Love 2 The 9’s is the third track on Prince’s 14th album , the second to be credited to Prince and the New Power Generation, and, four and a half months after the album’s release it was included as the third and final track on the UK CD single of The Morning Papers, the album’s fifth and final single.
The track features a spoken dialogue portion featuring Mayte, marking her first appearance on a Prince-related track, both in terms of recording and release.
The track’s lyrics mention listening to a band playing "new power soul", a phrase first used in 1988 which would later become the name of two separate tracks (New Power Soul and Newpower Soul) and an album, Newpower Soul, all credited to the New Power Generation, although these had not been recorded at the time of the lyrical mention here.
The lyrics also refer to "joy fantastic", a phrase first used by Prince in the song Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic, recorded in 1988 but not released until 1999.
While specific recording dates are not known, basic tracking took place around Halloween 1991 in late October/early November 1991, at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota (during a 10-hour session that also yielded 3 Chains O’ Gold and Johnny).
It was included as the second track on early configurations of the album, until Prince later added the track My Name Is Prince, recorded a few months previously.
It was included as the fifth track (third song) on the March 1992 and Summer, 1992 configurations of the album, before many of the album’s segues were removed for release.
An edit of the track was also planned as the a-side of a Love 2 The 9’s single in Spring, 1993, but the single was left unreleased.
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