Prince [ tickets ] has quietly rolled out a new batch of Hit N'Run tour dates. As was his strategy in 2000, the enigmatic R&B star has unveiled his concert appearances just days before they are scheduled to happen.

The tour will open in Atlanta on Saturday (4/14); tickets for that show went on sale on Thursday (4/12). Eight additional shows have been confirmed through April 28, and tickets for all will go on sale on Friday (4/13) and Saturday (4/14).

The tour will feature Prince’s band NPG (including jazz artist Najee). Millennia, a female vocal quartet on Prince’s NPG label, will open. The Fonky Bald Heads, which features former NPG band members Kirk Johnson and Mike Scott, will also perform.

Earlier this month, Prince and his new NPG Music Club teamed with embattled file-swapping website Napster to promote his new song “The Work- Pt. 1,” the first track from his forthcoming album “The Rainbow Children.” The track is currently featured on Napster’s homepage, and it can be downloaded for free through the service.

"What record companies don't really understand is that Napster is just one illustration of the growing frustration over how much the record companies control what music people get 2 hear--over how the air waves, record labels and record stores, which r now all part of this system’ that recording companies have pretty much succeeded in establishing, r becoming increasingly dominated by musical products’ 2 the detriment of real music," Prince said in a statement.