Was just organizing my Prince collection and this came to mind again. But because I was not on the forum around that time, i was wondering if Prince ever explained why this "hiatus"? I mean, there were shows, but no album releases. Previously there had been only 1 year intervals, but now there were 4 years. Does anyone have any insight into this?
Was he organizing the vault, cause some of the stuff on the albums after 2014 had some material that already existed, right?

I was also wondering about this as well...From 1978 to 2010 we were getting about 1 album every year (sometimes even two!), so the 4 year gap with no album release was very curious.

He certainly didn't stop recording, but chose not to compile albums for each year. wait, 20ten took care of 2010, didn't it? A full sequence of new material.

Isn't it actually longer? "20ten" was not exactly a global release. Even in his home country it wasn't released. Plus the thing was a free giveaway.

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March 2009 -- "Lotusflow3r"

Septmeber 2014 -- "Art Official Age"

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That's over five and a half years without a proper album release! That's moving in to Guns N' Roses territory.

Cloreen said:

Isn't it actually longer? "20ten" was not exactly a global release. Even in his home country it wasn't released. Plus the thing was a free giveaway.

Just because it wasn't a worldwide release doesn't mean it was a full album of new songs.

avajane said:

I was wondering the exact same thing. The one major thing he did is get his masters back in 2014, so perhaps he was waiting until then to release an album. Also, he was creating a new band, 3rd eye girl so in addition to practicing all the songs, they needed to come up with new songs for the album. In 2012, he produced Andy Allo's album and even wrote a few songs. Plus Prince was always recording and making music, it's just that it wasn't released.

Thanks. But previously he had released an album a year whilst still producing stuff for other people and changing bands, etc.
It might be related to getting his masters back, yes.

I think Prince was just done with albums and sales and promotion. He had a good thing going with the one-off partnerships with Sony, Arista, BMG, etc. He could have easily continued that. Hell, he did with Warner Bros and AOA & PE.

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Back to the hip surgery theory - I wonder if he did have the surgery, if 2010 and 2011 weren't recovery times for him. Maybe not, 2011 had a lot of tour dates with Welcome 2 stuff. But 2010 was sporatic. 7 dates in July, then 7 more in Oct/Nov, then nothing for almost a month to mid-December. I mean, I'd assume it is a longer recovery time, but I don't know. It's unlikely this theory could play out.

Either way, I sorta feel like he was over having to put something out, lose money on it, or have a back stock of hundreds of disks from lack of sales. It's tough in the 21st century to sell a record. I saw Lotusflow3r in Target stores, by the piles, for months and months after its release. (Now would be a great time to put those things back out on a shelf.)

It also takes cash to produce & distribute a record. Maybe his flow was tied up elsewhere until recent months.

He was going through a phase where he was sitting back and waiting for the industry to present alternative methods for him to release music. This is documented in several interviews.

Cloreen said:

Isn't it actually longer? "20ten" was not exactly a global release. Even in his home country it wasn't released. Plus the thing was a free giveaway.

.

March 2009 -- "Lotusflow3r"

Septmeber 2014 -- "Art Official Age"

.

That's over five and a half years without a proper album release! That's moving in to Guns N' Roses territory.

He made an album in 2010, whether or not you liked how it was released. GNR has only released 6 albums, with a 15-year gap so that's just a silly comparison.

Hyperboyle aside, it's a curious break in pattern for Prince.

maybe he just got tired of busting his ass to put out an album per year only to have people shit all over it. I also heard that the third eye girl project took up a lot of his time as they were basically talented amateurs and the workload was insane.

TrivialPursuit said:

I think Prince was just done with albums and sales and promotion. He had a good thing going with the one-off partnerships with Sony, Arista, BMG, etc. He could have easily continued that. Hell, he did with Warner Bros and AOA & PE.

.

Back to the hip surgery theory - I wonder if he did have the surgery, if 2010 and 2011 weren't recovery times for him. Maybe not, 2011 had a lot of tour dates with Welcome 2 stuff. But 2010 was sporatic. 7 dates in July, then 7 more in Oct/Nov, then nothing for almost a month to mid-December. I mean, I'd assume it is a longer recovery time, but I don't know. It's unlikely this theory could play out.

Either way, I sorta feel like he was over having to put something out, lose money on it, or have a back stock of hundreds of disks from lack of sales. It's tough in the 21st century to sell a record. I saw Lotusflow3r in Target stores, by the piles, for months and months after its release. (Now would be a great time to put those things back out on a shelf.)

It also takes cash to produce & distribute a record. Maybe his flow was tied up elsewhere until recent months.

ya but he was performing by 2012 so i doubt if the hip thing, if it happened, really mattered that much in terms of studio work. and ya, i bought my copy of lotus flower for like 3 bucks. to be honest, I think it was one of his weakest releases. the Bria disk is unlistenable.

Cloreen said:

Isn't it actually longer? "20ten" was not exactly a global release. Even in his home country it wasn't released. Plus the thing was a free giveaway.

.

March 2009 -- "Lotusflow3r"

Septmeber 2014 -- "Art Official Age"

.

That's over five and a half years without a proper album release! That's moving in to Guns N' Roses territory.

Lotusflow3r was just USA

Cloreen said:

Isn't it actually longer? "20ten" was not exactly a global release. Even in his home country it wasn't released. Plus the thing was a free giveaway.

.

March 2009 -- "Lotusflow3r"

Septmeber 2014 -- "Art Official Age"

.

That's over five and a half years without a proper album release! That's moving in to Guns N' Roses territory.

It was still an album made available to the public.

And when he came back he released a number of albums in rapid succesion. AOA, PLectrum, the Judith Hill album, Phase I and Phase II. And in between he produced, played on and wrote for the Andy Allo album and also toured quite a bit.

Didn't he spend a significant amount of 2012-2013 shopping the Plectrum album to distributors? He posted a test pressing of the album and held listening parties.

cardinal said:

when he was on arsenio (2014), he said that not being under contract meant he was free to NOT do albums or do them as he saw fit. he also said that it takes time to gather enough songs that fit thematically together to go on the same album. it sounds like he was taking his time creatively to get the results he wanted on his albums. and perhaps, taking a well deserved rest, although its hard to imagine him taking any time "off" since he never saw it as work.

Yup - he also stated in that recently published Rolling Stone interview where he reached a point where he no longer felt the need to release to music. I think that's what that was - he just didn't have the same drive.

blacknote said:

Didn't he spend a significant amount of 2012-2013 shopping the Plectrum album to distributors? He posted a test pressing of the album and held listening parties.

The album wasn't finished until late 2013 - but no, he had an agreement with Kobalt at the time. He could have used them to issue the album if he wanted to. My guess from working with them is that they simply didn't have the resources to support the release the way he liked.

PeteSilas said:

Cloreen said:

TwiliteKid said:

cardinal said:

TwiliteKid said:

Yup - he also stated in that recently published Rolling Stone interview where he reached a point where he no longer felt the need to release to music. I think that's what that was - he just didn't have the same drive.

i think he was driven to mentor and teach. he said in one interview "its not even about me anymore." i think he really wanted to bring up the next musical generation and create when he felt the inspiration.

It sure did seem like than in the last few years.

Prince made available over 30 tracks "loose" on various streams, radio programs, and media outlets from late 2009 until the double releases of AOA and PE.

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These include jams like Cause and Effect, Hot Summer, Rich Friends, SPDB, to the early versions (and alt. versions) of 3EG stuff. There's about a whole albums worth of 3EG stuff that came out this way before PE that is not on PE. Octupus Heart, Boyfriend, Menstrual Cycle, Live Out Loud, etc.

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I collected about 13 tracks on my own from that era, then later found a fan compilation with 30 tracks, and I don't think that's all of it when you add in the live 3EG rehearsals/performances that would randomly stream on YouTube and stuff.

thx185 said:

Prince made available over 30 tracks "loose" on various streams, radio programs, and media outlets from late 2009 until the double releases of AOA and PE.

.

These include jams like Cause and Effect, Hot Summer, Rich Friends, SPDB, to the early versions (and alt. versions) of 3EG stuff. There's about a whole albums worth of 3EG stuff that came out this way before PE that is not on PE. Octupus Heart, Boyfriend, Menstrual Cycle, Live Out Loud, etc.

.

I collected about 13 tracks on my own from that era, then later found a fan compilation with 30 tracks, and I don't think that's all of it when you add in the live 3EG rehearsals/performances that would randomly stream on YouTube and stuff.

Wow. This guy had music coming out of every pore.

I don't really care why he took an hiatus. 20TEN was a weak offering, he had every reason to think maybe he should take a break until he had a better reason to release an album.

He did, and we got Art Official Age, his BEST in years. PlectrumElectrum was the other side of the coin.

Then we got the HitnRun phases... what a great time to be a Prince fan. I'm glad Pase 2 was so strong and Phase 1 was fun.

Like I said at the time, I had no reason to still hope for an album like AOA and yet he came through.

so what ...he made uo fior it by releasing 4 albums in 2 years

I'm just thinking out loud with this... but ,It was rumored he got hip surgery during that time.. I wonder would that have been the reason for the Album hiatus?

Dolphinking23 said:

I'm just thinking out loud with this... but ,It was rumored he got hip surgery during that time.. I wonder would that have been the reason for the Album hiatus?

Like I mentioned above, he was simply waiting for better methods and distribution channels to release his music. He has stated this in several interviews during that time.

Slap me one time.....

Maybe he was producing all the back vault material for his retirement all that time.

4Give me....It's the only way I can deal with all this mess!

[Edited 5/26/16 19:49pm]

20ten is beautiful, funny, and sincere. Too bad for people who don't "get" that album.

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Also, hip replacement surgery doesn't take THAT long to recover from. Prince was busy being an undercover activist.

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God bless him..