Prince's 39th album, HitnRun Phase Two, was released on iTunes and other digital outlets, three days after its Tidal release, with the CD version released in 2016.
Hitnrun Phase Two (stylized as HITnRUN Phase Two) is the 39th studio album by Prince and the last to be released while he was alive. It was digitally released in December 2015, a mere three months after Hitnrun Phase One, and four months prior to his passing.
The physical CD first became available at Prince's Piano And A Microphone Gala Event at Paisley Park Studios on January 21, 2016. It was then made available in local Minneapolis stores shortly thereafter. Prince had planned a widespread release of the CD for April 29, 2016. Despite working on other projects like Black Is The New Black and Piano & A Microphone, Hitnrun Phase Two remains the final album released during Prince's lifetime (digitally) and the first to be available in stores posthumously, hence it is not considered a posthumous release.
The album features twelve tracks, half of which had never been released before. At first, it was exclusively bundled with Hitnrun Phase One on Tidal. After three days, it became available for individual download on iTunes.
Although the title "Phase One" led to speculation about a sequel, Prince only confirmed the follow-up album three months after releasing Hitnrun Phase One, via a tweet.
In reply to a fan's query, @_dirtydiana97, regarding the release of 'HitNRun Phase 2', @Prince3EG stated: "Warner Bros. Records already has it. Petition them to release it."
When a fan inquired about the song titles featured, the account verified the inclusion of "Big City," and later re-shared a 54-second excerpt of the track that was initially posted in October 2013. Additionally, @Prince3EG confirmed "Revelation" as part of the album. Subsequently, "Black Muse" was also confirmed by @Prince3EG as a track on the upcoming album. The next day, the inclusion of "2 Y. 2 D." was affirmed.
When inquired about the reason for entrusting the album to Warner Bros. Records, @Prince3EG responded with the term "OLIVE BRANCH."
The tweet containing the link to the "Big City" snippet read: "WARNER BROTHERS 'BIG CITY' SHOUT... C'MON Y'ALL, WE CAN WORK THIS OUT!" This wording was notable, considering the unreleased 1977 track "We Can Work It Out" featured the lyrics "Making music naturally, me and W.B. / Music for the young and old, music destined to be gold." Yet, as anticipated, "We Can Work It Out" was not part of the album. As previously conjectured, other tracks that premiered in 2015 were included on the album. However, two studio tracks from 2015 that were omitted are "Free Urself" and the 2014 re-recording of "If Eye Could Get Ur Attention."
The album is a selection of songs recorded from March 2010 to mid 2015 at Paisley Park Studios, Chanhassen, Minnesota, USA.
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