Hi everyone. I hope you are all keeping well.

I’ve written an article on the development of Exodus and wanted to share it here. This is the first deep dive into an album that I’ve done in a while, so I hope some of you enjoy it.

I’m going to attempt to post this article in full, however it is a little long, so if I run into post limitation issues then please follow the link to my website.
The Development History of Exodus
I’ve re-sized the images for this forum, but should you wish to access higher resolution versions, there are links to full size images and sources on the site.

Any thoughts or feedback would be appreciated.

All the best,
VC

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The Exodus Has Begun: An Introduction

Let me go back to the beginning. We’re in the sound stage. We’re rehearsing and we’re just jamming. We were just on a break and Michael and Sonny are just unbelievable at playing together. So what they were trying to do was trick each other off the groove. Michael would play a little riff, and Sonny, and they were just trying to shake the other, and they couldn’t shake each other. They were like, stop, do something, and it was just crazy to even watch it. “That is crazy what y’all are doing!” So I’m standing there, looking at them, just marvelling at the situation, me and Barbarella, and then Prince walks in and says “What’s happening?” (...) I’m like “Dude, they’re trying to trick each other off the beat.” I said “We should just be making this a record right now.” He walked to the phone right behind him. He calls in the studio head. We had a studio engineer called Ray Hahnfeldt. He’s calls Ray and says “Can you get some tape in studio A and have them move all the gear in?”, just like that, “Then we will make a record.”
- Morris Hayes (Peach and Black Podcast, 6 December 2017)

The mid 90s were a turbulent, yet creatively brilliant period in Prince’s career. By 1993, Prince had become conscious of just how much leverage Warner Brothers had over his life’s work. With a huge back catalogue of unreleased material, all of which was bought and paid for by WB, Prince had decided to draw a line in the sand. He wanted to reclaim ownership of the ideas in his head, the lyrics on his papers, and the notes being recorded through his console.

It was this epiphany which resulted in Prince changing his stage name to what was essentially a logo. A seal of approval, to distinguished the records he made while under contract, and the records which he took sole ownership of.

For a more detailed account of the dispute between Prince and Warner Brother, I highly recommend the Prince VS Warners Blog. A comprehensive account of Prince’s career at this time, written by long term fan and Prince sessionologist, Scififilmnerd.

By May 1994, Prince has two complete albums in the can, and he was struggling to negotiate releasing them on his terms. Upon handing early versions of Come and The Gold Experience to journalists in Monaco, he said “Now you have two albums from two different artists in your hands.” Exodus would complete the trinity of Prince’s best 90s run. A third album, by a third artist. The New Power Generation.

Exodus was a completely unique entry to Prince’s catalogue. A true collaborative effort with his band (at least at the start of the process). What began as improvised jamming, quickly developed into a string of the funkiest structured tracks that Prince has ever committed to tape. Each track would then be dropped into his most outlandish attempt at world building.

By this point, Prince was no stranger to the concept of including segues on his albums. Such things would appear occasionally during the 80s, such as Purple Rains’ reverse outro on side A, and Ingrid Chavez’ poetry reading at the beginning of Lovesexy. However, segues became more prevalent in the 90’s. The Symbol album was originally planned to include many more segues than what ended up on the final release, with a running story to accompany the songs. Although the final release did contain a small glimpse of a concept, it wasn’t until the release of the 3 Chains of Gold home video that fans got to see the bigger picture (well… through official channels at least).

During the first attempt at compiling an Exodus album, a small, structured story played out between each track starring the NPG’s bass guitar player (and front man for this particular project), Sonny T. However, as the album was chopped, changed, re-edited and injected with far more funk, what began as a structured story becomes lost in an elaborate fever dream. Exodus is not just an album, but it’s own little world. A world of funk, sex, drugs, violence, and no semblance of causality.

[Edited 10/11/23 17:57pm]

Development

15 May 1994

The main Exodus recording session (as described above by Morris Hayes) took place at Paisley Park on the 15th May 1994. This session produced the basic tracking for what would later become the following songs. Get Wild, New Power Soul, The Exodus Has Begun, Hallucination Rain, Slave 2 The System, Count The Days and It Takes 3. Of these seven tracks, Prince would cut Slave 2 The System from the set list and construct an album from the remaining six. However, as the album developed and more tracks were added to the sequence, Prince would make different selections from this original batch of seven.

Unknown Date (Possible First Configuration)

The earliest documented configuration of Exodus is the 19 June 1994 configuration (first mentioned in Uptown Magazine #16 – Winter 1994) which includes 13 listed tracks (6 jams and 7 segues). However, it’s possible that there may have been a configuration prior to this one.

Thanks to photographs provided by members of Prince’s graphic design team, fans have seen mock up artwork for the June 1994 configuration of Exodus. However, what often gets overlooked is a preliminary version of the same artwork that has the same songs listed (all be it without the segues). We can tell that it’s a preliminary version since it includes placeholder text for the personnel credits. For ages I’d assumed that this was simply the track list for the 19 June 1994 configuration with the segues unlisted (just as Prince had done on the artwork for Come and an early version of The Gold Experience). However, on closer inspection, the track list isn’t the same. It’s the same 6 songs, but in a slightly different order.

THE EXODUS HAS BEGUN
GET WILD
COUNT THE DAYS
IN TAKES THREE
NEW POWER SOUL
HALLUCINATION RAIN

If this track list is Prince’s original intended sequence then this must have been a version assembled before the inclusion of the segues. Since It Takes Three (the part of the story where DJ Brother Jules introduces Sonny to two females as a peace offering after an earlier altercation) appears before New Power Soul (the part of the story where the original altercation takes place), switching their related segues around would result in a continuity error.

It’s perfectly possible that this was artwork intended for the 19 June 1994 configuration and that It Takes Three and New Power Soul switching places is simply a misprint. However, it’s also possible that this was a sequence created before the introduction of a story, and it was the inclusion of said story that led to the decision to swap these two tracks around to make everything fit.

19 June 1994 Configuration

Thanks to J.C.Munson, photographs of the 19 June 1994 configuration artwork have been made public and lists the tracks as follows. (Note that the segues are in lowercase, and the jams are capitalised.)

1. npg bumrush the ship
2. THE EXODUS HAS BEGUN
3. npg operator
4. GET WILD
5. sonny turns the t.v. off
6. COUNT THE DAYS
7. d.j. gets jumped
8. NEW POWER SOUL
9. d.j. seduces Sonny
10. IT TAKES 3
11. gettin’ the soup ready
12. HALLUCINATION RAIN
13. spooky soup
(also believed to contain an unlisted outro as track 14)

Unlike the possible first configuration which has a question mark hanging over it, this sequence was definitely assembled on CD (see Evidence, Leaks and Version History below).

Of these six tracks, only New Power Soul resembles the product of a jam session. Being predominantly instrumental aside from the frequent chanting of the track’s title, and some amusing ad-libbing from Prince impersonating a disgruntled drunk. The other five tracks are full on songs with structured verses and chorus. This leads me to believe that although much of the basic tracking took place in a single day, it’s likely that further work took place on these tracks at a later date.

Point of interest: The earliest mention of this Exodus configuration that I could find (and of the Exodus project as a whole) was a brief piece in issue 16 of Uptown Magazine (Winter 1994). They state that the project was actually titled The Exodus Has Begun and listed the tracks as follows...

01. N.P.G. Bum Rush The Ship [segue]
02. The Exodus Has Begun
03. N.P.G. Operator [segue]
04. Get Wild
05. Count [segue]
06. Count The Days
07. DJ Gets Jumped [segue]
08. New Power Soul
09. DJ Seduces Sonny [segue]
10. It Takes 3
11. Rain [segue]
12. Hallucination Rain
13. Spooky Soup [segue]

It’s interesting how Uptown are clearly referring to the 19 June 1994 sequence, despite the fact that some of the titles do not match the proposed artwork. I’ve ruled out the possibility that they simply got to hear a copy of the CD and made educated guesses as to what the titles were, since nowhere on track 13 is the word “Spooky” actually mentioned. I think it’s more likely that this was an initial (possibly hand written) tracklist made prior to Prince and his team working on the cover art. If this is so, then it’s possible that The Exodus Has Begun may actually have been the working title before being shortened to Exodus.

2 December 1994 Configuration

It’s unknown as to what Prince’s intentions were for the initial version of Exodus. Was he serious about releasing it? Was it something that he felt needed additional work? Was it something that he was satisfied in keeping to himself? Who knows? However, come late 1994, additional recording would take place leading to a revised version of the album. What inspired the decision to revive this project? I can only speculate, however there are two possible explanations.

The first would be the fact that Prince’s original plans for releasing The Gold Experience fell through with Warner Brothers, leading Prince to revive Exodus as a work around to get some fresh music out. It’s also possible that Prince intended on using Exodus as a protest album to take a stand against WB. This is hinted at with the inclusion of Salve 2 The System (listed simply as Slave at the time) into the sequence, paired with Gold Experience outtake Acknowledge Me.

The second reason could be Warner Bros decision to release The Black Album around this time, since there are parallels between the two. The Black Album was essentially the kind of funky music that Prince could produce effortlessly and was happy to release anonymously. In much the same way, Exodus was an extremely funky album that Prince and the NPG worked on in their down time, with Prince happy to let the NPG take full credit (sort of). Could Prince’s intention have been to one up WB with Exodus?

The dark humor contained within The Black Album may have also inspired the direction that Exodus took in terms of the new segues that were introduced, and the character of Tora Tora. Note that on the released version of Exodus, Tora Tora adopts the same spooky electric style of voice that was used on Bob George.

A very low resolution image, believed to have been a scan of a Paisley Park work cassette, lists the sequence as such…

1-Operator Segue
2-Get Wild-7”
3-Slave/Acknowledge Me
4-Superhero
5-Count Segue
6-Count The Days
7-Sonny Segue
8-DJ Gets Jumped Segue
9-New Power Soul
10-Mad
11-Love, Thy Will Be Done
12-Funky
13-Proud Mary
14-NPG Bumrush The Ship Segue
15-Exodus
16-Funky Design

March 1995 Configurations (Seq-Mastered and Released Edit)

Before Exodus was finally released in March 1995, it underwent one more major revision. Again, recording continued into early 1995 and produced a handful of new tracks for a final Exodus sequence. Strangely, none of the songs that were added to the December configuration carried forward to the final sequence. The final version consisted of five songs from the original Exodus session (Get Wild, New Power Soul, Count The Days, Hallucination Rain, and The Exodus Has Begun). Everything else appears to be newly recorded after the configuration of the December sequence.

I’m curious as to why this was? It may have simply been that Prince and the NPG felt as if they could produce some stronger material, but maybe there was more to it than that? Maybe the inclusion of songs such as Love… Thy Will Be Done and Acknowledge Me, which Prince had already presented to WB for one project or another, highlighted a conflict of interest which would make it harder to pass the album off as solely an NPG project.

Whatever the reason, a master CD would be sequenced with the track list that we have all come to know as Exodus. However, the version on this master CD still wouldn’t reflect the released version exactly. (Huge thanks to Michael Van Huffel for his photographs, time and information.)

1. N.P.G. Operator intro
2. Get Wild *
3. segue
4. DJ Gets Jumped
5. New Power Soul
6. DJ Sedues Sonny
7. segue
8. Count The Days
9. The Good Life
10. Cherry, Cherry
11. segue
12. Return Of The Bump Squad
13. Mashed Potato Girl Intro
14. segue
15. Big Fun
16. New Power Day
17. segue
18. Hallucination Rain
19. NPG Bum Rush The Ship
20. The Exodus Has Begun *
21. outro

* It turns out that two of the tracks on this master copy (Get Wild and The Exodus Has Begun) were re-edited, seemingly at the last minute.

On the master CD, the second bar of Get Wild includes a sample / overdub of a female saying “But you do like music?” This sample can be heard on the original version of Get Wild that was released on the Prêt-A-Porter soundtrack. It was also included on the full length updated mix, which was used for the Get Wild music video. This bar was spliced out and replaced with a bar that only contained the drum beat (possibly one of the unused bars from the full length mix, however I’m uncertain as to which).

The Exodus Has Begun also contained samples / overdubs which Prince attempted to disguise / remove at the last minute. These relate to small phrases uttered by another female voice that repeat intermittently throughout the track. Of the three phrases, one was impossible for me to make out, one sounds as if she is saying “? nut in fucking side me ?” (it's probably nothing like that, just my freudient mind), and the one that was easy to make out was “put the icing on the fucking cake.”

One of these overdubs ("put the icing on the fucking cake") appears over the outro and was edited out of the final release completely with a cross fade (resulting in the released version being a few seconds shorter). However, several of these overdubs appear in the body of the song and couldn’t be removed simply through editing alone. Without resorting to making an entirely new mix of the song, Prince attempts to veil over the samples with record scratching and horn blasts.

The reason for these last minute changes may have been a result of sample clearance problems, but this is only a guess. I have no idea where these samples originated from.

[Edited 10/11/23 17:58pm]

Evidence, Leaks and Version History

“Every time you want it, I'll be live, bring a date
I mean computer, when its over press save”

1995 leaks: New Power Soul & Neon

The strife between Prince and Warner Bros. led to some fascinating bootleg releases around this time. With albums such as Come, The Gold Experience and Exodus struggling to reach store shelves, coupled with Prince trying to find new ways to circumvent WB, leaks were almost inevitable.

Amongst the prominent bootlegs available around this time was a series that I refer to as the “Precious Metal” bootlegs. Strictly speaking these albums were not a series as such. Some appear on unique labels, and others didn’t claim to be part of a record label at all. Having said that, they all share similar features (all focusing on 90s material with vibrant, all be it somewhat dated, digital artwork). I’m guessing that most of these were likely the products of the same team.

Platinum (1996) : I’ll Do Anything demos, more Come / Gold Experience era tracks, and recordings by John L Nelson.

Of these bootlegs, the main two I want to focus on are New Power Soul and Neon, as these were the earliest examples of leaked Exodus songs that I could pin down. When trying to work out which versions and edits of a track belong on which configuration, it often takes a little detective work. Fortunately, in the case of New Power Soul, the liner notes pretty much state outright that these versions belong to the December ‘94 configuration of the album.

From the NPGs second album “The Exodus”. The first version of the album was compiled on June 19th, 1994, but mixing continued into 1995. These tracks date from late 1994. “Proud Mary” features Derek Huges on vocals.

Love... Thy Will Be Done, Funky & Proud Mary : The only known Exodus versions. Unfortunately the end of Proud Mary is missing.

Of the songs that appear on the final release there aren’t any major differences, although there are some minor ones.

This bootleg didn’t cover every song on the December configuration. Interestingly however, all the ones that were missing leaked on another 1995 bootleg, Neon. It’s unknown as to whether this was co-ordinated, or if one release was taking up the slack for the other, but between these two bootlegs all the December songs are covered (although a few segues still remained unearthed).

On Neon, the tracks / versions are (in order of appearance). Slave, Superhero, Mad & Funky Design. Although alternate recordings / versions exist for each, these are all of the Sonny T. versions created specifically for Exodus. No alternate edits of these are known to exist.

It’s not possible to reconstruct the December ‘94 album using these two bootlegs alone (nor would I recommend trying). Pieces of certain songs (along with entire segues) are missing, the sound quality is far from pristine, and the tape speed isn’t accurate. However, considering that the liner notes of New Power Soul claim that these tracks were all from late 1994, combined with the fact that they all appear on the December sequence, I’m pretty certain that everything presented here is faithful to what was on that late ‘94 configuration. It’s this information which makes these two bootlegs noteworthy.

Additional: A CD-R bootleg of the December ‘94 configuration was reportedly in public circulation during the mid 90s, according to a 1996 issue of Uptown magazine (#25), with what is alleged to be all of the tracks in order (including the segues that were missing from New Power Soul and Neon). Although this was reported in 1996, it’s possible that this CD-R may have began circulating as early as 1995. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to track down a copy of such a CD-R, so I’m unable to confirm what the quality was like, or rule out whether or not all the tracks came from an authentic single source. It’s perfectly possible that this CD-R was Frankensteined in some form or fashion.

1998 leaks: Dreams & H2O

Between 1996 and 1997 there do not appear to be any further Exodus leaks (at least none that I could find). Some of the versions mentioned above were recycled on other bootlegs, but that was about it. On paper, the only tracks that appeared to be missing from the Exodus roster were It Takes 3 (the only full song) and the segue Spooky Soup (both of which were from the June ‘94 configuration).

In 1998, the bootleg label Thunderball came through. They released three triple CD sets of studio out-takes titled Dreams (TB 023-025), Cosmos (TB 060-062) and H2O (TB 088-090). Cosmos (which predominantly focused on 80s material) didn’t have anything Exodus related to offer, however Dreams contained the final missing song, It Takes 3, and H2O had a lot more to offer still.

On H2O, Disc 3, Tracks 7-11 are all songs from the December ‘94 sequence
07) Mad
08) Love… Thy Will Be Done
09) Funky
10) Proud Mary
11) Funky Design

Mad and Funky Design appear to be the same source as featured on Neon, all be it with a little bit of cassette noise reduction and a boost in volume. They actually sound pretty good here. Love… Thy Will Be Done, Funky and Proud Mary seem to have been given a bigger boost in sound quality (sounding significantly cleaner and a touch louder than they do on New Power Soul). However these tracks suffer from an unusual problem. During the transitions between each of the three tracks, a small portion of the music is missing. It’s only a small amount each time and they have been well edited, but the source isn’t complete. I think I may have discovered the reason for these edits, but I’ll go into more detail concerning these later (see 2011 leaks: The Exodus Has Begun). Again, as with New Power Soul, the end of Proud Mary is missing. Either Thunderball took all these tracks from New Power Soul & Neon to clean them up, or all of these bootlegs are working with the same incomplete source. (Looking at the acoustic spectrum data for the H2O tracks, I’m inclined to believe it’s the former).

19) NPG Outro : An additional piece of dialogue that naturally follows on from Spooky Soup. Either this was originally the final part of Spooky Soup (sequenced together as one complete track), or this was a hidden, unlisted track. I’m inclined to believe that the latter is the case, and I’ll go into more detail further on. (See 2011 Leaks: The Exodus Has Begun)

In conclusion, within the space of one year, Thunderball was able to leak…
* the final missing Exodus track (from June ‘94)
* two previously unearthed segues (also from June ‘94, one of which was completely unknown about at the time, being that it was unlisted)
* a handful of other tracks from June ‘94 in longer, unedited forms.

I know that in the past, the authenticity of all these versions belonging to a single source has been called into question. One prominent former employee even claimed that the long version of Hallucination Rain was in fact an extended version intended for the B-side of a Return of the Bump Squad 12” single, and that it was the album edit that we are more familiar with that was always destined for this album.

Personally however, I just can’t believe that this long version wasn't also intended for the initial album. I’m not claiming that anyone is lying, just possibly mistaken. If this chunk of material all came from multiple sources (for example, a set of unedited masters) then the effort that’s gone into making these all appear to be from one cohesive album is extraordinary. I’m not saying it’s impossible, I’m just saying that I’d be immensely surprised if that was the case. It’s just so much easier to reach the conclusion that Thunderball managed to get their hands on a copy of the June ‘94 configuration and that this is what was on it.

2000 leaks: The Work

Fast forward two years to 2000, and Thunderball undertake the most ambitious project regarding any Prince bootleg up until this point. They decide to create a multi volume set titled The Work, which attempted to cover every leaked Prince studio recording in circulation, in chronological order. Such a huge undertaking came with a handful of errors. From memory I believe that the odd fake remix crept in here and there. We now have a better understanding of the order that Prince recorded tracks in. Some titles may not have been entirely correct. However, pushing all of that to one side, this was an incredible set to own at the time. It was an education for the uninitiated.

One thing that is worth noting is that Thunderball attempted to do their own remastering, trying to keep everything sounding as consistent as possible in terms of EQ and volume. Although this was undesirable to many, the effect wasn’t too detrimental to the majority of the Exodus material. To my untrained ear, most of these tracks do not sound too bad. There are a couple of exceptions which I will note.

13) NPG Outro : As heard on H2O

As it appears, tracks 01-13 seem to represent the songs from the original June ‘94 configuration, with many of the versions containing considerably less edited than the ones on the final release. Count The Days has been omitted, likely due to it being identical to the released record, however it’s intro segue is present on account of it being longer.

The only exception here is the jam New Power Soul, which is actually fascinating. It’s evident that this version is inconsistent in terms of source, sound quality and tape speed, compared to everything else amongst these 13 tracks. This is not part of the original configuration. Furthermore, this version appears to be an album edit, whereas the version on ‘H2O’ was full length.

The reason why I find this edit so interesting is because it’s not the edit from the released album. It’s unique in that it’s clearly an album edit, but the dialogue Prince uses during the outro is slightly longer than on the released album, and he isn’t interrupted by the sound of a door slamming. This version appears to fill in the gap that was left by the original New Power Soul leak of 1995 (the album edit which was missing it’s ending). As such, this must be the version from December ‘94. Why Thunderball chose to include this version on The Work instead of of the original, longer version is anybodies guess.

The remaining tracks on this disc all appear to cover out-takes from December 1994. However, they don’t all appear to have come from the same source...
14) Slave 2 The System (source A)
15) Acknowledge Me (source A)
16) Super Hero (source A)
17) Outta Space (source A)
Source A – Appears to be newly sourced according to the acoustic spectrum data. These contain more data and sound better than they do on Neon and New Power Soul.

18) Mad (source B)
19) Funky Design (source B)
Source B – Appear to be the same cleaned up leaks found on H2O.

20) Sonny – The missing segue from December ‘94. What appears to be an alternate take of the “Ladies night at the club” segue, only this time with Prince as Tora Tora, refusing to speak. The only reason we know he is part of the skit is because Sonny states that he is speaking to someone in a mask.

21) Love...Thy Will Be Done (source C)
22) Funky (source C)
23) Proud Mary (source C)
Source C – The most complete version of these three songs, with the full ending of Proud Mary. It’s unknown as to whether the fade that happens at the end of the track appears on the source, or whether the track segued into NPG Bum Rush the Ship. The sound quality isn’t bad as such, however the EQ is quite dull (likely due to this being a tape source with cleaning effects applied). Should anyone wish to reconstruct the December ‘94 playlist at home, I would recommend this source, however it may be worth while applying some EQ effects just to brighten these tracks up a bit.

After listening to all the leaks up until this point, I am convinced that the June ‘94 album was sourced from a CD or CD-R copy, and the December ‘94 tracks have all been sourced from a cassette.

[Edited 10/11/23 17:58pm]

2011 leaks: The Exodus Has Begun

By this point, when you look at the patterns that have emerged concerning which tracks leaked alongside which others, coupled with observations on how the tracks were edited down overtime, it becomes easy to identify which versions of which tracks belong on which configurations. (See Track Versions below.)

Our understanding of the June ‘94 configuration was somewhat set in stone by the time a digital only package was released entitled The Exodus Has Begun (2011), presented by the label Digital Funk Bitch. Forum user, Vitriol, from Prince.org (https://prince.org/msg/7/359470) stated at the time of the release that “it's sourced from a real unreleased cd and is not a cut&paste job with outtakes of the era”. Is that so? The 14 tracks on the album all match the June ‘94 sequence, the sound quality is of a very high level (and consistent throughout), and all the versions are the longer ones that fans had speculated to belong on the original configuration. How can we tell for certain that this is all a single source and not just a compilation of already circulating material? While investigating this further I made some interesting discoveries.

When investigating bootlegged material, I often attempt to compare and synchronize leaks from various sources. This helps me identify things like variations in tape speed, or whether subtle edits or errors have crept into a particular version. When comparing the tracks on The Exodus Has Begun with it’s counterparts on The Work I ran into a frustrating problem. The tracks synchronized perfectly… for the most part. Throughout the body of the track they were frame by frame perfect (44,100 samples per second perfect). This was often up until the next track in the sequence (bear in mind that a lot of these tracks are segued together). So if the tracks transitioned seemingly perfectly, where was this disparity coming from. On closer inspection I found the answer.

It appears that both The Work and The Exodus Has Begun got these tracks from a CD source with an unusual quirk. Tiny, minuscule gaps between tracks lasting just a fraction of a second. I can’t say with absolute certainty where these gaps came from, but I do have a theory. In the late 90s when I first started burning CD-Rs, I encountered similar split second gaps in the audio where the index marks were placed. This only ever happened when I burnt CDs with embedded text information. It was only when I switched off the CD text information setting that I began creating flawless copies.

Bear in mind that the index marks created on both The Work and The Exodus Has Begun are not in the same spots as these gaps, nor are they in the same spots as eachother. Each bootlegger appears to have hand selected where they think an index mark best fits. If my theory is correct, I believe these tiny pauses may actually represent where Prince originally placed the index marks on the original June ‘94 Exodus CD, then both Thunderball and Digital Funk Bitch have sourced the audio from a near perfect CD-R copy of said album (all be it with these gaps).

If I’m right about these gaps appearing where the index marks should be, then it reveals that there was indeed a hidden 14th track, since one gap that was missed on both sources took place just before the “To find out what happens to our heros…” dialogue.

What caused the synchronization issue? It seems that both Thunderball and Digital Funk Bitch were wise to this problem and have attempted to close these gaps by editing them out. Unfortunately, it seems that Thunderball was a bit more heavy handed in their editing and have also removed some perfectly healthy frames of audio. This is how I’m able to tell that Digital Funk Bitch must have got hold of the source CD and did not just use Thunderball’s tracks, as their release includes tiny, minuscule amounts of material that was lost on The Work. I’m curious if whomever supplied Thunderball with the June ‘94 CD, also supplied them with a CD-R transfer of the December '94 cassette, since we experience a similar loss of material between tracks on H2O too.

However, not all of these gaps were discovered (something that both Thunderball and Digital Funk Bitch failed to achieve) as some still exist on both versions. There were some particularly tricky ones to find, especially as the album did contain some natural quiet spots between songs and segues. However, I was able to find and edit out all the remaining gaps carefully myself by increasing the volume by round 20db - 30db. This allowed me to identify gaps in the audio visually (as demonstrated above), even amongst periods of extremely quite background noise. Once all the gaps were accounted for and dealt with, the synchronization was perfect in all but one track.

The only place where I ran into further issues was with Hallucination Rain. When synchronizing The Work’s version with The Exodus Has Begun, the tracks ran seamlessly for the majority of the time, but went out of sync just before the outro. It’s at this point that I should note that although The Exodus Has Begun is the most faithful, complete version of an Exodus configuration that I could find in circulation, Hallucination Rain did contain a couple of audio glitches. There are two distinct clicks in the audio during the body of the piece (Time stamps 7:49 and 7:59), and during the outro there is audible evidence of disc rot. It’s possible that the sound of disc rot came from the Exodus CD-R source (not unusual for a CD-R which must have been at least a decade old by this point), however there may be another explanation.

I noticed that after the two clicks, there comes a point where a few frames of audio repeat on the Digital Funk Bitch version (this was the point at which the two sources went out of sync). I assumed that this may have been the result of some sort of error correction (gone wrong) to account for the earlier clicks, but after taking a closer look it appears as if one set of these frames has been slightly tweaked. I now believe that The Exodus Has Begun is not from a single source. I believe that the CD used as the original source (the one that created the bulk of this release) encountered a problem towards the end of the album (again, likely due to the CD-Rs age). I’m guessing that the two clicks we hear earlier on is evidence of things beginning to go wrong.

Up until this point, I had no reason to believe that this copy of the album didn’t come from a single source, but I reckon that Digital Funk Bitch had to resort to salvaging the end of the album from another source, and that the area I’ve identified where the frames repeat is the point at which the splice to a second source happened. So what source did Digital Funk Bitch use? This is where I discovered something frustrating.

Whenever I encounter audio errors on a bootleg, I always try to find multiple copies of that bootleg to try and rule out the possibility that the problem isn’t just on my copy. I got a few different copies of The Exodus Has Begun from friends and the errors I discovered on that were consistent throughout all of them. However, there was one bootleg where I experienced multiple errors that were not common throughout all copies. H2O.

This part of my investigation was extraordinary. I checked the Exodus tracks on my copy of H2O carefully, and noted down any audio errors I could find (pops, clicks, skips, jumps, disc rot etc). I then asked all my friends in the community if they had H2O, and if so, could they send me their copies. I must have received at least 8 different copies of H2O (a couple of which were freshly ripped that day especially for this experiment). Every single one of them contained some sort of audio error… but no two copies had the same errors! It was technically possible for me to create an error free disc of all the Exodus tracks by editing multiple copies of H2O together. This proves that there was nothing wrong with the music that Thunderball had at the time (at least as far as the Exodus tracks went), but the discs they used must have been cheap because they simply haven’t last the test of time, and these are pressed, silver back CDs.

The reason I’m highlighting this is because a common problem across (almost) all copies of H2O was audible disc rot towards the end of the disc (where Hallucination Rain ends). I believe that it was a copy of H2O that was used to salvage the end of The Exodus Has Begun bootleg, and that’s where the disc rot crept in.

Luckily, although most copies of H2O contained this disc rot, I was able to find at least one copy that didn’t. It had some jumps on earlier tracks, but I couldn’t hear any disc rot. I have since used this to fix my copy of The Exodus Has Begun properly, with no repeating frames, no disc rot (that I can make out), the clicks have been patched out, and no track marker gaps. It took some effort, but now I think I have something closer to Prince’s original June ‘94 master CD.

Addendum: While I was formatting this article for the site, it struck me that I never compared the acoustic spectrum data from Hallucination Rain on TEHB to it’s counterpart on H2O. I gave it a try and this is what I discovered...

The image above is the spectral data for Hallucination Rain on H2O. As you can see, it has a black line running through it which is usually the result of a cleaning effect used to suppress tape noise. (Not always necessarily cassette tape noise. It could be from a master tape or any consistent humming that has found it’s way onto a recording).

When compared with the data from The Exodus Has Begun, we can see that no such effects have been applied throughout the body of the track, however right at the end the black line appears again, at the exact point where I noticed the duplicate frames.

I’m 99% confident that my hunch was correct. The end was indeed salvaged from H2O. I’ve also checked the final Spooky Soup segue and the outro, and it appears that whatever problem that Digital Funk Bitch had with Hallucination Rain didn’t continue onto these segues. The only segment that was substituted was the closing part of Hallucination Rain.

September 2022: Warner Bros Exodus Cassette (The Master Sequence)

I’m guessing that the last minute edits that were made to Exodus have been common knowledge to a handful of the more prominent Prince collectors for some time now, but it wasn’t until September last year that the wider fan base learned about these for themselves. A digital transfer of an in-house studio cassette, branded with the WB logo on the inlay card, began circulating to reveal the subtle changes on both Get Wild and The Exodus Has Begun. The sound quality of this tape wasn’t amazing, and seems to be a faithful digital transfer (no cleaning effects or attempts at speed correction, etc.) but for reference it’s proved to be very valuable.

Although not circulating, a private collector was kind enough to grant me temporary access to a copy of the master CD that this sequence came from (no, I don’t have a copy of the files myself), but they did allow me to run some tests on the audio. Other than the edits described above to these two tracks, everything about this master CD is exactly the same in comparison to the released version. Everything synchronized perfectly. This leads me to believe that the last minute edits and overdubs were likely achieved by editing this master copy digitally, and at no point did Prince resort to going back to any master tapes. This was likely for reasons of time and expense.

That covers all of my development notes. If our understanding of all these configurations is correct, which versions of which tracks belong where?

[Edited 10/11/23 17:59pm]

Track Versions

Phase One

The Exodus Has Begun
Original Version [JUNE '94] : Contains “Icing” samples, no final shout-out to “his royal badness”, missing some of the backing vocals that appear on the released version, a long outro (segues abruptly into NPG Operator).
Updated Mix (Unedited) [DEC '94] : From what has been heard, this matches the unedited March ‘95 version, however since the ending isn't circulating we do not know whether or not this version has a closed ending, or segues into Funky Design.
Updated Mix (Unedited) [MAR '95] : Contains additional backing vocals (“Let’s Get Satisfied”), “Icing” samples and “his royal badness” shout-out (segues into album outro / snoring etc.)
Updated Mix (Edited) [RELEASED ON ALBUM] : Final version with additional backing vocals (“Let’s Get Satisfied”), “Icing” sample edited out and scratching overdubs covering various other samples. Includes “his royal badness” shout-out (segues into album outro / snoring etc.)

Get Wild
Original Version / Soundtrack Version [JUNE '94] : included on the Prêt A Porter soundtrack with small portion of NPG Operator
Updated Mix Edit (with sample) [DEC '94 & MAR '95] : Includes “You do like music” sample
Updated Mix Edit (sample removed) [RELEASED ON ALBUM] : Without “You do like music” sample
+ Many additional remixes (maxi-single, promos, samplers etc.)

Count The Days
Original Version [ON ALL CONFIGURATIONS]
+ Radio edit (single only)

New Power Soul
Original Version [JUNE '94] : Full version. Outro dialogue is very different to what is heard on the final album with no audience overdub.
Edited Version 1 [DEC '94] : Album edit. Outro dialogue is a slightly longer version of what is heard on the released album. By this point the audience can be heard in the background.
Edited Version 2 [MAR '95 & RELEASED ALBUM] : Album edit with shorter Prince outro dialogue, interrupted by door slamming SFX

It Takes 3
Original Version [JUNE '94] : Only known version

Hallucination Rain
Original Version [JUNE '94] : Full length (segues into Spooky Soup)
Edited Version [MAR '95 & RELEASED ALBUM] : Segues into ‘NPG Bum Rush the Ship’

Phase Two

Slave/Acknowledge Me
Exodus Album Recording [DEC '94] : Believed to be presented as one track
+ Not including Prince’s solo versions ‘Acknowledge Me’ / ‘Slave’ / ‘Slave 2 The System’

Superhero
Exodus Album Recording [DEC '94] : Incorporates Outa-Space
+ Original Version from Blankman OST + Single mixes

Mad
Exodus Album Recording [DEC '94]
+ Prince’s original version

Love... Thy Will Be Done [DEC '94]
Funky [DEC '94]
Proud Mary [DEC '94]
Only known version of this suite

Funky Design
Exodus Album Recording [DEC '94]
+ Prince’s original version

Phase Three

The Good Life
Original Version [MAR '95 & RELEASED ALBUM]
+ Various remixes and promo edits (Big City, Bullets Go Bang, Platinum People etc.)

Cherry, Cherry
Original Version [MAR '95 & RELEASED ALBUM] : Only known version

Return Of The Bump Squad
Original Version [MAR '95 & RELEASED ALBUM] : Only known version

Big Fun
Original Version [MAR '95 & RELEASED ALBUM] : Only known version

Segues

NPG Bum Rush The Ship
Original Version [JUNE '94] : Does not contain the "Meanwhile, somewhere in outa-space” overdub.
Updated Version [MAR '95 & RELEASED ALBUM] : Contains the "Meanwhile, somewhere in outa-space” overdub.
It's unknown which of these two version appears on the December 1994 configuration.

NPG Operator
Original Version [ON ALL CONFIGURATIONS]

Sonny Turns The TV Off
Original Version [JUNE '94] : With “Now that I’m running things...” line
Edited Version [DEC '94, MAR '95 & RELEASED ALBUM] : Without the additional line

DJ Gets Jumped
Original Version [ON ALL CONFIGURATIONS]

DJ Seduces Sonny
Original Version [JUNE '94] : With long intro
Edited Version [MAR '95 & RELEASED ALBUM] : With shorter intro

Gettin’ the Soup Ready
Original Version [JUNE '94, MAR '95 & RELEASED ALBUM]

Spooky Soup (plus unlisted album outro)
Original Version [JUNE '94]

Sonny
Original Version [DEC '94] : Where Tora Tora is mute
Revised Version [MAR '95 & RELEASED ALBUM] : Where Tora Tora has a distorted voice (Released on AUS CD)
Revised Version [DAMAGED GLASS MASTER] : Where Tora Tora has a distorted voice. Contains a dip in the audio. Not strictly speaking an alternative version, but is so prominent that I thought it was worth mentioning. (Damaged master released on EU CD)

Move Nigger!
Original Version [MAR '95 & RELEASED ALBUM] : Clarity, this segue has never been officially titled

Mashed Potato Girl Intro (& Segue)
Original Version [MAR '95 & RELEASED ALBUM]

New Power Day
Original Version [MAR '95 & RELEASED ALBUM]

Outro
Original Version [MAR '95 & RELEASED ALBUM]

Best Sources

In summary, for the June ‘94 tracks, I found the best source to be The Exodus Has Begun by Digital Funk Bitch, although bear in mind that Hallucination Rain does contain some audio glitches. If you can find a clean copy of H2O (not an easy task given how the discs appear to be degrading over time) or The Work, you may be able to patch / salvage this one.

For the December ‘94 outtakes, no source is perfect, but personally I thought that Thunderball’s The Work was a valentine effort. Personally I would tweak the EQ of the Love Thy Will Be Done / Funky / Proud Mary suite.

For the master sequence, unless you have a copy of the master CD, you may be better off cutting your loses and just play the actual album, given that the edits are relatively minor. If you are curious to hear the differences then a cassette copy has been in circulation for about a year now.

[Edited 10/11/23 18:00pm]

vaultcurator!!!

The Exodus Story

19 June 1994

Originally, back when the album only had a six jam line up, the story told between songs was relatively coherent (all be it quite comic book). Each scene follows the antics of Sonny T and the NPG crew.

The album begins with the NPG assuming the role of space pirates, commandeering a vessel containing a unique invention, the endorphin machine. It isn’t explained explicitly what this machine is, but according to the ship’s captain it is capable of ‘taking over all the minds of the world.’

With the spacecraft now under the control of the NPG, Sonny T returns home, evidently stressed with something weighing on his mind. While in bed with his other half, the stress becomes too much for him, leading him to turn the TV off by shooting it. On the final album, a line dialogue is cut which offers some explanation as to why he was feeling this way. “Now that I’m running things, I just hope I don’t become the very thing that I’m rebelling against”.

It can only be speculated as to what was meant by this. Personally, I’m guessing that the line was inspired by Prince striving to go independent, fearing that he may eventually end up turning into the corporate machine that he was leaving. It’s only a guess. I could be completely off. It’s also curious as to why Prince chose to cut this line which offers context for the skit.

Sonny later rejoins the NPG at a nightclub where they assault DJ Brother Jules, seemingly offended that the venue was playing records as opposed to having real music being played by a live band. Interestingly, this skit is the first instance of Prince sneaking in his old unreleased material, as the record that Brother Jules was playing was Prince’s then unreleased song Dream Factory. Later versions of Exodus would also include other small snippets of unreleased songs such as Days of Wild.

DJ Brother Jules would later bring Sonny T. what initially appeared to be a peace offering in the form of a couple of ladies. It turns out that these ladies were part of a plan to spike Sonny with a substance (presumably some sort of drug) referred to as hallucination rain. The ladies successfully drug Sonny by mixing him up a batch of soup which sends him on a psychedelic trip. This trip being the vehicle for the incredible track, Hallucination Rain. It’s here that the story ends on a cliffhanger with the narrator reading “To find out what happens to our heros, tune in to the full length CD entitled 'The NPG’s New Power Soul', coming soon on NPG records.” Prince would partly fulfill this prophesy with the third NPG album, 1998’s New Power Soul. However, this was a straight album of music with no further reference to the realm of Exodus.

Despite the fact that this story was rather cartoonish, it at least made canonical sense. However, this base story begins to fragment as the album develops.

Although Prince was involved in the initial acting segments of Exodus, he only played minor, comic relief characters (Ensign Elm during NPG Bum Rush the Ship, and the drunk during New Power Soul). At no point did he play a member of the NPG. By December this would change.

2 December 1994

On the second attempt at structuring the Exodus album, the track Hallucination Rain had been cut (a mistake in my opinion, given what a fan favorite it is). As such, all references to Hallucination Rain or Spooky Soup have been cut from the story. The story now begins a few tracks into the album during the ‘Turning off the TV’ sequence. The line about ‘becoming the thing I’m rebelling against’ has also been cut. As such, this serves as a strange introduction to Sonny T. as a character.

After the song Count The Days we return to Sonny during an original version of the “Ladies night at the club” segue, only this time there is more ambiance and much less dialouge. Sonny is audibly walking to his car when he briefly refers to an acquaintance he is walking with.

“And that no talking, silent motherfucker. How can you see with that mask on? Fuck that! Put me in the trunk!”

And there it is, a cryptic clue. A silent member of the NPG posse, who will be with them throughout this adventure. It’s unknown as to what Prince’s intention was at this time, but it seems that he initially planned on doing the Tora Tora thing mute. Did the name Tora Tora exist at this stage? Who knows? Either way, the vocal / spooky electric Tora Tora wasn’t born just yet.

The NPG go on to assault Brother Jules and preform New Power Soul, however Jules wouldn’t attempt to spike Sonny with drugs on this occasion. Instead we re-join the NPG live on stage (at least the overdubbed audience would have you believe that this was the case) as they preform a number of tracks before leaving the planet as they head to outer space. It’s here at the end of the story that they take over the space craft containing the endorphin machine.

Since the end of this version is unheard by the fan base at large, it is unknown if there is any further conclusion to the story after The Exodus Has Begun, but the album itself ends with the track Funky Design. (An odd final choice. I see this more as a bonus track after the finale that is The Exodus has Begun.)

The story went through some chopping and changing, and actually plays a smaller role on the album this time around. Despite this, there is still a semblance of cohesion to it. That would all be thrown out of the window with the master sequence.

March 1995

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the messiest sequence in the development of Exodus. On this occasion, anything goes. Although fragments of the original story do still exist, they are lost among sketches, dream sequences, fictional TV broadcasts and whatever else. Although the December sequence did commit the sin of featuring two skits back to back on one occasion, it becomes a prevalent problem during this sequence. To make matters more confusing, some segues have their own titles, and some are simply listed as ‘segue’. Everything is a mess here. A beautiful, delicious, obscene mess, but still a mess.

On this configuration, the story starts during the now revised “Ladies night at the club” sketch, and not only are we introduced to Sonny T, but we are now officially introduced to his sidekick, the formidable Tora Tora (pitch shifted voice and all). After Tora tells a mama joke at the expence of Sonny (which due to an error on a European master copy, most people didn’t actually get to hear) the band heads off to the club.

DJ Brother Jules is ambushed by the NPG, they perform New Power Soul, and Jules introduces Sonny to his two ladies of ill intent. As Jules walks away he alludes to his plan of having the girls spike Sonny with hallucination rain, however that doesn’t actually happen.

Right after the seduction sketch, we are now back at Sonny’s place where he is making love to his other half. He gets upset, shoots the TV and Count The Days begins. The next skit we hear is the “Move Nigger” segue which serves as more of an intro to Return of the Bump Squad and has nothing to do with the overall story.

After Return of the Bump Squad we hear Sonny return home. From the dialogue it implies that he’s been working. His other half is MIA so he’s forced to cook for himself. As he’s cooking he turns on the TV (he must have bought a new one) and two pieces of the fiction play out simultaneously.

On the TV a comedy sketch plays out involving Prince playing a character more akin to Jamie Starr, and in the “real world” Sonny discovers that his other half has left him since all he cares about is music. Sonny abandons the cooking and leaves, but the TV sketch plays on and leads into the next number, Big Fun.

At this point it’s been established that Sonny, Tora Tora, the NPG, DJ Brother Jules, the two Hallucination Rain ladies, and Sonny’s GF all exist in this universe. The Jamie Starr character and the Mashed Potato girl are fiction within the fiction.

There is one last major segue before the album outro, New Power Day. Michael calls Sonny and tells him to turn on ‘XTV’. Here Michael and Sonny observe the wildest sketch on the album, where we are introduced to a whole plethora of colourful characters. During New Power Day we are introduced to our main protagonist with a deep, pitch shifted voice (possibly Tora Tora again?), the whiny voiced mugger, the protagonist’s homies, and Janelle (who was doing some “wrong shit”).

This is where we run into a continuity problem. If the protagonist from XTV is indeed Tora, then he exists as both Sonny’s band mate in “reality” and the protagonist on the TV at the same time. On the other hand, maybe Tora only actually appears once on the whole album, and this protagonist is someone else entirely. Either way, the mugger and Janelle both appear to be fictional characters within this TV show.

After the program ends we bump into the biggest continuity problem on the album. Once the show has finished, Sonny goes to sleep and dreams about the two women he met in the club. Here he dreams that he is drugged by them which results in the Hallucination Rain style trip. Once the trip part of his dream ends he then flys to outer space to steal a space craft along with the rest of the NPG. This comes to a close when Sonny wakes up to realise that he’s late for band practice.

In summery, DJ Brother Jules did intend on drugging Sonny but for some reason his ladies fail to follow through with the plan. Afterwards, Sonny (seemingly unaware of this plan) ends up dreaming about said ladies in which they actually do manage to drug him! Like I say, the continuity is a mess in this configuration.

Surprisingly, when you think about it, despite this being the most barmy version of Exodus (the mashed potato girl, Tora Tora’s homies ripping some guy’s eye out, climbing through a window and tripping over Janelle’s bruised booty) it’s actually the one version that is most grounded in reality. The most extreme things that happen in this version is the NPG beating up a DJ and Sonny T. shooting his television. All the really outlandish stuff such as going to outer space, the endorphin machine, the hallucinogenic soup, that’s all dream sequences and TV sketches. Anything presented as the “real world” could feasibly happen.

The point I’m trying to make in a long-winded way is that Exodus started with a simple story, but as the album developed that got completely lost in the madness. I’m inclined to believe that the protagonist in the XTV sketch was supposed to be Tora Tora, but this version of Exodus isn’t supposed to make canonical sense. It’s presented as a fever dream where everything is both reality and fiction at the same time. I don’t think that this was a creative choice. More that Prince and the band were just having fun with it and didn’t much care about the continuity.

[Edited 10/11/23 18:01pm]

Likely Fakes

Before wrapping up, I just wanted to draw your attention to some likely fake inlay cards that have been circulating. I first saw these when they were shared with me on X. Initially I was very excited to see them, however as time has gone on I’ve begun to call their authenticity into question. It’s perfectly possible that there are alternate edits and sequences of Exodus that we are unaware of, at the same time I don’t believe that’s what these are. One reason I feel so strongly about calling these out is because resource site PrinceVault.com appears to have used both of these as a reference for track naming conventions and running times. I wish to set the record straight.

Fake Inlay Card 1 (Dated June 19, 1994)

1) Note that both these inlay cards claim that there is a full version of NPG Bum Rush The Ship that clocks in at 3:48. The only place where I’ve ever seen this extended segue referenced is on these cards and I’ve seen no evidence to suggest that such a track exists. Bear in mind that both Thunderball and Digital Funk Bitch appear to have had access to a copy of the June ‘94 version of the album, yet this longer intro has never surfaced? One other minor detail is that “Bum Rush” is spelled out as two words (as it was on the final album), yet on both the original June ‘94 Exodus artwork, seemingly up until December ‘94 (according to the apparent Paisley Park Exodus cassette label) Prince was spelling ‘Bumrush’ as one word.
2) Just a minor thing, but it’s strange how both inlay cards label Sonny Turns The TV Off / Count Segue as Count The Days Intro. These inlay cards were allegedly created about six months apart at separate locations, yet they both used the same naming convention for the segue which isn’t seen anywhere else?
3) Claiming that the Count segue is 43 seconds long and that DJ Seduces Sonny was 38 seconds long. These are the short edit running times. Both segues appeared in full on the June ‘94 configuration.
4) Album edit of Hallucination Rain. This does actually match up with the claim that the long version was never intended for the album, and was only intended to be included on the B-side of a Return Of The Bump Squad 12” single. However, this doesn’t match up with any of the material that has leaked. Wherever a pool of tracks have leaked from this configuration, it’s always been the longer form versions. It’s perfectly possible that Prince made the initial version that is circulating and then decided to give the album a trim (unlikely since it was only a short album to begin with), however if he did decide to do that, why extend NPG Bum Rush The Ship?
5) I’m not overly familiar with in house studio discs, but they strike me as the sort of things that would list whether or not they included hidden tracks.
6) According to the inlay, this CD was created as a reference from a master DAT dated 16 March 1994. The idea that Prince and the NPG could record the basic tracking for 7 semi improvised songs in a single day, I can believe. The idea that Prince could have a fully fleshed out, over dubbed and edited album, along with 7 finished segues connecting all the songs by the following day? I know Prince is good, but bloody hell!

Fake Inlay Card 2 (Dated 12/2/94)

1) Lists the 7th track as DJ Seduces Sonny, when it is in fact supposed to be the Sonny Segue. Why would DJ Brother Jules attempt to bait and drug Sonny before he gets jumped by the NPG? That entire plot line revolving around the seduction and soup was cut from this version of the album completely, so why would this skit be here? Not only does it list the wrong segue, it even includes the DJ Seduces Sonny running time of 38 seconds. The Sonny segue is closer to 50 seconds.
2) This, for me, is the biggest red flag. Here the running time for Proud Mary is 3:39. This was the exact running time of the incomplete, partial leak that began circulating in 1995. The complete track is almost 45 seconds longer. Whoever made this looked up the running time on a bootleg but failed to check that it was the entire track.

There is no doubt in my mind that these inlay cards have been fabricated. God knows why. As a result I would like the staff over at Prince Vault to consider all the evidence I have presented here carefully.

I would also like to end this deep dive by presenting my final list of Exodus configurations for Prince Vault’s consideration...

Final Configuration List

Unknown Date 1994

01. THE EXODUS HAS BEGUN
02. GET WILD
03. COUNT THE DAYS
04. IN TAKES THREE
05. NEW POWER SOUL
06. HALLUCINATION RAIN
Possible configuration based on preliminary artwork by J.C.Munson. [SOURCE]

19 June 1994

01. npg bumrush the ship
02. THE EXODUS HAS BEGUN
03. npg operator
04. GET WILD
05. sonny turns the t.v. off
06. COUNT THE DAYS
07. d.j. gets jumped
08. NEW POWER SOUL
09. d.j. seduces Sonny
10. IT TAKES 3
11. gettin’ the soup ready
12. HALLUCINATION RAIN
13. spooky soup
14. unlisted outro
Date provided by Uptown Magazine. Tracklist according to artwork by J.C.Munson. [SOURCE]

2 December 1994

01. Operator Segue
02. Get Wild-7”
03. Slave/Acknowledge Me
04. Superhero
05. Count Segue
06. Count The Days
07. Sonny Segue
08. DJ Gets Jumped Segue
09. New Power Soul
10. Mad
11. Love, Thy Will Be Done
12. Funky
13. Proud Mary
14. NPG Bumrush The Ship Segue
15. Exodus
16. Funky Design
Track list according to Paisley Park in house cassette tape [SOURCE]

March 1995 Master Sequence

01. N.P.G. Operator intro
02. Get Wild*
03. segue
04. DJ Gets Jumped
05. New Power Soul
06. DJ Sedues Sonny
07. segue
08. Count The Days
09. The Good Life
10. Cherry, Cherry
11. segue
12. Return Of The Bump Squad
13. Mashed Potato Girl Intro
14. segue
15. Big Fun
16. New Power Day
17. segue
18. Hallucination Rain
19. NPG Bum Rush The Ship
20. The Exodus Has Begun*
21. outro
* Unedited versions that do not appear on the final release.
According to a reference cassette that began circulating in 2022.

Released Album

01. N.P.G. Operator intro
02. Get Wild
03. segue
04. DJ Gets Jumped
05. New Power Soul
06. DJ Sedues Sonny
07. segue
08. Count The Days
09. The Good Life
10. Cherry, Cherry
11. segue
12. Return Of The Bump Squad
13. Mashed Potato Girl Intro
14. segue
15. Big Fun
16. New Power Day
17. segue
18. Hallucination Rain
19. NPG Bum Rush The Ship
20. The Exodus Has Begun
21. outro

Special Thanks To...

Michael Van Huffel ● J.C.Munson ● SciFiFilmNerd ● Mr. Purp7e Mu2ic ● Night Child ● Mr Ant ● Danny ● Brandon ● Joris ● Per Nilsen & all the Uptown Staff ● Everyone at Prince Vault ● Everyone at Schkopi ● Everyone who was kind enough to share music with me to study ● The private collector (you know who you are)

This shit is dedicated to the memory of his royal badness.
I know his name ain’t motherfucking Prince. Rest in peace, nigger!

[Edited 10/11/23 18:02pm]

lustmealways said:

vaultcurator!!!

Hey Lust

Wow, that was an amazing write-up, thanks for that! One of my favorite albums, great tracks, some killer live versions too...hopefully one day somebody who actually knows Prince's music and has taste will put together a box set of Exodus and Gold Nigga, with a bunch of live rehersal sessions & concerts at Paisley Park during this time - would be killer.

Oh, you're back!

Thanks for doing the work.

There is a bootleg titled "Exodus (V.2)" on the NPR label. It contains the 2nd December '94 configuration, and claims to be sourced from a disc that was due to be presented to WB before Prince changed his mind.

Iirc, this boot appeared around the same time as "The Exodus Has Begun" from DFB.

I don't know how genuine it is, but I thought I'd mention it for those who wish to seek it out.

mb71 said:

Thanks for doing the work.

There is a bootleg titled "Exodus (V.2)" on the NPR label. It contains the 2nd December '94 configuration, and claims to be sourced from a disc that was due to be presented to WB before Prince changed his mind.

Iirc, this boot appeared around the same time as "The Exodus Has Begun" from DFB.

I don't know how genuine it is, but I thought I'd mention it for those who wish to seek it out.

Just checking back on info about this. The track "Get Wild" was replaced with a track from another boot, as the disc this was sourced from suffered a scratch on that particular track.
Everything else is as is apparently.

Epic work, Vas! Huge thanks!

By the way, there's always been one thing regarding 'Segue #4' (the one after 'Mashed Potato Girl Intro') that I have never been quite able to find any further info about. As you remember, there are a number of cars passing by playing music. No doubt the first car is playing 'Days of Wild' at 00:48. Second one plays 'Race' at 2:09, but what about the third car at 2:37?? I know Prince's released and unreleased catalogue like the palm of my hand, but those drums and bass line...? I have absolutely no idea. I open the question as well to anyone else, who may have better ears than mine or read somewhere about the title of that song.

Nice job!

its so cool to remember how you used to get bootlegs like this issued when material wasnt available

i know you get leaks now, but idk, im nostalgic for this stuff.

what I'm most interested in with this project is where Return Of The Bump Squad and Big Fun came from and what the story behind those 2 is.

Great article. Literally read everyword rather than speed reading. Thank you.

LILpoundCAKE said:

what I'm most interested in with this project is where Return Of The Bump Squad and Big Fun came from and what the story behind those 2 is.

That part.

VasChristian said:

Hi everyone. I hope you are all keeping well.

I’ve written an article on the development of Exodus and wanted to share it here.

Wow, the detail in this article is stunning!!! What a fantastic, fascinating read. Thank you!

i didn't really pay attention before your post here, but that change in segues storyline is quite jarring, although, i like how it turned out!

Prince's cabaret is still a little known gem in his cannon of talents!!!

Also, i always wondered why Sonny T's "F#ck that!" was edited out while the rest of the album was jam-packed with f-bombs!

Thanks for the write-up, VC!

[Edited 10/13/23 10:32am]

Ndorphinmachina said:

Superb write up. The Tora Tora persona was exclusive to the Exodus album. I remember back in the 90s there were a few CD-ROM bootlegs, I forget if it was "Metropolis" or "Freedom (2.0?)". One of them had a brief video of Prince as Tora Tora facing the camera saying "Kicking the hot wax from uptown to Mars, This is Tora Tora and I'm here to say everybody's a star, you just gotta get on the big dipper, so you can be pulled back on the world" What was the official use for that?

I think that was Freedom 2.0 on the Moonraker label?

Sooo cool. Love this album and band

Whoa! Thanks for this!