Dubbed The Funk Bible by preceding press releases, and in a hidden message within the album itself, the work seemed to be a reaction to criticism that Prince had become too pop-oriented.

The title refers both to the album's all-black cover design and to Prince's attempt to earn back his credibility among the black pop audience.

He asks her what the man does for a living and learns that Bob manages Prince, whom he dismisses as "that skinny motherfucker with the high voice".

"Rockhard in a Funky Place" was originally considered for inclusion on the Camille project and then the planned Crystal Ball album.

Samples of "Bob George" would later show up on the "Dub Beats" official promo mix of Madonna's 1989 single "Like a Prayer".

[7] Days before its intended November 1987 release, Prince contacted Warner Bros. chairman Mo Ostin and requested the album's withdrawal.

Prince attributed his decision to a "spiritual epiphany" that convinced him the record represented the "anger" and "licentiousness" that the singer had to leave behind.

[8] Prince would later reference the withdrawal in the music video for the lead single from Lovesexy, "Alphabet St.", where a message quickly scrolls down the screen that reads: "Don't buy The Black Album, I'm sorry.

Robert Christgau, writing in The Village Voice, compared Prince's approach to George Clinton's "sonic wallop and communal craziness", adding that "the bassy murk never lets up, and at its weirdest [...] it's as dark as "Cosmic Slop.""

[25] The New York Times' Jon Pareles remarked that both The Black Album and Lovesexy "show a musician experimenting like mad with every musical parameter, and so prolific that he has to cut back his output so he won't be competing with himself".

In one of the few unambiguously negative appraisals, Select's Matt Hall panned the album as "the sound of someone losing step with the times", and was particularly critical of Prince's "embarrassing, bitter rant against hip hop" on "Dead on It".

He criticized "When 2 R in Love" as "nondescript" and "Dead on It" as "one of the lamest things he ever waxed", but declared that "[t]he rest of the eight-song album is brilliant, pure funk" and "a terrific little record that still delights, even after its mystique has faded".