Cause And Effect was first available as an audio stream on Minnesota public radio station 89.3 The Current’s website on 26 February 2010 (it was played simultaneously on the station’s Steve Seel and Jill Riley’s morning show, and a 15-second clip was added to their website the previous day - the song was offered to the station the previous week). Cause And Effect was also made available to download on Lotusflow3r.com the same day.
On 7 January 2014, a live video of Cause And Effect from 17 August 2013, Coliseu dos Recreios - Sala Principal, Lisbon, Portugal was put on 3rdEyeGirl YouTube account.
A tape photographed in Prince’s vault at Paisley Park Studios lists the song as 27 January 2010 alluding the exact date for the recording at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota. The song includes a repeated sample of Prince shouting "I am here... Where are you?" taken from his second 2009 Montreux Jazz Festival show, 18 July 2009 (2nd show) (immediately following When Lay My Hands On U, the performance of which was streamed as a video on Lotusflow3r.com in 2009).
One section of the song’s lyrics mention four track titles which later appeared on the 20Ten album: Laydown, Beginning Endlessly, Compassion and Future Soul Song. While this was almost certainly a conscious choice on Prince’s behalf, it is unlikely that Cause And Effect was considered for inclusion on the album due to the difference in style and the presence of Chris Coleman on drums (marking his first known appearance on a Prince-related track). The song was included on a configuration of the Welcome 2 America album in 2010 but not kept on the version released in 2021.
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