Following the release of Emancipation in 1996 and Crystal Ball packaged with the acoustic album The Truth in 1998, O(+> released an album entitled Newpower Soul under the name The New Power Generation in 1998 and produced albums for Larry Graham and Chaka Khan that same year.
O(+>’s main recording engineer at his Paisley Park studios H. M. Buff recalled this era in Matt Thorne’s 2012 Prince biography: “There was a period around Newpower Soul that I thought was really good. (…) It was Linn-y, it had guitars on it, and I thought it was really well done. And it had Marva King on it. And there were a couple that came out later, like Sadomasochistic Groove, Welcome 2 The Slaughterhouse, Madrid 2 Chicago - Beautiful Strange I thought was a great song – Silicon. Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? is a really funky song. (…) Michael Bland played on Y Should Eye Do That….”
Other songs from this period that H. M. Buff recalled recording included Golden Parachute and When Eye Lay My Hands On U. “Vavoom was a little later, afterwards,” he said.
Sadomasochistic Groove which was recorded in May 1997 would later get retitled S&M Groove. A lot of these songs would end up getting released both in Prince’s 2001 NPG Music Club and on the 2004 The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse collections, so they had a history before becoming vault releases. When O(+> assembled an album entitled Beautiful Strange in 1998, it is unknown how many of them made it onto the track list. Only the title track and a cover of Twisted have been confirmed being on that album.
Twisted was originally written as an instrumental by Wardell Gray in 1949 before getting lyrics added by Scottish jazz singer Annie Ross in 1952. It was released as a single the same year and later got included on the album King Pleasure Sings/Annie Ross Sings.
O(+>: Beautiful Strange (1998)
Tracklist unknown, but includes Beautiful Strange (4:55) and a cover of Twisted
Beautiful Strange became Madrid 2 Chicago
In November 1998, O(+> recorded the songs Madrid 2 Chicago and Breathe and the Beautiful Strange album morphed into a “smooth jazz” Madrid 2 Chicago album. “Madrid 2 Chicago and Breathe were one suite,” H. M. Buff recalled in the Matt Thorne book. “There was something else I forget and Man 'O’ War. And that would be the start of the album for a while, and then we’d take some from the previous batch into it and then he would reconsider and make new sequences.”
Prince: Madrid 2 Chicago (1998)
Track list unknown, but includes Madrid 2 Chicago, Breathe and Man 'O' War
The Madrid 2 Chicago album was votable for release during Prince: A Celebration week at Paisley Park in June 2000. When it didn’t get released, the songs Madrid 2 Chicago and Breathe were released as a single in the NPG Music Club in January 2002.
When O(+> toured Europe in December 1998, he performed the new song Hypnoparadise as an instrumental. It is unknown if that song was on the Madrid 2 Chicago album. By summer 1999, that album morphed once more, becoming Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic and still including Man 'O' War. Former NPG drummer Michael Bland played on some of the tracks, including the previously mentioned Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? He also played drums on a song entitled Don’t Say No that remain unreleased, as does What Should B Souled which was considered for inclusion on the unreleased 2000 Crystal Ball II collection.
Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? is similar thematically to Undisputed so it is possible that it was replaced by Undisputed on the Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic album which got released on 9 November 1999. A few months before that, Beautiful Strange was released as the title track of a VHS home video release only available through O(+>’s 1800NewFunk.com website and his store in Minneapolis. The video featured mostly live recordings from a London show on the 1998 New Power Soul Tour.
In 2001, a Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic album became available through the NPG Music Club. It featured remixes and variant versions of Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic tracks, including a remixed version of Beautiful Strange from summer 1999.
Recording as Prince again
In May 2000, Prince made an announcement that he was discarding the symbol name and returning to “Prince”. It came as no surprise. At a New York conference he said that the O(+> name had been a means of escaping “undesirable relationships” – that is, his contract with Warner Brothers. In 1993, though, he had framed the name-change as a spiritual imperative – not legal subterfuge. Maybe it had been a bit of both?
He celebrated by recording the song CyberSingle which he released for free on his NPG Online website in June 2000. In May 2000, Prince also started work on what would become his first album recorded as Prince since 1993’s Come album. He recorded Supercute and High – the latter having Prince singing “Prince is gonna get you high,” like “My Name Is Prince part 2”.
Throughout the summer, work continued on what would become an album entitled High that was completed 8 August 2000. It included Underneath The Cream which had previously been included as a B-side on an unreleased pre-19 July 2000 The Hot Experience 12” with remixes of songs from the Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic album, as well as U Make My Sun Shine – a duet with Angie Stone featuring backing vocals by the girl group Millenia. A cover of When Will We Get Paid by The Staple Singers which Prince retitled When Will We B Paid? was also included. The song had initially been performed live by Prince when he was still called O(+>, beginning at a concert at Paisley Park the night to 6 November 1999.
The catchy new song Vavoom was initially left off the High album, though. When Eye Lay My Hands On U and Golden Parachute were said by H. M. Buff to be from the 1997/98 Newpower Soul era. The Daisy Chain and Gamillah were taken from the recent NPG: Peace album, which My Medallion possibly also was.
Prince: High (8 August 2000)
1. When Eye Lay My Hands On U
2. Supercute
3. Underneath The Cream
4. Golden Parachute
5. When Will We B Paid?
6. The Daisy Chain
7. Gamillah
8. My Medallion
9. U Make My Sun Shine
10. High
The first four tracks are very laid-back and mellow, setting the tone for the album. In the middle there’s When Will We B Paid? as the required guitar track and The Daisy Chain as the required funk track, but still with a kind of laid-back groove. Gamillah is totally mellow, while My Medallion is sort of an odd track meant to be humorous, before it’s back to mellow with U Make My Sun Shine. The album ends on a High note with a faster track, but nothing too wild. All in all, it seems like a very even experience – a lovely mellow album from a mature artist with a few throwbacks to wilder days. It’s a very pleasant listen.
All of the tracks would get released as downloads in Prince’s NPG Music Club during 2001, except U Make My Sun Shine and When Will We B Paid? which were released as a single that same year. It is unknown if the single version of U Make My Sun Shine was the High album version or an edit thereof.
Underneath The Cream would get included again as a B-Side for a new Hot Wit U 12” single sequenced on 20 October 2000 that also remains unreleased. Golden Parachute and The Daisy Chain would get released on the 2004 The Slaughterhouse collection of NPG Music Club tracks, while the rest of the High album morphed into The Chocolate Invasion in 2003 with additional NPG Music Club tracks.
Tracks switching from NPG to Prince
While working on the High album, Prince streamed a rehearsal recording with The NPG, Good Life recorded 15 July 2000, on NPG Online beginning 21 July. When accepting a Yahoo! Internet Life Award on 24 July 2000, Prince had made a short award acceptance song, Thank U Just The Same, based on My Medallion from High. And on 26 September 2000, the NPG: Peace track 2045: Radical Man was released but credited to Prince on the soundtrack for the movie Bamboozled.
Bamboozled – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (26 September 2000)
2045: Radical Man (6:37)
Meanwhile, Prince kept busy recording new songs, like Sex Me Sex Me Not and Judas Kiss. The latter, which would get retitled Judas Smile in October 2001, was possibly intended for the NPG: Peace album with Prince sending “peace” to other artists, including Common and Erykah Badu who also appear on the Bamboozled soundtrack. The lyrics mention “bamboozled” a lot and the song might have been inspired by the movie. But Judas Kiss also mention “the chocolate invasion” in the lyrics and would end up credited to Prince on The Chocolate Invasion compilation that the High album morphed into.
1, 2 (The Future) of which an excerpt was played in the NPG Music Club Ahdio Show #2 edition in March 2001 was probably also recorded in autumn 2000, but not necessarily for any of the albums Prince was working on at the time. He also co-wrote the track Rowdy Mac for The Fonky Bald Heads of which an edit was included in the same Ahdio Show as 1, 2 (The Future). Rowdy Mac got released on the summer 2001 self-titled Fonky Bald Heads album.
Larry Graham recorded Bada Boom – a cover of the 1995 O(+> song PoomPoom that was released on the Crystal Ball collection in 1998. So, when Prince made an NPG2000 album at this time, it is unknown if it was the NPG: Peace album that had evolved into that, or if it was the NPG Records Sampler cassette featuring various artists in the vein of the 1994 1-800-NEW-FUNK album that laid the groundwork for it.
NPG2000 (2000)
Unknown if NPG album or 1-800 NEW FUNK style compilation
Launching the NPG Music Club
Prince decided that rather than trying to reclaim commercial success, he would rather cater to loyal fans and completely sidestep the machinery of major labels. He understood that his previous attempt at a fully independent distribution model, the problem-fraught Crystal Ball, had left many supporters and industry observers doubtful that such an endeavor was feasible. But he had a new plan. The Internet, Prince believed, would allow him to eliminate the logistical snafus that plagued Crystal Ball and provide music to fans in the simplest, most direct possible way: With a few clicks of a computer mouse and the inputting of a credit card number they could download songs. Even better, the lead time between his creation of music and its delivery to consumers would be reduced to practically zero.
Thus was born the New Power Generation Music Club (NPGMC). The very first version of the NPG Music Club launched on February 14, 2001. The Club first took the form of a downloadable player that would act as download manager as well as media player. The fans would install the player on their harddrives, and then by joining the NPG Music Club they would their get monthly downloads through the player. For an annual fee of $100, members would be given access to new songs each month. Downloads included an hour long Ahdio Show which was essentially a podcast and 3 to 4 new Prince songs, often with accompanying videos. However, the downloadable player version of the NPG Music Club was short-lived as it was decided that a web-based approach would work better for Prince’s audience. With an estimated membership of between 5,000 and 50,000, it is likely the NPGMC was quite profitable for Prince, given the low overhead and high profit margins.
Digital releases from the vault
The first postings in the NPG Music Club included tracks previously slated for High and NPG: Peace along with various pieces that hadn’t been slated for any particular project. Naturally, Prince had recorded an NPGMC Commercial lasting four minutes that could be downloaded with the launch of the club in February 2001. Also available as downloads were When Eye Lay My Hands On U from High and Peace from NPG: Peace. The radio show/Ahdio Show podcast featuring lots of talking between the music included short previews of High, My Medallion and Golden Parachute from the High album. All three songs would be released as downloads with later shows.
Several older Vault tracks were also shared though. The 1985/86 Prince And The Revolution track Splash that was considered for both Crystal Ball and Roadhouse Garden was available as a download along with the 1993/94 Gold era outtakes Mad and Funky Design. The Ahdio Show included excerpts of a couple of remixes - Love Sign (Ted’s Funky Chariot Mix) from 1994 and a 1993 Carmen Electra: Go On (Witcha Bad Self) dub remix. There was also a longer play of Madhouse: Seventeen (the cover of Kamasutra/Overture #8) than on the 2000 NPG Records sampler cassette, as well as a Days Of Wild Guitar Jam recorded at Paisley Park on 23 October 1999.
NPG Ahdio Show #1 downloads (18 February 2001)
When Eye Lay My Hands On U (3:40)
NPGMC Commercial (4:01)
Mad (5:33)
Funky Design (3:47)
Splash (3:57)
Peace (5:32)
The second NPG Ahdio Show edition was accompanied by four 1995 Gold era live performances, as well as a video for The Daisy Chain that had been on both NPG: Peace and High. The Ahdio Show itself included Silicon which H. M. Buff mentioned as being from the 1997/98 Newpower Soul era. The song would get released as a download with Ahdio Show #10.
NPG Ahdio Show #2 downloads (22 March 2001)
We March (Live at Paisley Park 22 October 1995) (3:29)
Vicki Waiting (Live at Paisley Park 22 October 1995) (3:51)
Letitgo (Live at Paisley Park 22 October 1995) (3:45)
Return Of The Bump Squad (Live at Paisley Park 23 October 1995) (4:04)
Rare singles from High and Peace
In many respects, Prince seemed to be succeeding at using the Internet to establish a direct connection with consumers. Perhaps, as he had been arguing for years, major labels would soon become unnecessary. But he was catering to his followers and not attracting a wider audience. The club received little attention from the general public and mainstream media. Maybe that’s why Prince decided on also releasing a handful of singles in April 2001 – to reach a wider audience? But only the first one, U Make My Sun Shine, was released with wide distribution. The rest only saw limited distribution – they were only sold at concerts and remain rare collectors’ items.
The single that was distributed widely was U Make My Sun Shine b/w When Will We B Paid? from the High album. The single version of U make My Sun Shine was revealed to be an edit when the full version got included on the 2004 The Chocolate Invasion collection.
Prince & Angie Stone: U Make My Sun Shine CD-single (10 April 2001)
1. U Make My Sun Shine (5:55)
2. When Will We B Paid? (4:07) – by Randall Stewart
Supercute and Underneath The Cream from the High album were also released as a single but with limited distribution.
Prince: Supercute CD-single (April 2001)
1. Supercute (4:19)
2. Underneath The Cream (4:02)
Two singles off the NPG: Peace album were also released with limited distribution. The Peace title track was backed with 2045: Radical Man which had been released on the Bamboozled soundtrack as a Prince track. Now it was an NPG track again.
The New Power Generation: Peace CD-single (April 2001)
1. Peace (5:32)
2. 2045: Radical Man (6:37)
New Power Generation: The Daisy Chain CD-single (April 2001)
1.The Daisy Chain (6:11)
2. Gamillah (3:10)
Although The Daisy Chain and Gamillah had been included on the High album, they were originally on the NPG: Peace album and were now credited to The New Power Generation again. The video for The Daisy Chain can be watched on YouTube right here:
The Daisy Chain was also released as a download with NPG Ahdio Show #3 in April 2001, along with Northside from the NPG: Peace album, a cover of Habibi by Jimi Hendrix and The Work Part 1 from the upcoming Rainbow Children album.
NPG Ahdio Show #3 downloads (22 April 2001)
The New Power Generation: The Daisy Chain (6:11)
The New Power Generation: Northside (6:31)
Habibi – a Jimi Hendrix tribute (4:58)
The Work Part 1 (3:36)
The show itself included an edit of Sex Me Sex Me Not. The full version would get released as a download with Ahdio Show #5. Two unreleased tracks from the vault were also included in the third show, an instrumental version of Superfunkycalifragisexy from the legendary 1987 Black Album and The Time: Murph Drag from their unreleased 1989 album Corporate World. And there was an excerpt of America as performed in San Francisco 23 May 1986.
The Peace and High songs kept coming
When the recordings for NPG: Peace were made in February 2000, they included the track Props N’ Pounds. It is unknown if it got included on the album, though, as it includes Kurt Loder from MTV commenting on the talents of Prince, not The NPG. But it got included in NPG Ahdio Show #4 in May 2001, although with the host of the Ahdio Show presenting the content of that month’s edition in the middle of the song. An updated version with less commentating on Prince’s talents and more singing was released as a download along with the Ahdio Show. The new version would get included on the 2004 The Slaughterhouse collection.
The full version of Rosie Gaines: Hit U In The Socket from the 2000 NPG Records sampler cassette was also released as a download, and to separate it from earlier versions of the song which would get released later, it was nicknamed NPGMC Remix.
NPG Ahdio Show #4 downloads (15 May 2001)
Props N’ Pounds (4:35)
Rosie Gaines: Hit U In The Socket (4:06)
The Ahdio Show included mostly live tracks from the vault this time around. From the 31 August 1986 Parade show in Hamburg, Germany, there was Christopher Tracy’s Parade, New Position, I Wonder U, Raspberry Beret, Delirious, Controversy and A Love Bizarre. The live version of Strange Relationship was from 1st Avenue, 21 March 1987. From New York, 25 March 1993, there was Damn U, The Max and Johnny which may have been from an unreleased 1993 live album. Get Wild was from The White Room in London, 5 April 1995. “Shit” had escaped censorship in A Love Bizarre, Get Wild and Johnny, but “fucking movie” was garbled up in Strange Relationship and “shit” was garbled up in Deuce & A Quarter.
When Prince assembled the High album, the Vavoom song from those recording sessions was left out. It now became the B-side of a High single. Two versions were made of the High single, a 2-track CD-single containing an edit of Vavoom and a 3-track CD-single with the full version.
Prince: High CD-single (2001)
1. High (5:05)
2. Vavoom (Edit) (4:07)
Prince: High CD-single (2001)
1. High (Edit)
2. Vavoom (4:35)
3. U Make My Sun Shine (Edit)
The edit of Vavoom would get released as a download with Ahdio Show #9 while the full version would get released on the 2004 The Chocolate Invasion collection. The track time for the High edit remains unknown, as does the fact if the edit of U Make My Sun Shine is the same as on its previous single release because these High singles were never released. They were kept at Paisley Park where some copies escaped into the hands of lucky guests at the annual Celebration events in June. Now they’re worth a small fortune.
Songs for The Slaughterhouse
For NPG Ahdio Show #5 in June 2001, Supercute, which had been released as a single, was released as a download along with Sex Me Sex Me Not which was recorded after the Peace and High albums had been assembled. Both Supercute and an extended version of Sex Me Sex Me Not got included on the 2003 The Chocolate Invasion compilation. Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? came from the 1999 Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic sessions and would get included on the 2004 The Slaughterhouse collection.
More High tracks released
With Ahdio Show #7, there were downloads for both The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse. Judas Smile was recorded after the High album was assembled but got included when it got remade as The Chocolate Invasion in 2003. Horny Pony had previously been released as the B-side to Cream in 1991. The NPG: Get Wild (Miami Mix) was probably made in 1994. Golden Parachute was from the High album but would end up on The Slaughterhouse in 2004.
NPG Ahdio Show #7 downloads (28 August 2001)
Judas Smile (6:39)
Horny Pony
Get Wild (Miami Mix) (5:42)
Golden Parachute (5:35)
The High album title track was included in the actual Ahdio Show. It would get released as a download with Ahdio Show #10. Otherwise, the show just included three live tracks from Prince’s vault of unreleased material: Automatic, DMSR and The Dance Electric from Los Angeles, 30 May 1986.
With the next edition of NPG Ahdio Show, #8, fans finally got My Medallion from High following the preview in the first show. They also got a 1988 rehearsal version of the unreleased 1986 Camille track Rebirth Of The Flesh, a previously released remix from the 1990 Thieves In The Temple single and Contest Song, which was supposedly a O(+> composition now credited to The NPG.
NPG Ahdio Show #8 downloads (18 September 2001)
Thieves In The Temple (Remix)
Rebirth Of The Flesh (Rehearsal ’88)
My Medallion (5:07)
The NPG: Contest Song (3:34)
The September Ahdio show didn’t contain any unreleased Vault material but included Pearls B4 The Swine from the forthcoming One Nite Alone piano album. Coming in the wake of 9/11 and the fall of the Twin Towers in New York, it was a special episode dedicated to spiritually themed songs from Prince/O(+>’s back catalogue. It was put together by artist and creative director Sam Jennings who worked for Prince for nine years, developing his online business, the NPG Music Club, as well as designing the packages of several Prince albums, including Musicology and 3121.
Working on the NPG Music Club
On 18 September 2016, Sam Jennings wrote on Facebook about his experience working with Prince on the NPG Music Club and how he got involved with the making of The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse – the two compilations that would collect tracks released through the club: “Prince and I were just about halfway through the first year of the NPG Music Club in September 2001. During this first year, the Club delivered regular monthly downloads of previously unreleased Prince music and videos. Included in each month's edition was about an hour-long podcast that Prince would record from Paisley Park, except nobody called them podcasts back then, we simply called it an ‘Ahdio’ show.”
“In these Ahdio shows, Prince almost never spoke as himself, instead choosing to use distortion on his voice to create more of a character that would speak between the songs he chose to play. He did little skits or got band members like Morris Hayes to join in and contribute. It was great fun and a big part of what we had to offer each month.”
“By the time of our eighth edition of downloads in September, Prince asked me if I would like to put together the Ahdio show this time. I jumped at the chance and told him I would come up with some possibilities we could discuss. (…) I was honored to contribute to the Club in a meaningful way, beyond my other duties keeping it running smoothly. Prince was so pleased with the end result and the reaction that he asked me to be an Executive Producer on the Chocolate Invasion and Slaughterhouse CDs.”
The final High tracks released
The next NPG Ahdio Show was released in November 2001 following the release of the Rainbow Children album in October and was accompanied by two rounds of downloads. Up first, members got the single edit of Vavoom and Supercute from the recent limited single release. Supercute would get included on The Chocolate Invasion, as would the full version of Vavoom. The next round of downloads was live tracks – Live 4 Love from Sydney in 1992, The Undertaker from the 1995 VHS home video release The Undertaker, and the new track We Gon’ Make It Funky as performed with Maceo Parker at Paisley Park 13 June 2001.
NPG Ahdio Show #9 downloads (15 November 2001)
Vavoom (4:05)
Underneath The Cream (4:02)
NPG Ahdio Show #9 downloads (20 November 2001)
Live 4 Love (Live in Sydney 1992) (6:52)
The Undertaker (Live) (9:45)
We Gon’ Make It Funky (feat. Maceo Parker) (Live at Paisley Park 13 June 2001) (4:47)
The Ahdio Show also included a couple of new tracks, the song Jukebox With A Heartbeat which remains unreleased and a rehearsal excerpt of Prince and The New Power Generation jamming on the song Northside that was released with Ahdio Show #3. There were also live versions of Let’s Go Crazy, Kiss, Irresistible Bitch, She’s Always In My Hair, When You Were Mine, Insatiable and Scandalous from New York, 25 March 1993, and possibly lifted from an unreleased 1993 live album. But now, they were censored with the word “shit” garbled electronically on Kiss and Irresistible Bitch.
The tenth edition of NPG Ahdio Show also came with two rounds of downloads. First up came the final tracks from the High album, Gamillah and High which would carry over to The Chocolate Invasion. Fans also finally got Silicon which had been previewed in the second Ahdio Show. It would become the opening track on the 2004 The Slaughterhouse collection. A few days later, a couple of live tracks followed, Poorgoo from the 1995 The Undertaker VHS home video and Gett Off from San Francisco, 3 December 2000.
NPG Ahdio Show #10 downloads (15 December 2001)
Silicon (4:47)
High (5:05)
Gamillah (3:10)
NPG Ahdio Show #10 downloads (19 December 2001)
Poorgoo (Live) (4:38)
Gett Off (Live in San Francisco 3 December 2000) (3:03)
The end of the NPG Ahdio shows
NPG Ahdio Show #10 consisted of a DJ set with all previously released but now censored tracks from Prince’s back catalogue, including "bitch" now being garbled up in My Medallion. Also, from less and less talking between tracks till now no talking at all indicated that Prince was losing interest in making the shows. The next one did also become the last. It was another DJ set, but it did include a still unreleased remix of Hot With U from the 1999 Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic album and live versions of The Question Of U, Groove On/The Undertaker and a cover of the 1957 Jerry Lee Lewis song Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On from an unknown, but probably then recent date.
The final Ahdio show was accompanied by two rounds of downloads. First up was the previously mentioned Madrid 2 Chicago and Breathe single and four tracks from the forthcoming One Nite Alone piano album that would get released in full later that year. The second round had an edit of the 1986 Anotherloverholenyohead music video and a live performance of Face Down from the Chris Rock Show in February 1997 which was just a playback performance to Face Down from the NYC Live 1/11/97 cassette released that year.
NPG Ahdio Show #11 downloads (17 January 2002)
Madrid 2 Chicago (3:14)
Breathe (2:01)
One Nite Alone…
U’re Gonna C Me
Here On Earth
A Case Of U
NPG Ahdio Show #11 downloads (30 January 2002)
Anotherloverholenyohead (Live) (3:00) – edit of 1986 video
Face Down (per4mance) (3:08) – from The Chris Rock Show, February 1997
High becomes The Chocolate Invasion
With the end of the NPG Ahdio Shows, Prince conceived the notion of making CD collections of tracks released through the NPG Music Club and those became The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse compilations. Sam Jennings told Funkatopia in March 2023: “Prince had the idea to release a compilation of music from the music club and he let me kind of run that project. I put together the list of songs I thought it should be and I put together the order that it should go in. I worked with the engineer to sequence the CD and he gave me an executive producer credit for it which is pretty cool. You know, piecing the songs together – just kinda figuring out which song would go good with another one, what song should open it and what song should close it - those kinds of things were all definitely what I was thinking of. (…) The idea was to release it as a CD but that didn’t happen, so we just released it as a downloadable group of material.”
The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse were assembled in the autumn of 2003 with The Chocolate Invasion being a new configuration of the High album. It derived its new title from the lyrics of the two newly added tracks, Judas Smile and an extended version of Sex Me? Sex Me Not which both mention “the chocolate invasion”, the latter in a rap added in the middle of the song. In Judas Smile Prince sends a lot of “peace” to other artists, so it might have been moved to The Chocolate Invasion from the NPG: Peace album from which The Slaughterhouse album developed because of “the chocolate invasion” lyric. Certainly, two High tracks migrated to the The Slaughterhouse album, Golden Parachute and The Daisy Chain, which left room for the addition of Judas Smile and Sex Me? Sex Me Not on The Chocolate Invasion.
The High single B-side Vavoom was brought in to replace Prince’s cover of When Will We B Paid? which was released on the U Make My Sun Shine single, so the album was now all original Prince compositions. And with the addition of the three tracks Judas Smile, Vavoom and Sex Me? Sex Me Not, the album was now much livelier than the previous mellow High configuration. Also, U Make My Sun Shine was a much better choice to close the album than High, just like Adore on the 1987 album Sign O’ The Times.
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Prince: The Chocolate Invasion (2003 – released digitally in 2015)
1. When Eye Lay My Hands On U (3:40)
2. Judas Smile (6:33)
3. Supercute (4:13)
4. Underneath The Cream (3:59)
5. My Medallion (5:07)
6. Vavoom (4:35)
7. High (5:05)
8. Sex me? Sex Me Not (5:40)
9. Gamillah (3:09)
10. U Make My Sun Shine (Feat. Angie Stone) (7:05)
Gamillah which had been first on NPG: Peace, then on High and then a B-side to an NPG single was now back on this reworked High configuration. Except for U Make My Sun Shine which was released as a single, all of the tracks had been released as downloads in the NPG Music Club in 2001, but Vavoom only as an edit. Also, Supercute now differed slightly from the previously released single version by segueing from Judas Smile and the latter had an additional synth hit just before the words "pinnochio mentality" that censored the word “nigga”. Sex Me? Sex Me Not was now extended, and U Make My Sun Shine was also longer than the previously released single version – no one knew that had been an edit, so there were some surprises for fans on the collection, making it worthwhile even if one had been a member of the NPG Music Club.
From 7-CD set to downloads from online store
The Chocolate Invasion was originally intended as a 7-CD set by Prince announced in the NPG Music Club on 15 October 2003. The seven discs included in the set were promoted as The Chocolate Invasion: NPGMC Trax Vol. 1, The Slaughterhouse: NPGMC Trax Vol. 2, C-Note - all compilation albums of mostly previously-released NPG Music Club tracks, One Nite Alone… and The War which were both previously released, Xpectation which had previously been available as a download and The Glam Slam Club Mix previously included as the main content in NPG Ahdio Show #11. The set was announced with a flash file containing a clip of the track Judas Smile from which the set’s name was taken. The packaging was shown as a round pleather CD carrying case with The Chocolate Invasion embossed on the front. No release date was given.
On 13 November 2003, the NPG Music Club announced: "The Chocolate Invasion is put on hold 4 now, indefinitely. There was a problem with the manufacturing and until the bug is worked out, we'd rather not have u wondering when ur home would b invaded. As soon as we have any new info 2 report, u will b notified immediately. The members of the NPGMC deserve the best, thank u 4 ur patience."
The website streamed the previously unreleased track What Do U Want Me 2 Do? from the upcoming album Musicology as "a little something 2 chill 2" at the same time as the announcement to make up for the delay. The project was never officially cancelled, although all of the previously unreleased compilations, except The Glam Slam Club Mix, were instead released for download when the NPG Music Club Musicology Download Store opened on 29 March 2004.
Release of The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse
Before The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse were made available as downloads in the NPG Music Club Musicology Download Store in 2004, a couple of changes were made to The Chocolate Invasion. My Medallion was left out - possibly because of the previously censored word “bitch” - to make room for a new version of the 1989 Batman era song The Dance which had also been reworked in 1991. The track list was rearranged with The Dance being placed where Sex Me Sex Me Not had been and then Sex Me Sex Me Not taking the place where My Medallion had been. With The Dance not having been released before, it offered an incentive for members of the NPG Music Club to buy the collection too.
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Prince: The Chocolate Invasion download (2004)
1. When Eye Lay My Hands On U (3:40)
2. Judas Smile (6:33)
3. Supercute (4:11)
4. Underneath The Cream (4:00)
5. Sex Me? Sex Me Not (5:41)
6. Vavoom (4:35)
7. High (5:04)
8. The Dance (4:41)
9. Gamillah (3:07)
10. U Make My Sun Shine (Feat. Angie Stone) (7:04)
At 45 years old, the Chocolate Invasion would be Prince’s last sexually preoccupied album. The Slaughterhouse featured songs with darker subject matter than The Chocolate Invasion. Debi McGuan did the cover illustrations for both The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse. The concept was ten songs on both collections, leaving out Jukebox With A Heartbeat but granted, that wasn’t released as a download separate from the Ahdio Shows in the NPG Music Club and it has yet to see an official release.
Prince: The Slaughter House download (2004)
1. Silicon (4:14)
2. S&M Groove (5:07)
3. Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? (4:30)
4. Golden Parachute (5:35)
5. Hypnoparadise (6:02)
6. Props N’ Pounds (4:35)
7. Northside (6:31)
8. Peace (5:32)
9. 2045: Radical Man (6:35)
10. The Daisy Chain (6:13)
All of the songs on The Slaughterhouse had been released as downloads in the NPG Music Club, except for 2045: Radical Man which had been released on the Bamboozled soundtrack. Silicon had now been edited about 30 seconds shorter, while Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? had an additional synth hit at 1:10 just after the sentence "u'll never know" to censor the word “nigga”.
The last four tracks Northside, Peace, 2045: Radical Man and The Daisy Chain had previously been released credited to The New Power Generation, leading many to believe that just as High became The Chocolate Invasion, The Slaughterhouse was a reworking of the NPG: Peace album. With both Silicon and S&M Groove being from the 1998 NPG: Newpower Soul era, it is quite possible they might have been included on NPG: Peace in 2000. Hypnoparadise and Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? also preceded the Peace album and so could theoretically have been included on it. Props N’ Pounds came from the NPG: Peace sessions, so it may also have been on that album. Golden Parachute came from High, as did The Daisy Chain originally.
In November 1998, O(+> recorded the songs Madrid 2 Chicago and Breathe and the Beautiful Strange album morphed into a “smooth jazz” Madrid 2 Chicago album. “Madrid 2 Chicago and Breathe were one suite,” H. M. Buff recalled in the Matt Thorne book. “There was something else I forget and Man 'O’ War. And that would be the start of the album for a while, and then we’d take some from the previous batch into it and then he would reconsider and make new sequences.”
Prince: Madrid 2 Chicago (1998)
Track list unknown, but includes Madrid 2 Chicago, Breathe and Man 'O' War
The Madrid 2 Chicago album was votable for release during Prince: A Celebration week at Paisley Park in June 2000. When it didn’t get released, the songs Madrid 2 Chicago and Breathe were released as a single in the NPG Music Club in January 2002.
When O(+> toured Europe in December 1998, he performed the new song Hypnoparadise as an instrumental. It is unknown if that song was on the Madrid 2 Chicago album. By summer 1999, that album morphed once more, becoming Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic and still including Man 'O' War. Former NPG drummer Michael Bland played on some of the tracks, including the previously mentioned Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? He also played drums on a song entitled Don’t Say No that remain unreleased, as does What Should B Souled which was considered for inclusion on the unreleased 2000 Crystal Ball II collection.
Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? is similar thematically to Undisputed so it is possible that it was replaced by Undisputed on the Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic album which got released on 9 November 1999. A few months before that, Beautiful Strange was released as the title track of a VHS home video release only available through O(+>’s 1800NewFunk.com website and his store in Minneapolis. The video featured mostly live recordings from a London show on the 1998 New Power Soul Tour.
In 2001, a Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic album became available through the NPG Music Club. It featured remixes and variant versions of Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic tracks, including a remixed version of Beautiful Strange from summer 1999.
Recording as The New Power Generation again
O(+> began the new millennium by starting work on a new New Power Generation album in February 2000. As on the previous New Power Generation album, 1998’s Newpower Soul, O(+> performed the lead vocals himself. On the new song Peace, he made fun of being called The Artist Formerly Known As Prince at the end of the song, so the decision to call himself Prince again had probably been made at this time. Also, on the Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic album, “Prince” received a co-credit – possible because the title track originated in 1988 when he was called Prince, but it helped ease the name back into the public perception of him.
Other NPG tracks recorded at the time included The Daisy Chain, Northside, Props N’ Pounds, 2045 Radical Man and My Medallion.
O(+> made a sampler cassette featuring tracks by himself and songs he had recorded with other artists. It included samples of Peace and 2045: Radical Man credited to The New Power Generation. The Remix of Man ‘O’ War from Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic would get released on the Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic album.
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O(+>: Man O War (Remix) NPG Records Sampler cassette (2000)
Man O War (Remix) (5:11)
The New Power Generation: Peace (Edit) (1:31)*
The New Power Generation: 2045: Radical Man (Edit) (2:18)*
Rosie Gaines: Hit U In The Socket (Excerpt) (1:18)
Rosie Gaines: Trouble (Never Give Up) (Excerpt) (1:15)
Madhouse: Seventeen (Excerpt) (1:27)* - cover of Kamasutra/Overture #8
Madhouse: Eighteen (Excerpt) (1:49)* - cover of Promise/Broken
Chaka Khan: Come 2 My House (Edit) (1:49)*
Larry Graham: Do U Wanna Get Funky (Excerpt) (1:34)**
The full versions of the two Rosie Gaines tracks would get released later, Hit U In The Socket – a new remix of a 1991 recording - in the NPG Music Club and Trouble (Never Give Up) from 1992 by herself as T.R.O.U.B.L.E. on iTunes. The two Madhouse excerpts originated in 1995 where the full tracks had been included on an unreleased Madhouse: 24 album as Overture #5 and Overture #6. And they were covers of the 1994 NPG Orchestra: Kamasutra tracks Kamasutra/Overture #8 and Promise/Broken released in 1997.
The Chaka Khan track had been released in full in 1998, and the Larry Graham track was an excerpt of an outtake from his 1998 album.
After recording the track Gamillah in May 2000, the NPG album entitled Peace was assembled.
The New Power Generation: Peace (2000)
Track list unknown but includes Peace, 2045: Radical Man, Northside, The Daisy Chain, Gamillah
O(+> began the new millennium by starting work on a new New Power Generation album in February 2000. As on the previous New Power Generation album, 1998’s Newpower Soul, O(+> performed the lead vocals himself. On the new song Peace, he made fun of being called The Artist Formerly Known As Prince at the end of the song, so the decision to call himself Prince again had probably been made at this time. Also, on the Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic album, “Prince” received a co-credit – possible because the title track originated in 1988 when he was called Prince, but it helped ease the name back into the public perception of him.
Other NPG tracks recorded at the time included The Daisy Chain, Northside, Props N’ Pounds, 2045 Radical Man and My Medallion.
O(+> made a sampler cassette featuring tracks by himself and songs he had recorded with other artists. It included samples of Peace and 2045: Radical Man credited to The New Power Generation. The Remix of Man ‘O’ War from Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic would get released on the Rave In2 The Joy Fantastic album.
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O(+>: Man O War (Remix) NPG Records Sampler cassette (2000)
Man O War (Remix) (5:11)
The New Power Generation: Peace (Edit) (1:31)*
The New Power Generation: 2045: Radical Man (Edit) (2:18)*
Rosie Gaines: Hit U In The Socket (Excerpt) (1:18)
Rosie Gaines: Trouble (Never Give Up) (Excerpt) (1:15)
Madhouse: Seventeen (Excerpt) (1:27)* - cover of Kamasutra/Overture #8
Madhouse: Eighteen (Excerpt) (1:49)* - cover of Promise/Broken
Chaka Khan: Come 2 My House (Edit) (1:49)*
Larry Graham: Do U Wanna Get Funky (Excerpt) (1:34)**
The full versions of the two Rosie Gaines tracks would get released later, Hit U In The Socket – a new remix of a 1991 recording - in the NPG Music Club and Trouble (Never Give Up) from 1992 by herself as T.R.O.U.B.L.E. on iTunes. The two Madhouse excerpts originated in 1995 where the full tracks had been included on an unreleased Madhouse: 24 album as Overture #5 and Overture #6. And they were covers of the 1994 NPG Orchestra: Kamasutra tracks Kamasutra/Overture #8 and Promise/Broken released in 1997.
The Chaka Khan track had been released in full in 1998, and the Larry Graham track was an excerpt of an outtake from his 1998 album.
After recording the track Gamillah in May 2000, the NPG album entitled Peace was assembled.
The New Power Generation: Peace (2000)
Track list unknown but includes Peace, 2045: Radical Man, Northside, The Daisy Chain, Gamillah
Recording as Prince again
In May 2000, Prince made an announcement that he was discarding the symbol name and returning to “Prince”. It came as no surprise. At a New York conference he said that the O(+> name had been a means of escaping “undesirable relationships” – that is, his contract with Warner Brothers. In 1993, though, he had framed the name-change as a spiritual imperative – not legal subterfuge. Maybe it had been a bit of both?
He celebrated by recording the song CyberSingle which he released for free on his NPG Online website in June 2000. In May 2000, Prince also started work on what would become his first album recorded as Prince since 1993’s Come album. He recorded Supercute and High – the latter having Prince singing “Prince is gonna get you high,” like “My Name Is Prince part 2”.
Throughout the summer, work continued on what would become an album entitled High that was completed 8 August 2000. It included Underneath The Cream which had previously been included as a B-side on an unreleased pre-19 July 2000 The Hot Experience 12” with remixes of songs from the Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic album, as well as U Make My Sun Shine – a duet with Angie Stone featuring backing vocals by the girl group Millenia. A cover of When Will We Get Paid by The Staple Singers which Prince retitled When Will We B Paid? was also included. The song had initially been performed live by Prince when he was still called O(+>, beginning at a concert at Paisley Park the night to 6 November 1999.
The catchy new song Vavoom was initially left off the High album, though. When Eye Lay My Hands On U and Golden Parachute were said by H. M. Buff to be from the 1997/98 Newpower Soul era. The Daisy Chain and Gamillah were taken from the recent NPG: Peace album, which My Medallion possibly also was.
Prince: High (8 August 2000)
1. When Eye Lay My Hands On U
2. Supercute
3. Underneath The Cream
4. Golden Parachute
5. When Will We B Paid?
6. The Daisy Chain
7. Gamillah
8. My Medallion
9. U Make My Sun Shine
10. High
The first four tracks are very laid-back and mellow, setting the tone for the album. In the middle there’s When Will We B Paid? as the required guitar track and The Daisy Chain as the required funk track, but still with a kind of laid-back groove. Gamillah is totally mellow, while My Medallion is sort of an odd track meant to be humorous, before it’s back to mellow with U Make My Sun Shine. The album ends on a High note with a faster track, but nothing too wild. All in all, it seems like a very even experience – a lovely mellow album from a mature artist with a few throwbacks to wilder days. It’s a very pleasant listen.
All of the tracks would get released as downloads in Prince’s NPG Music Club during 2001, except U Make My Sun Shine and When Will We B Paid? which were released as a single that same year. It is unknown if the single version of U Make My Sun Shine was the High album version or an edit thereof.
Underneath The Cream would get included again as a B-Side for a new Hot Wit U 12” single sequenced on 20 October 2000 that also remains unreleased. Golden Parachute and The Daisy Chain would get released on the 2004 The Slaughterhouse collection of NPG Music Club tracks, while the rest of the High album morphed into The Chocolate Invasion in 2003 with additional NPG Music Club tracks.
Tracks switching from NPG to Prince
While working on the High album, Prince streamed a rehearsal recording with The NPG, Good Life recorded 15 July 2000, on NPG Online beginning 21 July. When accepting a Yahoo! Internet Life Award on 24 July 2000, Prince had made a short award acceptance song, Thank U Just The Same, based on My Medallion from High. And on 26 September 2000, the NPG: Peace track 2045: Radical Man was released but credited to Prince on the soundtrack for the movie Bamboozled.
Bamboozled – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (26 September 2000)
2045: Radical Man (6:37)
Meanwhile, Prince kept busy recording new songs, like Sex Me Sex Me Not and Judas Kiss. The latter, which would get retitled Judas Smile in October 2001, was possibly intended for the NPG: Peace album with Prince sending “peace” to other artists, including Common and Erykah Badu who also appear on the Bamboozled soundtrack. The lyrics mention “bamboozled” a lot and the song might have been inspired by the movie. But Judas Kiss also mention “the chocolate invasion” in the lyrics and would end up credited to Prince on The Chocolate Invasion compilation that the High album morphed into.
1, 2 (The Future) of which an excerpt was played in the NPG Music Club Ahdio Show #2 edition in March 2001 was probably also recorded in autumn 2000, but not necessarily for any of the albums Prince was working on at the time. He also co-wrote the track Rowdy Mac for The Fonky Bald Heads of which an edit was included in the same Ahdio Show as 1, 2 (The Future). Rowdy Mac got released on the summer 2001 self-titled Fonky Bald Heads album.
Larry Graham recorded Bada Boom – a cover of the 1995 O(+> song PoomPoom that was released on the Crystal Ball collection in 1998. So, when Prince made an NPG2000 album at this time, it is unknown if it was the NPG: Peace album that had evolved into that, or if it was the NPG Records Sampler cassette featuring various artists in the vein of the 1994 1-800-NEW-FUNK album that laid the groundwork for it.
NPG2000 (2000)
Unknown if NPG album or 1-800 NEW FUNK style compilation
Launching the NPG Music Club
Prince decided that rather than trying to reclaim commercial success, he would rather cater to loyal fans and completely sidestep the machinery of major labels. He understood that his previous attempt at a fully independent distribution model, the problem-fraught Crystal Ball, had left many supporters and industry observers doubtful that such an endeavor was feasible. But he had a new plan. The Internet, Prince believed, would allow him to eliminate the logistical snafus that plagued Crystal Ball and provide music to fans in the simplest, most direct possible way: With a few clicks of a computer mouse and the inputting of a credit card number they could download songs. Even better, the lead time between his creation of music and its delivery to consumers would be reduced to practically zero.
Thus was born the New Power Generation Music Club (NPGMC). The very first version of the NPG Music Club launched on February 14, 2001. The Club first took the form of a downloadable player that would act as download manager as well as media player. The fans would install the player on their harddrives, and then by joining the NPG Music Club they would their get monthly downloads through the player. For an annual fee of $100, members would be given access to new songs each month. Downloads included an hour long Ahdio Show which was essentially a podcast and 3 to 4 new Prince songs, often with accompanying videos. However, the downloadable player version of the NPG Music Club was short-lived as it was decided that a web-based approach would work better for Prince’s audience. With an estimated membership of between 5,000 and 50,000, it is likely the NPGMC was quite profitable for Prince, given the low overhead and high profit margins.
Digital releases from the vault
The first postings in the NPG Music Club included tracks previously slated for High and NPG: Peace along with various pieces that hadn’t been slated for any particular project. Naturally, Prince had recorded an NPGMC Commercial lasting four minutes that could be downloaded with the launch of the club in February 2001. Also available as downloads were When Eye Lay My Hands On U from High and Peace from NPG: Peace. The radio show/Ahdio Show podcast featuring lots of talking between the music included short previews of High, My Medallion and Golden Parachute from the High album. All three songs would be released as downloads with later shows.
Several older Vault tracks were also shared though. The 1985/86 Prince And The Revolution track Splash that was considered for both Crystal Ball and Roadhouse Garden was available as a download along with the 1993/94 Gold era outtakes Mad and Funky Design. The Ahdio Show included excerpts of a couple of remixes - Love Sign (Ted’s Funky Chariot Mix) from 1994 and a 1993 Carmen Electra: Go On (Witcha Bad Self) dub remix. There was also a longer play of Madhouse: Seventeen (the cover of Kamasutra/Overture #8) than on the 2000 NPG Records sampler cassette, as well as a Days Of Wild Guitar Jam recorded at Paisley Park on 23 October 1999.
NPG Ahdio Show #1 downloads (18 February 2001)
When Eye Lay My Hands On U (3:40)
NPGMC Commercial (4:01)
Mad (5:33)
Funky Design (3:47)
Splash (3:57)
Peace (5:32)
The second NPG Ahdio Show edition was accompanied by four 1995 Gold era live performances, as well as a video for The Daisy Chain that had been on both NPG: Peace and High. The Ahdio Show itself included Silicon which H. M. Buff mentioned as being from the 1997/98 Newpower Soul era. The song would get released as a download with Ahdio Show #10.
NPG Ahdio Show #2 downloads (22 March 2001)
We March (Live at Paisley Park 22 October 1995) (3:29)
Vicki Waiting (Live at Paisley Park 22 October 1995) (3:51)
Letitgo (Live at Paisley Park 22 October 1995) (3:45)
Return Of The Bump Squad (Live at Paisley Park 23 October 1995) (4:04)
Rare singles from High and Peace
In many respects, Prince seemed to be succeeding at using the Internet to establish a direct connection with consumers. Perhaps, as he had been arguing for years, major labels would soon become unnecessary. But he was catering to his followers and not attracting a wider audience. The club received little attention from the general public and mainstream media. Maybe that’s why Prince decided on also releasing a handful of singles in April 2001 – to reach a wider audience? But only the first one, U Make My Sun Shine, was released with wide distribution. The rest only saw limited distribution – they were only sold at concerts and remain rare collectors’ items.
The single that was distributed widely was U Make My Sun Shine b/w When Will We B Paid? from the High album. The single version of U make My Sun Shine was revealed to be an edit when the full version got included on the 2004 The Chocolate Invasion collection.
Prince & Angie Stone: U Make My Sun Shine CD-single (10 April 2001)
1. U Make My Sun Shine (5:55)
2. When Will We B Paid? (4:07) – by Randall Stewart
A video was also released to promote the single:
Supercute and Underneath The Cream from the High album were also released as a single but with limited distribution.
Prince: Supercute CD-single (April 2001)
1. Supercute (4:19)
2. Underneath The Cream (4:02)
Two singles off the NPG: Peace album were also released with limited distribution. The Peace title track was backed with 2045: Radical Man which had been released on the Bamboozled soundtrack as a Prince track. Now it was an NPG track again.
The New Power Generation: Peace CD-single (April 2001)
1. Peace (5:32)
2. 2045: Radical Man (6:37)
New Power Generation: The Daisy Chain CD-single (April 2001)
1.The Daisy Chain (6:11)
2. Gamillah (3:10)
Although The Daisy Chain and Gamillah had been included on the High album, they were originally on the NPG: Peace album and were now credited to The New Power Generation again. The video for The Daisy Chain can be watched on YouTube right here:
The Daisy Chain was also released as a download with NPG Ahdio Show #3 in April 2001, along with Northside from the NPG: Peace album, a cover of Habibi by Jimi Hendrix and The Work Part 1 from the upcoming Rainbow Children album.
NPG Ahdio Show #3 downloads (22 April 2001)
The New Power Generation: The Daisy Chain (6:11)
The New Power Generation: Northside (6:31)
Habibi – a Jimi Hendrix tribute (4:58)
The Work Part 1 (3:36)
The show itself included an edit of Sex Me Sex Me Not. The full version would get released as a download with Ahdio Show #5. Two unreleased tracks from the vault were also included in the third show, an instrumental version of Superfunkycalifragisexy from the legendary 1987 Black Album and The Time: Murph Drag from their unreleased 1989 album Corporate World. And there was an excerpt of America as performed in San Francisco 23 May 1986.
When the recordings for NPG: Peace were made in February 2000, they included the track Props N’ Pounds. It is unknown if it got included on the album, though, as it includes Kurt Loder from MTV commenting on the talents of Prince, not The NPG. But it got included in NPG Ahdio Show #4 in May 2001, although with the host of the Ahdio Show presenting the content of that month’s edition in the middle of the song. An updated version with less commentating on Prince’s talents and more singing was released as a download along with the Ahdio Show. The new version would get included on the 2004 The Slaughterhouse collection.
The full version of Rosie Gaines: Hit U In The Socket from the 2000 NPG Records sampler cassette was also released as a download, and to separate it from earlier versions of the song which would get released later, it was nicknamed NPGMC Remix.
NPG Ahdio Show #4 downloads (15 May 2001)
Props N’ Pounds (4:35)
Rosie Gaines: Hit U In The Socket (4:06)
The Ahdio Show included mostly live tracks from the vault this time around. From the 31 August 1986 Parade show in Hamburg, Germany, there was Christopher Tracy’s Parade, New Position, I Wonder U, Raspberry Beret, Delirious, Controversy and A Love Bizarre. The live version of Strange Relationship was from 1st Avenue, 21 March 1987. From New York, 25 March 1993, there was Damn U, The Max and Johnny which may have been from an unreleased 1993 live album. Get Wild was from The White Room in London, 5 April 1995. “Shit” had escaped censorship in A Love Bizarre, Get Wild and Johnny, but “fucking movie” was garbled up in Strange Relationship and “shit” was garbled up in Deuce & A Quarter.
When Prince assembled the High album, the Vavoom song from those recording sessions was left out. It now became the B-side of a High single. Two versions were made of the High single, a 2-track CD-single containing an edit of Vavoom and a 3-track CD-single with the full version.
Prince: High CD-single (2001)
1. High (5:05)
2. Vavoom (Edit) (4:07)
Prince: High CD-single (2001)
1. High (Edit)
2. Vavoom (4:35)
3. U Make My Sun Shine (Edit)
The edit of Vavoom would get released as a download with Ahdio Show #9 while the full version would get released on the 2004 The Chocolate Invasion collection. The track time for the High edit remains unknown, as does the fact if the edit of U Make My Sun Shine is the same as on its previous single release because these High singles were never released. They were kept at Paisley Park where some copies escaped into the hands of lucky guests at the annual Celebration events in June. Now they’re worth a small fortune.
Songs for The Slaughterhouse
For NPG Ahdio Show #5 in June 2001, Supercute, which had been released as a single, was released as a download along with Sex Me Sex Me Not which was recorded after the Peace and High albums had been assembled. Both Supercute and an extended version of Sex Me Sex Me Not got included on the 2003 The Chocolate Invasion compilation. Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? came from the 1999 Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic sessions and would get included on the 2004 The Slaughterhouse collection.
NPG Ahdio Show #5 downloads (11 June 2001)
Supercute (4:16)
Sex Me Sex Me Not (4:27)
Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? (4:30)
The only unreleased vault track in the actual Ahdio show was a remix of the 1994 Come album track Race (nicknamed NPGMC Mix). Instead, there were short previews of songs from Prince’s upcoming Rainbow Children album, The Rainbow Children, Family Name and Digital Garden.
With the next edition, NPG Ahdio Show #6, NPG Music Club Members were treated to O(+>’s version of Van Gogh – a 1996 Emancipation outtake with saxophone by Eric Leeds given to the group Van Gogh who released their re-recording of the track in 1998. The song originated in 1995 where O(+> added music to a handful of lyrics by Sandra St. Victor.
Club members also got S&M Groove which was an edit of Sadomasochistic Groove which was recorded in May 1997, but didn’t make the 1998 Newpower Soul album. It would get included on the 2004 The Slaughterhouse collection. And they got Hypnoparadise which had been played as an instrumental on tour in 1998 and may have been included on the 1998 Madrid 2 Chicago album. Hypnoparadise would also end up on The Slaughterhouse. An instrumental version of the 1996 Emancipation track The Holy River rounded out the month’s releases.
NPG Ahdio Show #6 downloads (7 July 2001)
Van Gogh (5:59)
S&M Groove (5:07)
Hypnoparadise (6:02)
Instrumental – The Holy River (3:05)
The Ahdio Show included the new song Her Way sung Kip Blackshire who was in Prince’s band at the time. The song was intended for his debut album due in 2002, but it remains unreleased. Prince himself performed Eye Like 2 Play which got bootlegged as Western Song. In the brief segue-like song, Prince gets booed off the stage in a country bar. And there was Madhouse: Asswhuppin’ In A Trunk from the unreleased 24 album from 1994/95.
Supercute (4:16)
Sex Me Sex Me Not (4:27)
Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? (4:30)
The only unreleased vault track in the actual Ahdio show was a remix of the 1994 Come album track Race (nicknamed NPGMC Mix). Instead, there were short previews of songs from Prince’s upcoming Rainbow Children album, The Rainbow Children, Family Name and Digital Garden.
With the next edition, NPG Ahdio Show #6, NPG Music Club Members were treated to O(+>’s version of Van Gogh – a 1996 Emancipation outtake with saxophone by Eric Leeds given to the group Van Gogh who released their re-recording of the track in 1998. The song originated in 1995 where O(+> added music to a handful of lyrics by Sandra St. Victor.
Club members also got S&M Groove which was an edit of Sadomasochistic Groove which was recorded in May 1997, but didn’t make the 1998 Newpower Soul album. It would get included on the 2004 The Slaughterhouse collection. And they got Hypnoparadise which had been played as an instrumental on tour in 1998 and may have been included on the 1998 Madrid 2 Chicago album. Hypnoparadise would also end up on The Slaughterhouse. An instrumental version of the 1996 Emancipation track The Holy River rounded out the month’s releases.
NPG Ahdio Show #6 downloads (7 July 2001)
Van Gogh (5:59)
S&M Groove (5:07)
Hypnoparadise (6:02)
Instrumental – The Holy River (3:05)
The Ahdio Show included the new song Her Way sung Kip Blackshire who was in Prince’s band at the time. The song was intended for his debut album due in 2002, but it remains unreleased. Prince himself performed Eye Like 2 Play which got bootlegged as Western Song. In the brief segue-like song, Prince gets booed off the stage in a country bar. And there was Madhouse: Asswhuppin’ In A Trunk from the unreleased 24 album from 1994/95.
More High tracks released
With Ahdio Show #7, there were downloads for both The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse. Judas Smile was recorded after the High album was assembled but got included when it got remade as The Chocolate Invasion in 2003. Horny Pony had previously been released as the B-side to Cream in 1991. The NPG: Get Wild (Miami Mix) was probably made in 1994. Golden Parachute was from the High album but would end up on The Slaughterhouse in 2004.
NPG Ahdio Show #7 downloads (28 August 2001)
Judas Smile (6:39)
Horny Pony
Get Wild (Miami Mix) (5:42)
Golden Parachute (5:35)
The High album title track was included in the actual Ahdio Show. It would get released as a download with Ahdio Show #10. Otherwise, the show just included three live tracks from Prince’s vault of unreleased material: Automatic, DMSR and The Dance Electric from Los Angeles, 30 May 1986.
With the next edition of NPG Ahdio Show, #8, fans finally got My Medallion from High following the preview in the first show. They also got a 1988 rehearsal version of the unreleased 1986 Camille track Rebirth Of The Flesh, a previously released remix from the 1990 Thieves In The Temple single and Contest Song, which was supposedly a O(+> composition now credited to The NPG.
NPG Ahdio Show #8 downloads (18 September 2001)
Thieves In The Temple (Remix)
Rebirth Of The Flesh (Rehearsal ’88)
My Medallion (5:07)
The NPG: Contest Song (3:34)
The September Ahdio show didn’t contain any unreleased Vault material but included Pearls B4 The Swine from the forthcoming One Nite Alone piano album. Coming in the wake of 9/11 and the fall of the Twin Towers in New York, it was a special episode dedicated to spiritually themed songs from Prince/O(+>’s back catalogue. It was put together by artist and creative director Sam Jennings who worked for Prince for nine years, developing his online business, the NPG Music Club, as well as designing the packages of several Prince albums, including Musicology and 3121.
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| Prince with Sam Jennings |
Working on the NPG Music Club
On 18 September 2016, Sam Jennings wrote on Facebook about his experience working with Prince on the NPG Music Club and how he got involved with the making of The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse – the two compilations that would collect tracks released through the club: “Prince and I were just about halfway through the first year of the NPG Music Club in September 2001. During this first year, the Club delivered regular monthly downloads of previously unreleased Prince music and videos. Included in each month's edition was about an hour-long podcast that Prince would record from Paisley Park, except nobody called them podcasts back then, we simply called it an ‘Ahdio’ show.”
“In these Ahdio shows, Prince almost never spoke as himself, instead choosing to use distortion on his voice to create more of a character that would speak between the songs he chose to play. He did little skits or got band members like Morris Hayes to join in and contribute. It was great fun and a big part of what we had to offer each month.”
“By the time of our eighth edition of downloads in September, Prince asked me if I would like to put together the Ahdio show this time. I jumped at the chance and told him I would come up with some possibilities we could discuss. (…) I was honored to contribute to the Club in a meaningful way, beyond my other duties keeping it running smoothly. Prince was so pleased with the end result and the reaction that he asked me to be an Executive Producer on the Chocolate Invasion and Slaughterhouse CDs.”
The final High tracks released
The next NPG Ahdio Show was released in November 2001 following the release of the Rainbow Children album in October and was accompanied by two rounds of downloads. Up first, members got the single edit of Vavoom and Supercute from the recent limited single release. Supercute would get included on The Chocolate Invasion, as would the full version of Vavoom. The next round of downloads was live tracks – Live 4 Love from Sydney in 1992, The Undertaker from the 1995 VHS home video release The Undertaker, and the new track We Gon’ Make It Funky as performed with Maceo Parker at Paisley Park 13 June 2001.
NPG Ahdio Show #9 downloads (15 November 2001)
Vavoom (4:05)
Underneath The Cream (4:02)
NPG Ahdio Show #9 downloads (20 November 2001)
Live 4 Love (Live in Sydney 1992) (6:52)
The Undertaker (Live) (9:45)
We Gon’ Make It Funky (feat. Maceo Parker) (Live at Paisley Park 13 June 2001) (4:47)
The Ahdio Show also included a couple of new tracks, the song Jukebox With A Heartbeat which remains unreleased and a rehearsal excerpt of Prince and The New Power Generation jamming on the song Northside that was released with Ahdio Show #3. There were also live versions of Let’s Go Crazy, Kiss, Irresistible Bitch, She’s Always In My Hair, When You Were Mine, Insatiable and Scandalous from New York, 25 March 1993, and possibly lifted from an unreleased 1993 live album. But now, they were censored with the word “shit” garbled electronically on Kiss and Irresistible Bitch.
The tenth edition of NPG Ahdio Show also came with two rounds of downloads. First up came the final tracks from the High album, Gamillah and High which would carry over to The Chocolate Invasion. Fans also finally got Silicon which had been previewed in the second Ahdio Show. It would become the opening track on the 2004 The Slaughterhouse collection. A few days later, a couple of live tracks followed, Poorgoo from the 1995 The Undertaker VHS home video and Gett Off from San Francisco, 3 December 2000.
NPG Ahdio Show #10 downloads (15 December 2001)
Silicon (4:47)
High (5:05)
Gamillah (3:10)
NPG Ahdio Show #10 downloads (19 December 2001)
Poorgoo (Live) (4:38)
Gett Off (Live in San Francisco 3 December 2000) (3:03)
The end of the NPG Ahdio shows
NPG Ahdio Show #10 consisted of a DJ set with all previously released but now censored tracks from Prince’s back catalogue, including "bitch" now being garbled up in My Medallion. Also, from less and less talking between tracks till now no talking at all indicated that Prince was losing interest in making the shows. The next one did also become the last. It was another DJ set, but it did include a still unreleased remix of Hot With U from the 1999 Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic album and live versions of The Question Of U, Groove On/The Undertaker and a cover of the 1957 Jerry Lee Lewis song Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On from an unknown, but probably then recent date.
The final Ahdio show was accompanied by two rounds of downloads. First up was the previously mentioned Madrid 2 Chicago and Breathe single and four tracks from the forthcoming One Nite Alone piano album that would get released in full later that year. The second round had an edit of the 1986 Anotherloverholenyohead music video and a live performance of Face Down from the Chris Rock Show in February 1997 which was just a playback performance to Face Down from the NYC Live 1/11/97 cassette released that year.
NPG Ahdio Show #11 downloads (17 January 2002)
Madrid 2 Chicago (3:14)
Breathe (2:01)
One Nite Alone…
U’re Gonna C Me
Here On Earth
A Case Of U
NPG Ahdio Show #11 downloads (30 January 2002)
Anotherloverholenyohead (Live) (3:00) – edit of 1986 video
Face Down (per4mance) (3:08) – from The Chris Rock Show, February 1997
High becomes The Chocolate Invasion
With the end of the NPG Ahdio Shows, Prince conceived the notion of making CD collections of tracks released through the NPG Music Club and those became The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse compilations. Sam Jennings told Funkatopia in March 2023: “Prince had the idea to release a compilation of music from the music club and he let me kind of run that project. I put together the list of songs I thought it should be and I put together the order that it should go in. I worked with the engineer to sequence the CD and he gave me an executive producer credit for it which is pretty cool. You know, piecing the songs together – just kinda figuring out which song would go good with another one, what song should open it and what song should close it - those kinds of things were all definitely what I was thinking of. (…) The idea was to release it as a CD but that didn’t happen, so we just released it as a downloadable group of material.”
The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse were assembled in the autumn of 2003 with The Chocolate Invasion being a new configuration of the High album. It derived its new title from the lyrics of the two newly added tracks, Judas Smile and an extended version of Sex Me? Sex Me Not which both mention “the chocolate invasion”, the latter in a rap added in the middle of the song. In Judas Smile Prince sends a lot of “peace” to other artists, so it might have been moved to The Chocolate Invasion from the NPG: Peace album from which The Slaughterhouse album developed because of “the chocolate invasion” lyric. Certainly, two High tracks migrated to the The Slaughterhouse album, Golden Parachute and The Daisy Chain, which left room for the addition of Judas Smile and Sex Me? Sex Me Not on The Chocolate Invasion.
The High single B-side Vavoom was brought in to replace Prince’s cover of When Will We B Paid? which was released on the U Make My Sun Shine single, so the album was now all original Prince compositions. And with the addition of the three tracks Judas Smile, Vavoom and Sex Me? Sex Me Not, the album was now much livelier than the previous mellow High configuration. Also, U Make My Sun Shine was a much better choice to close the album than High, just like Adore on the 1987 album Sign O’ The Times.
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Prince: The Chocolate Invasion (2003 – released digitally in 2015)
1. When Eye Lay My Hands On U (3:40)
2. Judas Smile (6:33)
3. Supercute (4:13)
4. Underneath The Cream (3:59)
5. My Medallion (5:07)
6. Vavoom (4:35)
7. High (5:05)
8. Sex me? Sex Me Not (5:40)
9. Gamillah (3:09)
10. U Make My Sun Shine (Feat. Angie Stone) (7:05)
Gamillah which had been first on NPG: Peace, then on High and then a B-side to an NPG single was now back on this reworked High configuration. Except for U Make My Sun Shine which was released as a single, all of the tracks had been released as downloads in the NPG Music Club in 2001, but Vavoom only as an edit. Also, Supercute now differed slightly from the previously released single version by segueing from Judas Smile and the latter had an additional synth hit just before the words "pinnochio mentality" that censored the word “nigga”. Sex Me? Sex Me Not was now extended, and U Make My Sun Shine was also longer than the previously released single version – no one knew that had been an edit, so there were some surprises for fans on the collection, making it worthwhile even if one had been a member of the NPG Music Club.
From 7-CD set to downloads from online store
The Chocolate Invasion was originally intended as a 7-CD set by Prince announced in the NPG Music Club on 15 October 2003. The seven discs included in the set were promoted as The Chocolate Invasion: NPGMC Trax Vol. 1, The Slaughterhouse: NPGMC Trax Vol. 2, C-Note - all compilation albums of mostly previously-released NPG Music Club tracks, One Nite Alone… and The War which were both previously released, Xpectation which had previously been available as a download and The Glam Slam Club Mix previously included as the main content in NPG Ahdio Show #11. The set was announced with a flash file containing a clip of the track Judas Smile from which the set’s name was taken. The packaging was shown as a round pleather CD carrying case with The Chocolate Invasion embossed on the front. No release date was given.
On 13 November 2003, the NPG Music Club announced: "The Chocolate Invasion is put on hold 4 now, indefinitely. There was a problem with the manufacturing and until the bug is worked out, we'd rather not have u wondering when ur home would b invaded. As soon as we have any new info 2 report, u will b notified immediately. The members of the NPGMC deserve the best, thank u 4 ur patience."
The website streamed the previously unreleased track What Do U Want Me 2 Do? from the upcoming album Musicology as "a little something 2 chill 2" at the same time as the announcement to make up for the delay. The project was never officially cancelled, although all of the previously unreleased compilations, except The Glam Slam Club Mix, were instead released for download when the NPG Music Club Musicology Download Store opened on 29 March 2004.
Release of The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse
Before The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse were made available as downloads in the NPG Music Club Musicology Download Store in 2004, a couple of changes were made to The Chocolate Invasion. My Medallion was left out - possibly because of the previously censored word “bitch” - to make room for a new version of the 1989 Batman era song The Dance which had also been reworked in 1991. The track list was rearranged with The Dance being placed where Sex Me Sex Me Not had been and then Sex Me Sex Me Not taking the place where My Medallion had been. With The Dance not having been released before, it offered an incentive for members of the NPG Music Club to buy the collection too.
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Prince: The Chocolate Invasion download (2004)
1. When Eye Lay My Hands On U (3:40)
2. Judas Smile (6:33)
3. Supercute (4:11)
4. Underneath The Cream (4:00)
5. Sex Me? Sex Me Not (5:41)
6. Vavoom (4:35)
7. High (5:04)
8. The Dance (4:41)
9. Gamillah (3:07)
10. U Make My Sun Shine (Feat. Angie Stone) (7:04)
At 45 years old, the Chocolate Invasion would be Prince’s last sexually preoccupied album. The Slaughterhouse featured songs with darker subject matter than The Chocolate Invasion. Debi McGuan did the cover illustrations for both The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse. The concept was ten songs on both collections, leaving out Jukebox With A Heartbeat but granted, that wasn’t released as a download separate from the Ahdio Shows in the NPG Music Club and it has yet to see an official release.
Prince: The Slaughter House download (2004)
1. Silicon (4:14)
2. S&M Groove (5:07)
3. Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? (4:30)
4. Golden Parachute (5:35)
5. Hypnoparadise (6:02)
6. Props N’ Pounds (4:35)
7. Northside (6:31)
8. Peace (5:32)
9. 2045: Radical Man (6:35)
10. The Daisy Chain (6:13)
All of the songs on The Slaughterhouse had been released as downloads in the NPG Music Club, except for 2045: Radical Man which had been released on the Bamboozled soundtrack. Silicon had now been edited about 30 seconds shorter, while Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? had an additional synth hit at 1:10 just after the sentence "u'll never know" to censor the word “nigga”.
The last four tracks Northside, Peace, 2045: Radical Man and The Daisy Chain had previously been released credited to The New Power Generation, leading many to believe that just as High became The Chocolate Invasion, The Slaughterhouse was a reworking of the NPG: Peace album. With both Silicon and S&M Groove being from the 1998 NPG: Newpower Soul era, it is quite possible they might have been included on NPG: Peace in 2000. Hypnoparadise and Y Should Eye Do That When Eye Can Do This? also preceded the Peace album and so could theoretically have been included on it. Props N’ Pounds came from the NPG: Peace sessions, so it may also have been on that album. Golden Parachute came from High, as did The Daisy Chain originally.
Digital release of the 2003 configuration
In 2005, while Prince still had the NPG Music Club Musicology Download Store, he also released the live versions of We March, Vicki Waiting and Letitgo originally released with NPG Ahdio Show #2 in March 2001. All three tracks on this digital EP were recorded at Paisley Park 22 October 1995.
Live From Paisley Park EP downloads (2005)
We March (3:29)
Vicki Waiting (3:51)
Letitgo (3:45)
Also, the live version of Strange Relationship recorded at 1st Avenue 21 March 1987 from NPG Ahdio Show #4 was released through the NPG Music Club Musicology Download Store. And it was still censored with “fucking movie” garbled up.
Strange Relationship (Live ’87) download (2005)
Strange Relationship (Clean Edit) (4:40)
In 2006, a new version of The Dance was included on Prince’s 3121 album, so when The Chocolate Invasion was re-released as a download from the streaming platform Tidal in December 2015, Prince went with the 2003 configuration that had the uncensored My Medallion on it before it was replaced by the earlier version of The Dance. Fans now had two configurations of the album, yet none on CD. But Sam Jennings said in a March 2023 Funkatopia interview: “I would love to one day release an expanded edition as a physical product and with a book to go with it to talk about the music club. I think that would be really interesting and fun.”
In 2005, while Prince still had the NPG Music Club Musicology Download Store, he also released the live versions of We March, Vicki Waiting and Letitgo originally released with NPG Ahdio Show #2 in March 2001. All three tracks on this digital EP were recorded at Paisley Park 22 October 1995.
Live From Paisley Park EP downloads (2005)
We March (3:29)
Vicki Waiting (3:51)
Letitgo (3:45)
Also, the live version of Strange Relationship recorded at 1st Avenue 21 March 1987 from NPG Ahdio Show #4 was released through the NPG Music Club Musicology Download Store. And it was still censored with “fucking movie” garbled up.
Strange Relationship (Live ’87) download (2005)
Strange Relationship (Clean Edit) (4:40)
In 2006, a new version of The Dance was included on Prince’s 3121 album, so when The Chocolate Invasion was re-released as a download from the streaming platform Tidal in December 2015, Prince went with the 2003 configuration that had the uncensored My Medallion on it before it was replaced by the earlier version of The Dance. Fans now had two configurations of the album, yet none on CD. But Sam Jennings said in a March 2023 Funkatopia interview: “I would love to one day release an expanded edition as a physical product and with a book to go with it to talk about the music club. I think that would be really interesting and fun.”
UPDATED 23 August 2023: I rewrote this part to include a bit more detailed information than previously: "Meanwhile, Prince kept busy recording new songs, like Sex Me Sex Me Not and Judas Kiss. The latter, which would get retitled Judas Smile in October 2001, was possibly intended for the NPG: Peace album with Prince sending “peace” to other artists, including Common and Erykah Badu who also appear on the Bamboozled soundtrack. The lyrics mention “bamboozled” a lot and the song might have been inspired by the movie. But Judas Kiss also mention “the chocolate invasion” in the lyrics and would end up credited to Prince on The Chocolate Invasion compilation that the High album morphed into."
SvarSletUPDATED 23 August 2023: Mr.Z pointed out that "the chocolate invasion" is not included in the lyrics for Sex Me Sex Me Not until the extended version in 2003. The text was changed to reflect this: "The Chocolate Invasion and The Slaughterhouse were assembled in the autumn of 2003 with The Chocolate Invasion being a new configuration of the High album. It derived its new title from the lyrics of the two newly added tracks, Judas Smile and an extended version of Sex Me? Sex Me Not which both mention “the chocolate invasion”, the latter in a rap added in the middle of the song."
SvarSletUPDATED 25 August 2023: Mention of the Strange Relationship (Live '87) download release in 2005 was added at the end of this chapter.
SvarSletUPDATED 28 August 2023: In connection with the live tracks played in NPG Ahdio Show #4, I added that “Shit” had escaped censorship in A Love Bizarre, Get Wild and Johnny, but “fucking movie” was garbled up in Strange Relationship and “shit” was garbled up in Deuce & A Quarter. And then I added that the 2005 Strange Relationship (Live '87) download was the same clean edit as in Ahdio Show #4.I also noted for NPG Ahdio Show #10 that My Medallion was censored in it and then suggested for the 2004 configuration of The Chocolate Invasion that the censored word "bitch" might have something to do with My Medallion being replaced by The Dance.
SvarSletUPDATED 2 February 2024: Mention of Underneath The Cream being included on two configurations of Hot Wit U 12" singles was added before and after the description of the 8 August 2000 High album configuration.
SvarSlet