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stop worrying about what people say.
it ain't gonna stop them anyway.

The Black Album is a Prince record that was originally planned for November of 1987 as the follow-up to Sign o' the Times. Referred to as The Funk Bible by preceding press releases and in a hidden message within the album itself, the work seemed to be a reaction to criticism that Prince had become too pop-oriented.

The album had no printed title, artist name, production credits or photography; a black sleeve was all that came with it. On promotional copies, only a song listing and catalog number were printed on the disc itself. The commercial version was to only have the catalog number printed in the color pink on the spine and was supposedly only to be released in vinyl format as an anonymous protest to the recorded industry's looming discontinuation of vinyl in favor of compact discs.

The album was withdrawn weeks before its release date and was replaced with the album Lovesexy, a brighter pop-oriented album with elements of religious affirmation.

Almost immediately after the decision to shelve it, the Black Album emerged on the streets in bootleg form, arguably becoming popular music's most legendary bootleg, after The Basement Tapes and Smile. . Soon before the release of The Black Album, Prince started to appear with the word "slave" written on his face and changed his legal name to an unpronounceable symbol.