Studio Album · No. 21
The Rainbow Children Songwriting Credits by Prince
Produced by Prince · Engineered by Hans-Martin Buff
Holds writing credit on 14 of 14 tracks
Authorship Breakdown 14 / 14 documented
Scored across the 14 tracks with documented writers, by whether Prince carries a lyricist or composer credit.
Share of the 14 tracks where a band member is credited, by role.
By the Numbers
Prince wrote, produced, arranged, and played most of the album as the sole author, using it to dramatize his recent conversion to the Jehovah's Witnesses through a dense concept narrative about a fictional social movement. The record leans heavily into jazz-fusion, with saxophonist Najee and drummer John Blackwell anchoring extended instrumental passages rather than the radio-length funk-pop of his major-label years. A pitched-down narrator voice ties the suite together. Released on his own NPG label with Redline Entertainment, it was a deliberate retreat from the mainstream toward author-controlled, message-driven music.
Released November 20, 2001, as Prince's twenty-fourth studio album, it was notably the first album released outside of the NPG Music Club to appear under the name Prince again, following years of him releasing music under the unpronounceable symbol. Prince wrote and produced all tracks, recording at Paisley Park between September 2000 and June 2001, with contributions from saxophonist Najee, drummer John Blackwell, and bassist Larry Graham on select tracks. The album is a concept record described as jazzier than any of his previous efforts, blending jazz fusion with funk across a sixty-eight-minute runtime to explore spirituality, sexuality, and racism through the fictitious story of a social movement toward a utopian society. The concept also heavily incorporated Prince's conversion to the Jehovah's Witnesses, alongside allusions to Egyptian monotheism and New Age metaphors, making it one of his most explicitly theological works. Critical response was mixed: Metacritic scored it 54/100, and commercially it was modest, selling approximately 158,000 copies domestically and an estimated 560,000 worldwide.