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1999: The New Master

NPG Records

1999: The New Master features vocals from Prince, Larry Graham, Rosie Gaines and rapper Doug E Fresh, and comprises of six re-recorded versions of his 1982 hit song 1999. 1999: The New Master was issued as an EP to mark the turning of the year 1999, when stock in the song was high due to the impending advent of the Millennium. Prince played a special concert to celebrate the release of 1999: The New Master at Studio 54, MGM Grand, Las Vegas on 2 January 1999.

Now you will have two catalogues… except mine would be better.

Prince recorded 1999: The New Master at Paisley Park Studios in 1998 and issued it under his own label NPG Records as a counter release to Warner Brothers’ reissue of 1999 the track’s original version, the previous year without seeking his permission. Due to his contract with his former label Warner, which owned the masters of Prince’s recordings between 1978 and 1993, Prince was unable to re-release material recorded during his tenure with that record company unless he produced a new master recording containing different creative interpretation. So he did. It gave Prince the idea to re-record his entire catalogue, which did not come to fruition, only getting as far as reworking Soft And Wet from his debut album of 1978.

The EP features Rosario Dawson, a 19-year-old actress on Sin City at the time, when Prince called her to add a piece to 1999: The New Master. In the warm-up jam session her lack of musicianship became quickly apparent and in 2017 she recounted this visit to Paisley Park the most embarrassing moment of her life. She recorded a monologue instead.

Cover story

Confusingly, 1999: The New Master is credited to Prince and The Revolution despite the original track neither written by nor featuring any member of The Revolution (albeit the band has a mention on the artwork of the original album of the same name and this is a nod to that). This is most likely because at the time of this release, Prince was known as Prince love symbol and had leveraged his birth name and the legacy of Revolution to market his product.

Performers

Vox / All instr.: Prince
Vocals: Rosie Gaines; Larry Graham
Rap: Doug E. Fresh; Rosario Dawson ^{Rosario (1999)}

Data

Production

Prince love symbol

Label

NPG Records

Distribution

NPG Records

Cover/Design

Steve Parke

Released

25 years ago on 2 February 1999

Running Time

34:57

US Chart Peak

150

UK Chart Peak

Not charted

Orig. Formats

Tracklist

1999 (The New Master) [feat Doug E Fresh] (7:09)
Rosario (1999) [Rosario Dawson] (1:19)
1999 [The Inevitable Mix] [Larry Graham, Doug E Fresh & Rosie Gaines] (5:46)
1999 [Keepsteppin'] [Doug E Fresh] (4:39)
1999 [Rosie, Doug E In A Deep House] [Doug E Fresh & Rosie Gaines] (6:23)
1999 (The New Master) [Single Edit] [feat Doug E Fresh] (4:30)
1999 [Acapella] [Larry Graham, Doug E Fresh & Rosie Gaines] (5:11)

1999: The New Master – review

The turn of the Millennium delivered an awkward moment, that Prince’s track from 1982 and owned by Warner Brothers was approaching its big year – one that Prince planned to make use of given its commercial provenance. But having fallen out with the label in 1993 and thereby not allowed to simply rerelease it, Prince put together a whole EP of new entirely reworked versions of 1999, coming up with 1999: The New Master, a version wholly owned by him. Problem solved. The EP opens with The New Master, making it fit for the new century it has rap thrown in provided by Doug E Fresh but otherwise keeps the same tempo and elements or the original albeit updated with a Latino embellishment as the end. This attracted flak from some fans at the time but I for one rather liked the energy. The next is Rosario 1999 a 1 minute spoken monologue on race equality delivered by Rosario Dawson in the structure of Little Red Corvette. The remaining tracks are remixes of The New Master, each given completely reworked lyrics. First is The Inevitable Mix’ boasting African beat, Larry Graham takes the part of Dez Dickerson, and Rosie Gaines those of Jill Jones/Lisa Coleman. Keep Steppin’ is another modernised for new audiences, a rap version in the structure of the main song performed by Doug E Fresh. The tight In A Deep House is sung by Rosie Gaines with again new lyrics, which she delivers in her signature scat style. Closing is an edited version of The New Master followed with an Acapella version. The theming is held well throughout, 1999: The New Master is a new take albeit short lived only for the Millennium. Prince never meddled with the track again.