This concept album illustrates common Prince themes of spirituality and human sexuality, as well as love and racism, through the fictitious story of a social movement toward a Martin Luther King Jr.-inspired utopian society.

The album seems to allude to his recent conversion to the Jehovah's Witnesses denomination, but Egyptian monotheism and New Age concepts such as the Akashic records are used as metaphors as well.

[citation needed] The Rainbow Children was released through the independent distributor Redline Entertainment.

At Prince's decision, it received minimal promotion, as he wanted to focus more on the music and avoid commercialism.

[8] The album also had a dedicated promotional website that offered the tracks "She Loves Me 4 Me" and "Mellow" as free MP3 downloads.