On Tuesday, Rogue Music Alliance, an independent music label based in Vancouver, Washington, sent out a press release announcing that a new EP from Prince was set to come out on Friday–the one-year anniversary of the Purple One’s death. However, Prince’s estate and Paisley Park Enterprises have hit the EP’s sound engineer, George Ian Boxill, with a federal lawsuit with the aim of stopping Friday’s release, according to a report from KSTP.

The lawsuit came only hours after RMA’s press release that revealed details about the six-song EP, called Deliverance. According to the press release, Deliverance includes six songs, all of which were recorded from 2006-2008, and were co-written and co-produced by Boxill. The bluesy title track was also released on Tuesday and can still be heard on iTunes, Apple Music, and Soundcloud.

The lawsuit, according to Minnesota’s KSTP, was filed in federal court after a suit filed in a district court was withdrawn in order to compensate for the fact that Boxill currently resides in California. KSTP reports that the district suit–which we can assume is almost identical to the aforementioned new federal suit–claimed that Boxill is holding a number of unreleased Prince tracks that are valued at over $75,000 and is threatening to release them. That would do irreparable damage to Prince’s business relationships and privacy as well as violate a confidentiality agreement that Boxill signed in the studio. In the suit, Prince’s estate is requesting for the recordings to be returned.

In the RMA press release, Boxill claims the decision to release Deliverance through an independent label is something that “Prince would have wanted.” “Prince once told me that he would go to bed every night thinking of ways to bypass major labels and get his music directly to the public,” Boxill is quoted as saying in the press release.

As many people have pointed out, especially the popular tech blogger and Prince superman Anil Dash, Boxill’s statement seems to be completely disingenuous when one looks at the history of Prince’s desire to not release his infamous “vault” of thousands of songs and video projects, as well as pop culture urban legends like “A Song Called Wally.”

“Prince cared very deeply about control & ownership of his recordings,” Dash tweeted in a thread. “[H]e spent decades fighting the legacy of black artists having their creative work stolen or exploited. This seems like exactly that.”

Disputes over Prince’s expansive back catalogue have come to the surface ever since the singer’s death last year. In February, as Variety reported, Universal Music Group announced that it had required the rights from Prince’s estate. However, as The Wall Street Journal reported, UMG is seeking to nullify the deal and get its money back as a number of the recordings that the company was promised in the deal still belong to Prince’s original label Warner Bros. Records, which struck a deal with the singer in 2014 after almost 20 years of estrangement.

As of this morning, Deliverance is still set to drop on Friday with a physical release set for June 2.

Austin Elias-De Jesus

Austin is an editorial intern at Law Street Media. He is a junior at The George Washington University majoring in Political Communication. You can usually find him reading somewhere. If you can’t find him reading, he’s probably taking a walk. Contact Austin at Staff@Lawstreetmedia.com.

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Even in death, details into Prince’s larger-than-life persona have been shrouded in mystery.

Prince, 57, was pronounced dead on April 21 after being found unresponsive at his Minneapolis home. An autopsy was conducted, but the coroner has withheld the results for weeks, allowing speculations to flourish. Information from anonymous sources and rumors have pointed to the flu, painkillers, and even AIDS as all being possible causes for the singer’s death.

But while we continue to wonder what caused the notoriously soft-spoken and private artist to die so suddenly, we can turn our attention to the chaos surrounding his multi-million dollar estate.

On Monday, Tyka Nelson, Prince’s sole full sister, and his half siblings headed to court for a probate hearing to begin the long and inevitably messy process of determining how to divide up his assets.

With no living parents, wife, children, or found will, Prince’s estate is up for grabs. Conflicting media reports have estimated it to be worth anywhere between $100-$500 million, and to include thousands of unreleased songs that are almost impossible to put a price tag on.

Monday’s hearing concluded with Bremer Trust, National Association being appointed the temporary special administrator of the estate. As an administrator, the bank will be tasked with valuing Prince’s image, and his monetary assets (including real estate, bank accounts, music royalties, etc.) It will also handle paying off his remaining debts, and hunting for a possible will, if there is one, as well as any unknown potential heirs.

Sadly, the biggest inheritor of the estate could end up being the government.

According to CNBC, “his estate will owe taxes on whatever the IRS and the administrators agree on as its value, and with a federal estate tax rate of 40 percent and a Minnesota tax rate of 16 percent, roughly half the estate could go to the government.” Unfortunately, with proper financial planning, Prince could have significantly reduced this tax bill.

While no one knows exactly what the outcome will end up being, this is a tragically ironic fate for the artist who was notoriously protective over his intellectual property rights and personal life.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

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