Recorded in March 2010 before the Welcome 2 America Tour, it is the first full previously unreleased studio album of Prince material to be released posthumously.

Prince brought Wilkenfeld to parties at his Los Angeles home where sometimes he and his band played and she was their lone audience member, spent a few days jamming in a local studio and drove around together in a limo listening to music.

Then Prince recorded New Power Generation singers Liv Warfield, Shelby Johnson and Elisa Fiorillo, sharing leads and harmonies with them.

[8][9][10][11][12][13] "Hot Summer" was premiered on Minnesota public radio station 89.3 The Current's website on June 7, 2010, Prince's 52nd birthday, prior to the album's intended release.

[15] "1000 Light Years from Here" was released in an alternative version with new lyrics and arrangements in 2015 on Hit n Run Phase Two as a 3:05 coda to the track "Black Muse".

[28] Writing for Rolling Stone, Kory Grow opined that Welcome 2 America contains "stronger songs and sharper messages than much of the music he [Prince] released during his final years".

[29] Jon Pareles, reviewing the album for The New York Times, wrote: "The songs take on racism, exploitation, disinformation, celebrity, faith and capitalism: '21st century, it's still about greed and fame,' Prince sings in 'Running Game (Son of a Slave Master).'

Eleven years after the album was recorded—as the 2020s have brought bitter divisiveness, blatant racism, battles over history and a digital hellscape of hyped consumption and algorithmically boosted lies—Prince doesn't sound pessimistic, just matter-of-fact.