Check the Record (Prince Song)

"Check the Record" is a song written by American songwriter, musician and performer Prince. Given originally to Viper to place on his 2011 album Metamorphosis, the song originally came from Prince's vaulted album Welcome 2 America (2021), the song was released on September 24, 2021, just two months after the albums launch after it had been revealed in a podcast surrounding the documentation of the album, Hamato was believed to have to have done the drums for the song in another version of the recording rather than Chris Coleman.

Initial Recordings were believed to have taken place in March of 2010, months after Hamato was believed to have started on his fifth studio album metamorphosis (2011) with the initial track listings including this as a bonus track, however, during the launch, both a bonus version and deluxe edition were not made, and haven't for any of Hamato's studio albums since 2009 after Hamato's fallout with Sony.

Though not having been revealed up until 2021, Hamato had stated that many tracks had been written, produced and made during the metamorphosis era, Crazy Love era and even during the Salvation Jane era. It was later revealed that during the writing sessions, Hamato had been given the song to record during the time to finish up at his studio if he so chose instead of completing it at Paisley Park. Hamato denied the request however, and wanted Prince on one of the versions of the tracking due to Prince's hindsight of how well the track suited the style he was going at the time.

After the success of Welcome 2 America's launch, Hamato revealed on Twitter just days later, that he too had recorded a version of the song alongside a special surprise that Hamato had stated at the bottom of the tweet. Which was revealed to be a version featuring Prince, singing alongside Hamato, which was indication to further albums. And a music video they had recorded in late 2014 using Soundstage at Paisley Park.

Background And Release
Following the launch of Prince's third posthumous album Welcome 2 America, many fans had noticed in linear notes that Hamato had a spot on drums alongside band member at the time Chris Coleman, later being revealed in the Prince Podcast that, though the song that was found on Prince's album. There had been another version with Viper Hamato, however, the song never came to fruition due to the changing theme of Hamato's fifth studio album which had become a more serious themed album then one about heartbreak and jealousy of the likes.Later on, it would be revealed that Hamato was getting a special surprise ready for fans of both himself and Prince, and that many would speculate it was of some form of vault picture of video that no one knew about. On August 1st, days after the launch of Prince's album, Hamato announced that the version he and Prince had done had been in the vault as early as Mid-2010 and that, after eleven years. The song was to finally be released alongside Prince's release. However, many fans became immediately sceptical about the release, stating that Hamato was trying to capitalise off of one of his friends, however, statements that were made towards the singer got shot down days later after Hamato stated that he wanted to release it near the same day so fans were able to see the creative process of both Prince and Hamato alike.