Prince’s private estate Paisley Park will crack open his vault of unreleased music during the location’s annual event, Celebration. Scheduled for June 9 through 11, the gathering at the late musician’s famous recording studio, museum, and concert venue in Chanhassen, Minnesota will host an exclusive presentation of the music he created prior to his death in 2016.
“For me personally, as one of the heirs, I can’t speak for all of them, I don’t mind if people hear the small stuff — the little stuff where he’s just sitting there playing with the piano and how he put it together,” Prince’s sister Tyka Nelson told Rolling Stone in 2021. “That might teach some little boy that wants to learn how to put a song together. We never know. Anything and everything, get it out there. If I live 100, 200 years, I would definitely be there helping to oversee getting it out. But Prince’s music will outlive me for sure.”
The vault reportedly holds thousands of unreleased records. In 2021, his estate released the Welcome 2 America, which Prince recorded in 2010 but never released. The music played at the Paisley Park Celebration will only account for a tiny percentage of it.
The event will also feature conversations with special guests Chaka Khan, Chuck D, D-Nice, and Doug E. Fresh to honor both Prince and 50 years of hip-hop. Taking the stage at Paisley Park will be the Minnesota gospel groups Sounds of Blackness and The Steeles. Stokley, the R&B musician from Mint Condition, will also perform as well as D-Nice and DJ Rashida.
Shelby J, who sang backup for Prince before embarking on a career as a solo artist, is also listed on the lineup alongside members of Prince’s band NPG and the Minneapolis youth choir Known MPLS. Additional rising artists are scheduled to perform.
Rosie Gained, a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, will lead the Prince Legacy Tribute at Paisley Park. Celebration 2023 will also feature panel discussions about his connection to hip-hop and the number 7 as well as the continued preservation of his legacy, which he largely set in place before his death.
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“Fortunately, it’s one of those easy jobs with a legacy who’s already said, “This is what’s going to happen and this is what I’m doing about it.” He kind of pre-planned everything and I don’t know where it started or why he began to put all these tapes, and movies, and scripts, and music together and preserve it,” Nelson told Rolling Stone. After Paisley Park was purchased, I thought it was going to be a soundstage, but it ended up being kind of a rehearsal hall, soundstage, and party place. So then he started planning the museum for it.”
She added: “All of these things were already told to everybody, so they knew what to do. All we had to do is kind of pick it up, put it down, and release the vinyl or CD, or help get the picture a little better, or make the audio a little clearer. But Prince did the work for us, he preserved it himself. Prince was always preserving his own legacy.”
