Funky Design was offered (as The Funky Design) as an mp3 download as part of NPG Music Club Edition # 1 (along with Mad, Peace, Splash, When Lay My Hands On U and NPG Ahdio Show #1). The track originates from 1994, however, and the studio version was played at The New Power Generation Store in Minneapolis in November 1994 (along with Mad and Snow Man). An excerpt of the track had also been streamed on NPGOnlineLtd.com on 17 July 2000 (as Funky Design), before the full track was released in 2001. Despite being released after Prince reverted to using the his own name, rather than , the track was credited to , as it was recorded while using that name.
Specific recording dates are unknown, but it is likely that basic tracking took place in November 1994 at Paisley Park Studios, Chanhassen, Minnesota. The song was slated to be the eighth track on the 1995 New World album project, a precursor to what became the album Emancipation, but was never known to be on any configuration of that album.
Sonny T. also overdubbed vocals (replacing Prince’s) for a version placed as the sixteenth and final track (twelfth song) on a 2 December 1994 configuration of the New Power Generation’s second album Exodus. This version remains unreleased, however.
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