| 3121 is the 31st full-length studio album by Prince. It was released worldwide in March 2006 (two years after the collections The Chocolate Invasion, The Slaughterhouse and C-Note, and the studio album Musicology).
Eight months after the album’s release, Prince launched the Per4ming Live 3121 residency in Las Vegas, NV, USA; the setlist typically included a few tracks from the album, but was not designed to promote the album as such.
The initial release of the album contained a small postcard/flier for the later-aborted album by Támar, then-titled Beautiful, Loved And Blessed.
Sessions and compiling
Fairly little is known about the recording sessions for the album. It is likely that basic tracking for most tracks took place between late 2004 and early 2006, at Paisley Park Studios, Chanhassen, MN, USA and/or 3121 Antelo Rd., Los Angeles, CA, USA. Some percussion overdubs on Te Amo Corazón took place at Insomnio Studios, Panama City, Panama in late June 2005.
In a 2020 interview, Sam Jennings discussed the evolution of the album: "The 3121 album changed a lot from 2005 to 2006. Originally it was going to be called Lotusflow3r and had a very different tracklist. I had an original design for it ready to go. But then it changed and evolved into 3121 and so did the art." At some point the cd was going to be three discs, while a version from late October 2005 had fifteen tracks, and was likely planned to be two CDs at this point.
An early configuration of the album compiled in late 2005 included three songs that were removed before release and included on Lotusflow3r (released in 2009): Love Like Jazz, Wall Of Berlin and The Morning After (the latter was not included on the physical release but only on the download version of the Lotusflow3r album). This early configuration also included Elixer (later released on Bria Valente’s album Elixer in 2009), Redhead Stepchild (removed from 3121 and included on Támar ’s planned 2006 album), and two other songs that remain unreleased (Streets Of Panama and Shameless). Fury and Beautiful, Loved And Blessed were not included on any known late 2005 configuration, indicating that they may have been recorded shortly before the album’s release. Although the song 3121 contains some disguised spoken words that say "From the lotus flower...", it is unclear when and how the album title evolved from Lotusflow3r to 3121 (of note, neither From The Lotus... or ...Back 2 The Lotus) were included on any known configuration of 3121).
The album is the first to feature a band line-up including drummer C.C. Dunham and bass guitarist Joshua Dunham, who would continue to play with Prince until 2010. It also features significant vocal contributions from Támar Davis (credited as Támar), who Prince worked with heavily in 2005 and 2006, including touring with her as her guitarist on the 2006 Támar Tour.
Promotion
The album produced three commercial singles, Te Amo Corazón, Black Sweat (both of which preceded the album) and Fury (released in the UK only).
The initial release of the album included entry into the "Purple Ticket" sweepstakes, to win attendance at a private show at Prince’s rented home known as 3121 Antelo Rd., Los Angeles, CA, USA, for seven winners in the US (and smaller number worldwide); the show took place on 6 May 2006 (a.m.).
Prince performed on a few TV shows and awards shows performing songs from the album.
The album entered The Billboard 200 at number 1, giving Prince his first number 1 album on that chart since 1989’s Batman (and his first not connected to a movie since 1985’s Around The World In A Day). 3121 also reached number 1 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart.
On 26 Jun. 2006, the album was certified Gold by the RIAA, indicating 500,000 copies shipped in the USA.
On 8 February 2019, The Prince Estate re-released the album with Sony’s Legacy Recordings (Musicology and Planet Earth were also re-released on the same day).
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2004: C-Note ◄
