New Prince music is on the way _ unless his family can stop it.
"Deliverance," a six-song EP of previously unreleased songs by the late pop star, is scheduled for release Friday, exactly one year after his death from a fentanyl overdose at his Paisley Park estate in Minnesota.
The songs, including the bluesy title track, were recorded between 2006 and 2008 with producer and songwriter Ian Boxill, according to a statement.
After Prince died, Boxill continued to work on the music and arranged for its release through RMA, an independent label based in Vancouver, Wash.
"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 said in the statement. "When considering how to release this important work, we decided to go independent because that's what Prince would have wanted."
But Prince's estate _ which this year announced a deal with Universal Music Group to issue music from the singer's storied trove of recordings _ is trying to stop Boxill from putting out the EP, according to KSTP-TV in St. Paul.
Citing court documents, the station in Prince's hometown said the estate had filed a federal lawsuit against Boxill, accusing him of violating a contract that gave Prince "sole and exclusive" ownership of any music they recorded together.
