The Chocolate Invasion

NPG Records

“Trax From The NPG Music Club: Volume 1”

I had planned to do nothing in 1999 except reflect. I deeded time off from the industry. Everyone said ‘But this is your year!’ I stopped, I broke the pattern.

Released throughout 2001 and 2002 as separately downloadable MP3s from Prince’s subscription website and fan club npgmusicclub.com, many of the tracks were later re-released compiled into two digital albums in March 2004. The first of volume of these albums, The Chocolate Invasion, features tracks recorded at Paisley Park Studios between 1999 and 2001. The Chocolate Invasion features most of the tracks Prince produced for a full retail album he intended to release in 2000 titled High. With his focus turned to recording The Rainbow Children, High instead provided the bulk of the material for NPG Music Club, half the album’s tracks were re-homed into the configuration of The Chocolate Invasion.

Prince planned to offer all the digital material of NPG Music Club in physical format also, issued as a 7-CD retail set, but that too was abandoned due to manufacturing and logistical challenges. The content of just two of the seven planned albums came to pass – The Chocolate Invasion as volume 1 and The Slaughterhouse as volume 2. The albums were offered for download from NPG Music Club for $9.99 each, in the month prior to the release of his next project Musicology.

The Dance was later re-worked in 2005 and the updated version released in 2006 on Prince’s album 3121. Unlike other tracks on the 29 March 2004 compilation, the version of The Dance issued with The Chocolate Invasion was not previously available on NPG Music Club. Mariah Carey was offered Vavoom and even came to Paisley Park have Prince play it on the studio console. She declined it and the track was instead uploaded to NPG Music Club.  

The instrumental Gamillah was one of the tracks intended for High. It is named after Manuela Testolini’s real estate business Gamillah Holdings Inc, from which Prince purchased their home on an exclusive road in Toronto named The Bridle Path in October 2002 for $5.5 million. It is more so interesting this is the sole track released by Prince that had drawn inspiration from his second wife.

Prince’s then dancer Tomasina Parrott, stage named Geneva, is pictured in the artwork of Supercute, the intended single for High and instead The Chocolate Invasion‘s single, first available from the merchandise stalls at Prince’s 14 April 2000 concert performed at Atlanta, Georgia, as well as during the weeklong open house event Prince: A Celebration hosted at Paisley Park that June.

The title of the compilation get’s its name from the lyrics of Judas Smile, in which Prince takes another pop at the music industry for hoodwinking artists into agreements that offer low reward in return, so proclaims “The Chocolate Invasion starts here.”

High (aborted album)

Of the tracks included in The Chocolate Invasion six were earlier intended for release of an aborted album named High, a completed studio album of ten tracks at a total running time of 47:12, Prince had been working on at Paisley Park during the summer of 2000. Two others (Golden Parachute and The Daisy Chain) were included on the companion release The Slaughterhouse. U Make My Sun Shine and When Will We B Paid? were High’s only tracks to receive a retail release – U Make My Sun Shine and Supercute, intended as the promotional singles. The remaining intended for the album My Medallion was separately available on NPG Music Club but omitted from the 2004 compilations. High album was announced on Prince’s website NPG Online Ltd on 8 August 2000 and planned for release later that year. But having taken up the Jehovah Witness faith, the tracks were considered too inappropriate and High was abandoned to clear way for Prince’s more meaningful project The Rainbow Children. The tracks intended for High were instead scattered as individual releases uploaded to NPG Music Club throughout year one of the platform.

Performers

Vocals / all Instr

Prince

Keyboards

Morris Hayes ^{Underneath The Cream}

Flute

Najee ^Gamillah

Vocals

Angie Stone ^{U Make My Sun Shine}

Backing vocals

Mikki White (Milenia) ^{U Make My Sun Shine}

Malikah White (Milenia) ^{U Make My Sun Shine}

Niyoki White (Milenia) ^{U Make My Sun Shine}

Tia White (Milenia) ^{U Make My Sun Shine}

Kip Blackshire ^High

David Schwartz "DVS" ^High

Data

Production

Prince

Label

NPG Records

Distribution

NPG Records

Cover/Design

Sam Jennings and Debbie McGuan

Released

20 years ago on 29 March 2004

Running Time

48:57

US Chart Peak

Ineligible

UK Chart Peak

Did not chart

Prince Album

#29

Orig. Format

Tracklist

1. When Eye Lay My Hands On U (3:43) ³
2. Judas Smile (6:35)
3. Supercute (4:15) ^{1 & 3}
4. Underneath The Cream (4:01) ³
5. Sex Me Sex Me Not (5:44)
6. Vavoom (4:37)
7. High (5:07) ³
8. The Dance (4:43) ⁴
9. Gamillah (3:11) ³
10. U Make My Sun Shine

    U Make My Sun Shine(2001)
    [duet with Angie Stone] (7:05) ^{2 & 3}

Released as a single

¹ Sold as a CD single on Hit N Run Tour.
² Later released as a standalone retail CD single.
³ Intended for the aborted High album.
⁴ Alternate to 3121 version.

Singles from The Chocolate Invasion

Supercute

NPG Records

Released

14 April 2001

US Chart Peak

Ineligible

UK Chart Peak

No Release

Format

1. Supercute (4:18)
2. Underneath The Cream (4:00)

The Chocolate Invasion – review

Volume one of what was supposed to be a seven disk set The Chocolate Invasion transpired only to be released with volume two, The Slaughterhouse. Comprising ten tracks (or for the sake of correct terminology “trax”) these are the cream of the crop of the MP3s separately available during the lifespan of NPG Music Club when Prince lost his interest in that by 2004, when he started servicing ‘lifetime’ subscription with songs previously available. The Chocolate Invasion is therefore excluded by many from Prince’s studio album discography but it is in all essence a compilation of previously unreleased and studio-finished music, and if Crystal Ball was always readily included then so should this. So is there anything good in this collection? Six songs are from Prince’s aborted High album, the LP which was deemed unworthy and sacrificed in favour of the more spirited The Rainbow Children. The Dance is the only track to receive a full commercial release via 3121, albeit The Chocolate Invasion version is the original, a fact that underlines this track as the best in the collection. Others worthy of seeking out are When Eye Lay My Hands On U, Underneath The Cream and Vavoom. Because The Chocolate Invasion is a compilation rather than a stand-alone collection of songs conceived for project it makes quite a eclectic listening experience but a good document of Prince’s most undervalued era.

The Chocolate Invasion is rated 3 out of 5 by Goldies Parade.

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