The War and C-Note are also NPG albums.

I think they're all awesome, particularly NPS.

LaurenceNoonan said:

What's everyone's opinion on the NPG albums Gold Nigga, Exodus and New Power Soul

That's a pretty open-ended question. What's your opinion of those records?

I would say they are all somewhat variable, like most of Prince's 90s material, but each contain some absolutely essential songs. If you haven't heard them, they're all worth digging up. Basically it was a sort of an outlet for Prince's funk / groove oriented stuff. Prince seemed to be in a weird place creatively during those years, maybe depression, maybe distracted by his personal life and record-company beef.

Goldnigga - personally I love that era of NPG but somehow I never really appreciated the album at the time. Recently revisited it after listening to the Peach and Black podcast guys reviewing it, actually there are some really funky songs on there (Call the Law, Black MF In the House etc). Would be better if resequenced, preferably without the skits.

Exodus - probably the most consistent and best NPG record, and one of his best from that era. Shades of that dense Parliament-tribute sound there, very much 95 NPG doing what it did best. Pretty great, if you don't mind the extended grooves like Return of the Bump Squad, The Good Life etc. Works for me. I'd improve it by maybe removing some of the skits and random Sonny T shit, and changing the bizarre sweary lyrics on Count the Days. The Exodus Has Begun is pretty much perfect though.

New Power Soul - this is basically a Prince record, not one of his best. Quite harsh, metallic sounding production, and over-used crowd-chant samples etc. It's weird because he was still sounding great live at that time, and had teamed up with Larry Graham, Chaka Khan, Doug E Fresh etc but man.... on record it never really worked. A couple of great songs though, The One, Wasted Kisses etc. I'd love to hear more sketch-like, underproduced versions of those songs, I guess they must be out there.

Silvertongue7 said:

LaurenceNoonan said:

What's everyone's opinion on the NPG albums Gold Nigga, Exodus and New Power Soul

Gold Nigga - quite a good album

Exodus - perfect, I reckon

New Power Soul - quite a good album but the weakest of the three

The War - perfect if you are a Prince fan

C-Note - quite a good album

Silvertongue7 said:

Once you remove the segues, Exodus is fantastic. Hopefully one day we’ll get it with Prince’s vocals. I also like the other two, NPS has some great moments, as does GN.

I wonder if each and every song exists with Prince on vocals. Could it be that a few of the songs were recorded with Prince handling the lyrics and teaching the melody to Sonny without a guide vocal?

Exodus is in my top 5 Prince albums, minus the segues.

I flip flop between Gold Nigga and Exodus as to which one is best.

I mean Gold Nigga had a raw, almost live feel. And some top drawer funk! Johnny. He thought that was good enough to close Act II concerts with, and I think it's great. As is Black MF, deuce and a quarter, and the title track..

databank said:

Also, NPS is WAY underrated. Never much got the hate for it and I'd put it somewhere in the lower middle tier of his work overall. It's better than Rave, NEWS, For You, The Vault, Planet Earth, 20Ten, Prince, Chaos and Disorder, Xpectation, Indigo Nights and H&R Phase 1 at least. About on par with Come I'd say.

U can keep Gold Nigga. Never got into it.

I'm instilling a 5-star rating.

Goldnigga - too much hip-hop influence on it. While NPG albums are meant to highlight the band at the moment, it just comes across sort of silly. There are good things on it though. ⭐️⭐️

Exodus - by far the best. While the segues are just Prince whipping his dick out and pissing on everything for shits & giggles, the songs are fucking brilliant. To lose yourself in "The Exodus Has Begun" for 10 minutes as the album wraps up is elation. "Get Wild", "Cherry Cherry", "Count The Days", such great songs all around. "Hallucination Rain" is the sleeper track here, often overlooked.

I find it fun that both Exodus and it's successor had "New Power Soul" titled tracks, and that "Big Fun" is later used on the "New Power Soul track on the next album.

"Return of the Bump Squad", for me, is the standout track. And the NPGMC rehearsal/live cut that was released is even better. "I got sumthin' fo' yo' headache." (read: A DICK). haha ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ½

NewPower Soul - definitely not the most hyped of the three as Prince would proclaim to Mel B. It is, however, partly true. The songs are solid and well arranged. I believe it suffers a bit from the new flatter production techniques he used, and were evident on Emancipation. Had it been a real 'live' recording (as much of Diamonds and Pearls and were), the whole feel of the record would have been one to be a more worthy challenger to its predecessor Exodus.

Songwriting-wise, there are gems on it. "Wasted Kissed", "Until U're In My Arms Again", "Mad Sex", "Freaks On This Side", "The One", and "Come On" are notable. Imagine "Until..." with a full-band arrangement with lush orchestration by Clare behind it, something similar in feel to "Diamonds and Pearls", "Damn U" or "Love 2 The 9s". Imagine the boldness of "Freaks On This Side" given the same treatment that "Gett Off" or "Live 4 Love". The record might have been much better accepted. ⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Someone noted C-Note EP and The War being NPG records. They are. C-Note I won't bother with, but...

The War - it is trippy, brilliant, and sort of an extension musically of "Hallucination Rain". You can almost hear it as an extended section on the end of "Hallucination Rain", making it a suite similar to "Computer Blue" in structure, or "3 Chains O' Gold". We know the track goes on longer, and it's almost a sin that the whole thing wasn't released. I never paid for my cassette of it. NPG just sent it to me out of the blue one day. People can talk about Prince's conspiracy talk or whatever, but he was way ahead of the curve in his lyrics on "The War". In the past year or two how often have we heard about companies implanting a microchip in their employees, or NSA surveillance through other means? The War was released how long ago before anyone was speaking about it on such a broad scale? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

LaurenceNoonan said:

What's everyone's opinion on the NPG albums Gold Nigga, Exodus and New Power Soul

What are your opinions on them?

The War is great but isn't it considered a single?

The others are shit. Gold Nigga and Exodus are embarrassing pseudo gangster twaddle and Newpower Soul is the aural equivalent of wading waist high through wallpaper paste.

databank said:

To be honest it is not very high.

.

Goldnigga - A lot of crap, not even funny atrocious rapping and lots of negative stereotypes and general coonery. This is all crap and I don't even have a copy now. No wonder Prince fired his ass and saw that Tony M was a liability not an asset -0/10

.

Exodus - Has a few good songs like The Good Life and get wild, but a very uneven album, ruined by a lot of pointless skits, way below average rapping and grunting and not good enough to like - 3/10

.

NPS - probably the best of the lot as it is really a Prince party album, slight and nihilistic grooves it is covered with funky music and great horn lines and includes the One, Come on and Wasted Kisses - compared to the others this is quite good. It is a passable Vengaboyz or Haddaway album, but as a Prince album it is just dreadful and way below par - 4/10.

.

I don't consider the War an album, just a song (A dreadful one) and the NPGMC albums are millenial and too late in my opinion to be judged with the 90s dreck. The fact 3 albums can only total a slightly above average album together speaks volumes.

TheDigitalGardener said:

LaurenceNoonan said:

Exodus is fantastic. Gold N**** comes next, then NPS. I have trouble considering The War on this list--I like it a lot, but it is just one song, even if it's a long one. And I can't remember the last time I listened to C-Note straight through, so I can't honestly say I have an opinion of it as a complete work.

TheDigitalGardener said:

The War is great but isn't it considered a single?

Prince alternatively advertised it as a single or an album. It was an album on one NPGMC site discography and it would have been included as such in the TCI box-set.

The others are shit. Gold Nigga and Exodus are embarrassing pseudo gangster twaddle and Newpower Soul is the aural equivalent of wading waist high through wallpaper paste.

I admire your guts to show such an amount of disrespect towards the works of one of the most talented and respected musician of our times. However, you are here hiding your ignorance behind contempt, which isn't usually like you.

ShaggyDog said:

I agree too that Exodus would be a much better album with the segues taken out. For me they detract from the album and just seem like crude posturing rather than being witty or entertaining, but then again the whole Urban and Hip-Hop scenes seemed to go a little crazy with unnecessary and unfunny bandwagon-jumping skits and segues during the second half of the 90's.

Incidentally, Morris Hayes explained in the Peach and Black podcast that those segues reflect humorous conversations Prince and the band were having all the time, playing characters and having fun. One may dislike them but if we're to believe Morris, there are everything but posture.

Adorecream said:

Exodus - Has a few good songs like The Good Life and get wild, but a very uneven album, ruined by a lot of pointless skits, way below average rapping and grunting and not good enough to like - 3/10

There's hardly any rapping on Exodus though?

herb4 said:

Adorecream said:

Exodus - Has a few good songs like The Good Life and get wild, but a very uneven album, ruined by a lot of pointless skits, way below average rapping and grunting and not good enough to like - 3/10

There's hardly any rapping on Exodus though?

Indeed, which shows why those "Album X is shit" are usually uninformed and trivial. 3/10? Let's be serious for a minute. Arguably, any work of art has flaws and Prince album aren't necessarily perfect, neither are they to everyone's taste, but brushing any of them aside like that is outrageously arrogant and plain ridiculous.

.

Dozens of thousands of records were released worldwide in 1993 and 1995 respectively, and I seriously find it hard to assume that Gold Nigga or Exodus could be considered as being among the worst records released at the time. Those records are full of interesting or challenging musical or lyrical ideas, they are masterfully executed from a sheer musical perspective, they exhibit a lot of typical Prince idiosyncrasies that distinguishes them from the bulk of pop music and even if one believes they fail to fulfil their artistic intent and deliver their message appropriately, one cannot deny that they are vastly superior to those thousands of formulaic records without the ounce of an original idea that were being released at the same time. Prince's work deserves a little more consideration than your average Kenny Rogers or Patti Labelle album (to take 2 associated artists that released records where Prince songs were sank into an ocean of meaningless, generic and formulaic pop music). There are certain Prince albums that I find weaker than others, but at the end of the day I know the difference between a weak Prince album and bland crap, which is that a weak Prince album is still more sophisticated and will contain more interesting musical ideas than many other artists' best records.

.

I fail to understand how some people can call themselves Prince fans and show such ignorance of his work, or respect for it. I wish we could only have serious discussions about why such or such record or aspect of a record is interesting or disappointing, but those repeated "X is utter shit" comments really are little more than trolling, since they make any serious discussion on the topic impossible.

^ Just to avoid any upcoming clash, the above comments are not meant as personal attacks at anyone on this specific threads. My reaction to certain orgers' replies is merely the result of me being fed-up with repeatedly reading those kind of replies everytime a song or album is brought-up. I do not wish to clash with anyone personally and I won't, so please do not start calling me names

databank said:

herb4 said:

There's hardly any rapping on Exodus though?

Indeed, which shows why those "Album X is shit" are usually uninformed and trivial. 3/10? Let's be serious for a minute. Arguably, any work of art has flaws and Prince album aren't necessarily perfect, neither are they to everyone's taste, but brushing any of them aside like that is outrageously arrogant and plain ridiculous.

.

Dozens of thousands of records were released worldwide in 1993 and 1995 respectively, and I seriously find it hard to assume that Gold Nigga or Exodus could be considered as being among the worst records released at the time. Those records are full of interesting or challenging musical or lyrical ideas, they are masterfully executed from a sheer musical perspective, they exhibit a lot of typical Prince idiosyncrasies that distinguishes them from the bulk of pop music and even if one believes they fail to fulfil their artistic intent and deliver their message appropriately, one cannot deny that they are vastly superior to those thousands of formulaic records without the ounce of an original idea that were being released at the same time. Prince's work deserves a little more consideration than your average Kenny Rogers or Patti Labelle album (to take 2 associated artists that released records where Prince songs were sank into an ocean of meaningless, generic and formulaic pop music). There are certain Prince albums that I find weaker than others, but at the end of the day I know the difference between a weak Prince album and bland crap, which is that a weak Prince album is still more sophisticated and will contain more interesting musical ideas than many other artists' best records.

.

I fail to understand how some people can call themselves Prince fans and show such ignorance of his work, or respect for it. I wish we could only have serious discussions about why such or such record or aspect of a record is interesting or disappointing, but those repeated "X is utter shit" comments really are little more than trolling, since they make any serious discussion on the topic impossible.

I could not have said it any better! Co-sign to everything you just said!

Having an opinion here unless it meets the specific requirements of a certain few is becoming quite difficult. It's considered "trolling" and harmful to others idea's of what a fan is and should be.

There is a huge amount of things that I'm repeatedly fed up with reading, but you know what? That's life.

Good day to you all, and those albums are still shit.

Adorecream said:

To be honest it is not very high.

Exodus - Has a few good songs like The Good Life and get wild, but a very uneven album, ruined by a lot of pointless skits, way below average rapping and grunting and not good enough to like - 3/10

Errmm, rapping? On Exodus? It's the most funk-heavy of the three records. Goldnigga, even in its visual elements, is quasi-hip-hop-heavy. I'd challenge you to listen to it again, and actually take out the segue skits, and just let the music happen. While there are one or two fluff songs on there that go on too long. But if you aren't movin' your keister by the middle of the record, check yo' pulse.