To the many Prince fans hoping to wrap their ears around some unheard material on Friday, you might want to temper your expectations. The producer behind the Purple One’s first posthumous release was just recently hit with a lawsuit by the singer’s estate. According to KTSP who obtained a copies of the court documents, sound engineer George Ian Boxill is being sued over the release of an EP titled Deliverance that was set to drop later this week.
Prince apparently recorded the songs on the EP sometime between 2006 and 2008. In the documents filed in Federal court, the singer’s estate alleges that the recordings are worth more than $75,000 and that Boxill is in violation an agreement with Prince that stated all the material that he worked on with the him during his life would remain the singer’s “sole and exclusive” property and that Boxill could not use them “in any way whatsoever.” It goes on to assert that Boxill is, “now trying to exploit one or more songs for his personal gain at the expense of the Prince estate.”
It’s unclear at this time how the lawsuit will affect the EP’s already in-place Friday release date. That date carries special significance as it marks the one year anniversary of Prince’s death last year.
You can listen to the title track to Deliverance here.
