2all said:

How money obsessed is this guy anyway? It's all he talks about. oh ya, he talks about record contracts and how the industry is broken, too. I would love to hear him actually talk in depth about the craft of songwriting and musicianship and the process of making good his albums.

You hit the nail right on the head. I'm glad to see some of ya'll are finally figuring this "new" Prince out now. He's all about the money now. Before he devoted all his creativity into the music, and it sounded as such. Now he devotes all his creativity in controlling the most amount of dollars for his music. The actual creativity in the music takes an back seat. He's basically the musical equlivant of an fast food resturant. I know folks are gonna defend their "savior", but listen to how Prince talks now, in comparisan to how he use to talk. Before when he talked about musical influences, he spoke about the fusion of melodies and sounds, and the colors they paint in his mind. Now all he talks about is millions and ownership. ....and his new music has suffered creatively for it.

[Edited 8/28/15 22:39pm]

and why is he worrying about how much money Beyonce makes? Isn't she worth $200 million?! I don't see why he cares about these other multi-millionaire artists so much.Why not focus on non-famous people who struggle to make ends meet? Beyonce's doing just fine,Prince

...

[Edited 8/29/15 1:23am]

i think you are all being a little harsh. I see where you are coming from, but i still think the music means the most to him. I think talking about his studio methods etc is a little too personal for prince. If you want to now his methods look up some of susan rogers interviews.

IstenSzek said:

bashraka said:

Days after receiving an invite to speak with 25-year-old producer Joshua Welton about HitNRun—next month’s Prince album, streaming exclusively on Jay Z’s Tidal service starting September 7—I made my first speedy pilgrimage to Minneapolis. .

nice how the article then doesn't mention HITNRUN apart from saying it's funky and has 2 guest

vocalists. how very informative again.

plus, like others said: a reporter goes to paisley park and all he gets back with is this?

i guess prince only dropped in for a few minutes and talked his usual

but why not write some more about the album? lol. no one cares about prince's albums, not the

press, not prince oh wait, we do. yeah, we do. but who are we, anyway?

Interview with Joshua Welton:

http://prince.org/msg/5/418417

Scarfo said:

warning2all said: