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Slave 2 The System, previously titled Slave (not to be confused with Slave which is a different track), is an unreleased song recorded on 15 May 1994 at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota, during the first day of sessions for the New Power Generation’s second album Exodus (on the same day as Get Wild, New Power Soul, The Exodus Has Begun, Hallucination Rain, Count The Days and It Takes 3). It was the first song recorded during that session.
The track includes lead vocals by Sonny T..
The song, as Slave, was included merged with Acknowledge Me as the third track (second song) on the 2 December 1994 configuration of Exodus, but was removed from later configurations.
The reason for the tracks being combined and tracked as only one track is not known.
In early-to-mid 1995, Prince (as  ) re-recorded the track at Paisley Park Studios using entirely different music, including gentle strings, probably provided by Clare Fischer’s orchestra. Oddly, Prince/ kept the reference to Sonny T.’s family name in the new version ("Thompson’s my last name, but my daddy’s name is Lloyd").
A marching drum pattern from the track was sampled from Ain’t No Place Like U, and was also used on the released version of Slave, which contains some lyrical and musical similarities to Slave 2 The System, but is otherwise a different song.
This version was included as the second track on a July 1995, configuration of the Emancipation album, and the third track on another 1995 configuration, but was removed as work on the album continued.
The track remains unreleased.
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