Beats" official promo mix of Madonna's 1989 single "Like a Prayer". Withdrawal The album was abandoned shortly before its intended release after Prince experienced a spiritual epiphany and became convinced it was "evil"; he later blamed the album on an entity named Spooky Electric, described as a demonic, low-voiced alter-ego induced by Camille. The decision may have been influenced by Prince's having a bad experience on MDMA. Prince recalled all copies and abandoned the entire project, leaving roughly 100 European promotional copies in circulation, and several American copies that would be widely bootlegged in the coming years. Immediately after the decision to pull The Black Album from stores, the album emerged on the streets in bootleg form, arguably becoming popular music's most legendary bootleg since the Beach Boys' aborted 1967 album Smile. In the music video for the lead single from Lovesexy, "Alphabet St.", a message quickly scrolls down the screen that reads: "Don't buy The Black Album, I'm sorry." In April 2016, an original promo copy from 1987 was sold on Discogs' marketplace for a then-record of US$15,000.00. In 2017, five copies were discovered in the United States, with one of those selling for US$42,298. In June 2018, another copy of the original album was found in Canada—this copy later sold on the Discogs marketplace for $27,500. Legal release The Black Album was finally released by Warner Bros. Records on November 22, 1994—again, containing only a track listing and the new catalog number 45793 printed onto the disc itself, and a copyright date of 1994 (with the exception of "When 2 R in Love", which was released in 1988 on Lovesexy). Although it was released in a strictly limited edition and was pulled on January 27, 1995, the album was re-released exclusively to Tidal in 2016. In the week of the album's official release, Warner ran an ad at the back of the November 26, 1994, issue of Billboard that offered owners of counterfeit copies a free copy of the legal release, provided they mail their bootleg copy to the label in exchange. This offer was given only to the first 1,000 individuals who sent in their copies. Reception Reactions to the 1987 promo release were largely positive. Several celebrities, including U2's The Edge and Bono, cited it as one of their favorite albums of 1988 in a Rolling Stone magazine poll. Robert Christgau, writing in The Village Voice,