Vinyl Reissue of self titled 1979 album. Prince began cementing his reputation as a genre-smashing iconoclast with his self-titled sophomore album, released on Oct. 19, 1979. Written, arranged, produced and performed entirely by Prince himself, the project also found him taking more obvious risks lyrically - pushing sexual boundaries as much as he did musical ones. It combined Sly Stone's rock-inflected funk, the soaring vulnerability of Earth Wind and Fire's Philip Bailey, and the flinty synth-driven attitude of new wave.