Thread by @darlingnisi

Prince Rogers Nelson was a prolific artist. It was once said that a new album could be released annually for decades once he ducked out. With that in mind, it's easy to get frustrated thinking of all that's available but hasn't yet been seen or heard. 📷 Randee St Nicholas

Tonight, we're going to take a look at reissues, Paisley events, and other partnerships that have been established by Prince's estate, the organization charged with monotonizing and protecting his name, music, and likeness in order to promote his legacy for generations to come.

We start April 2016. Before Prince ducked out, he made a deal to reissue his back catalog. Dirty Mind, Prince and Controversy made it out, but more were to follow all the way up to Come.

Remember when we all were excited about how all those were coming out again? We got up to Parade...and then...Lovesexy and later were delayed...and later cancelled.

Meanwhile, the Official Prince Tribute was announced. Folks like John Mayer, Anita Baker and others were set to hit the stage, but they ultimately dropped out. It was still a good show though!

If you were in town and were lucky enough to score tickets during the opening week of Paisley Park, you would have been the first in the world to take a peek at Graceland's version of Paisley Park as a museum. (Tours were going on while P was here too btw)

Meanwhile, the Rhino reissues of Prince maxi singles started quietly coming out...despite main albums stalling for the moment.

Back to Paisley Park, they started a series of concert screenings. You could go for a tour, and then end out in the soundstage where you could watch all kinds of concerts in the best quality and sound system. A sampling part 1...

A Sampling Part 2. REAL TEARS RE THAT ACT I SHOW! I WANNA SEE! 😭

Problem was they would only announce these a few days prior...and we all know how expensive it is to get there last minute...

On the music side, a few more singles came out... Cream (including that prank call bit!), If I was Your Girlfriend, U Got the Look, Kiss.

Not long after the opening of Paisley as a museum, came the announcement of the first post duckout celebration.

They actually sold out of different tiers as time went along, and the world gathered in Chanhassen Minnesota to celebrate P on the one year anniversary of his duckout. Detailed notes of all the sessions here!

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Record Store Day 2017 also had quite a drop of Prince goodies! We got picture discs for Batdance and 1999 and also the Maxi's for I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man, I Wish U Heaven, Partyman and Pop Life, as well as a special Green edition of What Time is It!

Paisley had their first Prince night at the Twins in June of 2017 too! Purple Rain umbrellas were involved.

June 2017 also saw the release of Purple Rain Deluxe, said to be something P was working on before he checked out, it featured a DVD of the Carrier Dome concert as well as unreleased gems such as the original We Can Fuck. (Later known as We Can Funk). song.link/us/i/1229320882

The P estate released Love Symbol #2 with Pantone in June 2017 as well. More about that here!

Paisley Park hosts Musicology : The Battle of the Bands much in the flavor of the old school battles young P and the gang did.

Also in September, Fox's Empire has a Prince themed episode directed by former Prince creative director Sanaa Hamri

The My Name is Prince Exhibition begins it's tour at the O2!

The second online merch store pops up November 2017 (first one came Nov/Dec 2016).

Besides the announcement of Celebration 2018, things were relatively quiet on the estate front...until April 2018...perhaps because they were busy cooking?

A big launch of all sorts of media hit us all at once! We got vintage footage via the Nothing Compares 2 U video

The official Prince Estate website was launched with a comprehensive discography site and tribute site for fams

Some investigation news came out....(do your googles we're keeping it on the up and up)

And of course Celebration happened! We got a Prince on the Big Screen which was either AMAZING or unsettling depending on your perspective due to the presence of him while not really being there...

Recap of 2018 with notes here! (Navigate back with the links at the top of the posts)

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July 2018 saw the reissue of The Time's Ice Cream Castles on Neapolitan wax.

And Sonly Legacy's release of Prince's 1995-2010 catalog to streaming services (other than Tidal since they already had these and more). I remember being super excited watching folks react to this! 3121 was blowing minds!

In the fall of 2018, we got the kick off of the 4u Symphonic Tour

And the release of Piano and a Microphone 1983

November saw the slow roll out of the 1995 and later music videos

And the Prince episode of ABC's Blackish

Oh also summer 2017, the 4ever greatest hits boxset with great Herb Ritts prints of Prince!

Are y'all tired yet? WE AINT THROUGH!

Back to 2018...

Sony Legacy's next big push after getting his music out there, were thei reissues. They've made it a point to not be quiet about their releases...THEY WANT PEOPLE TA KNOW!

Musicology, 3121 and Planet Earth all out with lots of vintage merch to go with it from shirts to tour programs to slipmates to holographic art.... we really had it all! 😭

We all had our gifs collection already, but we got official ones March 2019

Rock and Roll is Alive! And lives in Minneapolis! Sony Legacy + The Estate + The Timberwolves join up to give away the single at a Timberwolves game!

Next Record Store Day 2019...His Majesty's Pop Life from WB and nem and the Versace Experience from Sony Legacy

April gave us Celebration 2019...notes in the summary post here!

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And the Sony Legacy campaign for Rave where they once again gave us all kinds of merch and even a lil boxset thing!

June gave us Originals along with the Holly Rock video to promote it. The album was released first through Tidal and later for everyone else.

June also made cloud guitars available through the estate.

Coming into September of 2019, Sony Legacy is coming in hot with the Versace Experience now on wax.

Chaos and Disorder also on wax.

And my dear Emancipation, also as a wax boxset.

(I was LIV.ING at this point okay?!?)

(And poor because guess what came next?)

The roll out of 1999 Deluxe

Clothes by P's old designers...

And the set itself!

To close out the year, another website made the scene! Becoming Prince.

I do recommend for snips of him talking. 💦

Now we're to the top of 2020. What a pivotal year! A pandemic would rage across our planet, turmoil in the US...it's going to be a time! Before it gets serious though...

Another night of live music at Paisley Park!

Sorry y'all left out the first post duckout group there, Nooky Jones back in August of 2019...

No celebration this year, but we DID get the release of my FAVORITE era of Prince! Box set and wax reissues and brand new wax issues especially of my favorite album One Nite Alone Piano and voice! Mech too!

Self promotion time! There was also a prodcast talking about this era! I was blessed to be invited to participate!

Check out the whole season here! @Miss_EThompson is in it too!

@Miss_EThompson Grammy's did their thing for P led by Ms. Sheila E

@Miss_EThompson SiriusXM did their first cycle of a Prince dedicated channel featuring an unreleased radio show that gave us a peek inside Prince's house parties with a live set!

@Miss_EThompson NBC's The Voice did a Prince tribute show.

@Miss_EThompson This unknown and unlooked for box set is announced with presales for merch and thangs

@Miss_EThompson (I'm kidding)

@Miss_EThompson The Next Power Generation is fortified with music on Tik Tok to make viral videos

@Miss_EThompson This really cool celebration happened! Screening the NYE show on Youtube and an afterparty of a marathon DJ Set that went through the night!

@Miss_EThompson Again shoutout to Motor City's Moodyman for this!

@Miss_EThompson Posted this whole part on my instagram because it's important.
instagram.com/tv/CFlOj-1pBVL/

@Miss_EThompson Ah sorry bouncing back to 2018 really fast.... Prince Estate x Minnesota Timberwolves

@Miss_EThompson Their whole season featured P in some way and they did great videos interviewing P's old basketball crew from when he was a youth!

@Miss_EThompson Gotta shout out some new things around Paisley as well! If you haven't been in a while, there's an amazing new exhibit that talks about P growing up in Minneapolis! It also speaks of his activism! Get a peek at it here!

@Miss_EThompson WB is still sliding out things every once in a while..! The reissue of the Hits 1 made the scene Jan 2021. This was previously quite a pretty penny on wax!

@Miss_EThompson Sheila E - The Glamorous Life (Light Blue Translucent) hit the shelves from Rhino as part of their Black History Month promotion.

@Miss_EThompson Paisley opened their doors to mark 5 years...of P opting out.

@Miss_EThompson A New Shoe Exhibit also debuts July of 2021

@Miss_EThompson The promo for Welcome 2 America is on the move...

@Miss_EThompson And it is released July 30

@Miss_EThompson We also had the Urban Decay rollout

@Miss_EThompson And the Prince Paris Saint-Germain luxury clothing line

@Miss_EThompson Whew! That's a lot, huh? And I'm sure I even missed some things! Like when they live streamed the Carrier Dome Purple Rain concert on Youtube among other things...

@Miss_EThompson Over the last 5 years there have been approx 70 different new and old physical music releases, dozens of new and older music videos, tons of new and vintage merch (didn't even mention all the pop up shops or the store that refreshes regularly)....the Prince Estate has been BUSY!

@Miss_EThompson Also keep in mind, the folks behind the creative output of Prince, I'm talking the people doing the actual research and making the actual deals is are NOT large in number. The actual feet on the ground are much fewer than you think.

@Miss_EThompson Even when P was here, especially post 2004, it was legit less than 10 folks doing that work...and the situation isn't much different now, probably even fewer.

@Miss_EThompson I know we all want all the things....

@Miss_EThompson ...but remember that "the estate" is made up of human beings just like us. Let's have compassion for them and this heavy and important burden they carry. I'd rather them take their time and do their work right rather than rush things out based on our demands, wouldn't you?

Extra Credit : They can drop stuff like this whenever they want! 💜