People seem to differ when it comes to which albums are part of any "official" discogaphy. Depending on who you ask, he/she will answer anywhere between 29 and 35 real albums. Which albums count or don't count to you? The main studio albums are a given.

For me, Girl 6 and the live/remix albums don't count. Both Crystal Ball and the Truth count as a parallel release like Lotus' and MPLS', as with Xpectation, The Slaughterhouse, Kamasutra, the Chocolate Invasion, NEWS, C-Note, and One Nite Alone.

I don't count Girl 6. It was a compilation album at best.

I don't count any greatest hits, best of, etc. (Leaves out Ultimate, The Hits, and The Very Best Of).

I DO count anything else that was released in the stores. The NPGMC stuff was really a limitied release only for certain folks, so that doesn't count to me. Anything the general public had/has an opportunity to get, I consider a real album.

I do count the three NPG albums as well as his. The Truth was never released by itself, nor was Kamasutra, so that counts as one with Crystal Ball.

ernestsewell said:

I don't count Girl 6. It was a compilation album at best.

I don't count any greatest hits, best of, etc. (Leaves out Ultimate, The Hits, and The Very Best Of).

I DO count anything else that was released in the stores. The NPGMC stuff was really a limitied release only for certain folks, so that doesn't count to me. Anything the general public had/has an opportunity to get, I consider a real album.

I do count the three NPG albums as well as his. The Truth was never released by itself, nor was Kamasutra, so that counts as one with Crystal Ball.

I didn't get Kamasutra when I bought Crystal Ball in the wrecka stow, I had to wait till I could download it separately from the NPGMC download store which was cool. What about one man jam, the madhouse records, 1800-new-funk. Dawnation have One Nite Alone Live and It Aint Over down as 2 separate albums even though they were packaged together. What about Lotus and mpls, are they 2 separate albums, He Licks her shouldn't count as that was Bria Valente.

I like to think of A Love Bizarre as a Prince single even though its down as Sheila E.

I count Exodus and NPS not Gold Nigga (I dont even have it )

I count Madhouse 8 but I'm skeptical of 16 and a big NO on NEWS and Kamasutra and Xpectation

I count the Truth and one nite alone (piano).

I wish High would have been released as it was solid and for that reason somewhat cound Chocolate Invasion and Slaughterhouse.

I think of MPLS as a separate album but counts

ernestsewell said:

I do count the three NPG albums as well as his. The Truth was never released by itself, nor was Kamasutra, so that counts as one with Crystal Ball.

Hmm I'd actually count The Truth and Kamasutra as individual albums..Even it was included in the Crystal Ball set. To me The First 3 Disks are what make Crystal Ball..The other two stand alone to me.

[Edited 7/10/10 7:49am]

of the NPG albums, I'd only cound NPS. Goldnigga and Exodus were very much like early protege albums in that they were an outlet to get more of his own music out there under someone else's name and a focus on someone else's voice (like the Time, Vanity 6, Sheila, etc.). NPS does count since his face is on the front cover and his name () is on the back cover and he's singing the lead vocal on every song.

I'd count the Truth and Crystal Ball separate because one is an actual studio album and the other is a outtakes compilation.

Crystal Ball, The Slaughterhouse and The Chocolate Invasion: I would count as albums, but not studio albums, as they are actually collections of previously released and unreleased stuff that came out well after they were recorded for other projects.

Chaos & Disorder and the Vault are tricky because they're made up largely of outtakes, but he did do quite a bit of additional work at the time to cobble together 2 discs worth of stuff to hand over. and that stuff wasn't particularly "old" at the time they were put together.

Can't really consider "C-NOTE" a studio album at all since it's a collection of live "soundchecks".

I've got about 4 or 5 different parallel lists of what I'd consider Prince albums, one including all the instrumental stuff (including Madhouse & Times Squared), the NPG ones, the internet ones, etc., and another list cutting out anything without his name on it (barring NPS), and then one that's a bare-bones that excludes the internet & fan club stuff. and so on.

he's kind of tricky to catalog, obviously.

Anything that is an official protege album I do not count. Yes, Prince wrote the songs, but unless his mug is on the album and it's listed as "PRINCE", then it's not his record. I mean, if you count the Madhouse stuff, then you have to count The Time, or Jill Jones, or The Family, or Sheila E.

I kind of stick to how they were released. I don't think Kamasutra and The Truth were ever released by themselves in stores, so to me, they're part of the CB set (ie: bonus disks or something).

Same goes for One Nite Alone...Live. All 3 disks are one big box set. I don't necessarily count the ONA Piano because it wasn't available to the public. I do count both Rave albums, because they were avaiable for sale as their own thing, even if it was through one was through his website. I didn't have to join to buy Rave In2, so that was open to the public to me.

I may be wrong, but wasn't Madhouse, all Prince with Eric Leeds on sax (for 8 and 16 at least)?

harveya said:

I may be wrong, but wasn't Madhouse, all Prince with Eric Leeds on sax (for 8 and 16 at least)?

i don't count the NPGMC stuff either for the same reason.