I bought this CD in a music store in Germany ... Kaiserslautern I think ... in 1989. How can I tell if it is genuine or a bootleg? I am listening to it now and it is still frickin awesome. It would be even more awesome if I could tell it was legitimate.

It will be something to do with the serial number I expect. Did a search of Black Album on this site not come up with anything?

Nope ... nothing.

www.discogs.com/Prince-Bl...ase/883630

www.discogs.com/Prince-Bl...ase/231557

www.discogs.com/Prince-Bl...se/1635406

Kewl info shango ... the first link deals with the vinyl version. One of the other links has a pic of the CD. It doesn't look like the one I have but I suppose that's not really definitive unless it says that's the only legitimate CD version.
Mine has French around the outside edge of the CD that says:
TOUS DROITS DU PRODUCTEUR DE L'OEVRE PHONOGRAPHIQUE. ET DU PROPRIETAIRE DE L'OEUVRE ENREGISTREE RESERVES. SAUF AUTORISATION, LA DUPLICATION, LA LOCATION, LE PRET, L'UTILISATION DE CE DISQUE POUR EXECUTION PUBLIQUE ET RADIODIFFUSION SONT INTERDITS.

It also says "An original RTP recording" and "copyright TNT Enterprises"
[Edited 3/30/09 7:34am]

LoL ... a Google search brought up a prince.org thread but I couldn't find it on the prince.org search.
http://prince.org/msg/7/29683

After reading that thread, there is no way it applies here. This is not a prince imposter! Does Prince sing all the songs on the Black Album?
[Edited 3/30/09 7:37am]
[Edited 3/30/09 7:39am]

Talking to myself here ... just did some more research ... this is not the real deal. I have always known it wasn't Prince singing the songs but they put some Prince in the background and the only song that Prince sings is "When 2 R in Love" but they could have gotten that from anywhere. It's still a good album but now I gotta get the real thing! It's gotta be so much better!

I feel so stupid! Can I delete this entire thread before my shame grows too big?

mritchey said:

Hold your horses there buddy-roo. Are you saying you have a copy that features fake Prince tracks?

Prince sings all the songs on The Black Album apart from 2 Nigs United 4 West Compton which is an instrumental. Other songs do have Prince vocals with altered pitch/effects - Bob George, Rock Hard In A Funky Place etc.

The officially released CD (1994ish) is of course now readily available but you probably just have a bootleg CD copy of the original Black album rathr than one of the rare original vinyls that snuck out (it never snuck out on CD to my knowledge)...
[Edited 3/30/09 8:06am]

Glad i could help mritchey

Yeah, it's for me a little more vague which cd-pressing is the original pressing, since it all started with the vinyl formats, lol.

So your copy is one with someone else singing on there ? ... that's new info to me.

:"your" edit:
[Edited 3/30/09 7:53am]

Just ordered what I hope will be a legitimate 1994 CD from Amazon.com. Poop! Now I can't even listen to this anymore! I can't imagine how awesome the real deal is.

Just got the REAL Black Album in the mail today. Listening to 2 Nigs right now and it kicks ass! I will have to listen through the album a few more times but I am ashamed to say, on first listen, I like the fake Black Album better. (I feel so bad for saying that)

You know how if you get used to a cover of a song and then hear the original, it can take a while for the original to overtake the cover? I first heard Linda Ronstadt's cover of The Eagles' "Desperado" long before I heard The Eagles do it. She did a really good job with it but eventually, I came to like the original better.

Anyway, Rockhard in a Funky Place is on now and it is jammin' too! I think I will get used to this soon enough. Enough rambling from me.

so what songs were on the fake version you had?

All of the songs were the same. It was just different people performing them. I think the fake album is pretty good, really.

KeithyT said:

I think a few copies did sneak out on cd, I'm sure I read an article in record collector years ago about there being a small number in circulation and one of them selling for around £10,000 but don't quote me on that because I could be mistaken. (my brain is totally gone!!)

mritchey said:

I have the same fake album for 20 years now....it's not that bad, nice curiosa in my collection. As far as i know it's performed by some Frankfurt-based studio musicians. When 2 R In Love isn't Prince, but vocals came very close...
My copy originally had a sticker "I own the Black Album"....

KeithyT said:

WRONG! I have the original 1987 Black Album on cd. There were some that record indusrty people kept for themselves. I have one of those cd's.