Newly-Announced Prince EP Already Hit With Legal Trouble

The newly-announced Prince EP has already run into legal trouble just hours after its release was announced. 

According to BIllboard, the producer behind the six-song work made up of previously unreleased material, titled Deliverance, has been sued by the music legend's estate and Paisley Park for control of the tracks. 

read more: Court Rules In Favour Of Prince's Estate, 'Deliverance' EP Release Axed

The federal lawsuit against George Ian Boxill alleges that the sound engineer violated a signed agreement with the estate that all recordings would remain Prince's property and has refused to return the tracks. 

The recordings are reportedly valued at more than $US75000. 

"Mr Boxill did not comply with his agreement," Prince's estate said in a statement given to BIllboard.

"Instead, Mr Boxill maintained copies of certain tracks, waited until after Prince's tragic death, and is now attempting to release tracks without the authorization of the Estate and in violation of the agreement and applicable law."

Deliverance was intended to be released tomorrow in honour of the one year anniversary of Prince's death, via Rogue Music Alliance (RMA).

A press release reportedly issued by RMA says that Boxill and Prince co-wrote and co-produced all of the songs between 2006-2008. 

"Prince once told me that he would go to bed every night thinking of ways to bypass major labels and get his music directly to the public," Boxill is quoted as saying.

"When considering how to release this important work, we decided to go independent because that's what Prince would have wanted."

TMZ has since reported that Deliverance has been pulled from both Apple Music and iTunes following news of the lawsuit, even though it was positioned at #1 on Apple Music's pre-order chart. 

The news comes just days after search warrants released by authorities confirmed that pills were hidden throughout Prince's Paisley Park home in the days leading up to his death.