Newpower Soul

Newpower Soul is a 1998 album by The New Power Generation, but is de facto a Prince album (his stage name at that time being an unpronounceable symbol). The album was announced as a "Prince"-album in a press release issued by his publicist, but mere days later his official website at the time claimed those were mere rumors.

The album title has a long history in Prince's songs. In 1988, "New Power Soul" was a lyric in the Lovesexy top ten hit, "Alphabet St." and was also part of the album art (written in the form of an arrow). A year later, the hit "Batdance" also had a segment repeating "Power Soul". This was sampled later on Carmen Electra's debut album (which was primarily written by Prince). The 1992 song "Love 2 the 9's", from the Love Symbol Album, features the lyrics "Stay awake 4 4teen hours, Listen 2 the band play New Power Soul". In 1995, The New Power Generation's second album, Exodus contained a mostly instrumental track with the title "New Power Soul" and a spoken outtake from the album prompted the listener to await the next NPG album, Newpower Soul. "New Power" was contracted to "Newpower" for the later album and song. Indeed, the whole concept is most likely related to the New Power Generation, which was also mentioned back on Lovesexy.