Here are the drummers in Prince's career, so far.
1) 78 until now: Prince himself
2) 79 - 86: Bobby Z.
3) 87 - 89: Sheila E.
4) 90 - 96: Michael B.
5) 97 - 99: Kirk Johnson
6) 00 - 04: John Blackwell

My favourits are:
1) Sheila E. (not bad - 4 a girl! )
2) Michael B.
3) John Blackwell
4) Prince
5) Bobby Z.
6) Kirk Johnson

1 Sheila
2 John Blackwell
3 Michael B
4 Bobby Z
5 Prince
6 Kirk J

1. The linn drum machine
2. Sheila E
3. Prince

1. Michael Bland
2. John Blackwell
3. Sheila E.

on any given night, take your pic... BUT Mike B. is the cat. his timing & flavor is unmatched.

Bran

1. John Blackwell
2. Sheila E
3. Bobby Z. - y'all give him too low marks. The stuff he did live on the Parade tours was mesmerizing.
4. Michael B.
5. Prince.
6. Kirky J.

Out of all the questions for band members, picking the best drummer always is the hardest for me because each have a unique style that are different to each other. They're ALL good in their own unique way. Even to a certain extent Kirky J could make good beats, his downfall was creating them on really thin sounding drum machines which lacked punch. Bobby for the most part was never really highlighted as a drummer because the Linn drum was THE sound of The Revolution and if u watch alot of the live stuff, he was triggering the Linn on and off and hitting cymbals, but he's chops are better than Kirky's. Sheila is a great percussionist first and foremost and brings alot of flavour into her patterns. Michael B is strictly to the beat, a hard hitter and has speed.
I have to say though John Blackwell takes the crown. Alot rate Michael B over John B, but I think that people like the sound of Michael's kit (with a tight snare) over John's (who uses duct tape on the skins to dampen the sound) Even I think I read somewhere Prince asked Blackwell for that tight sound and Blackwell came up with a comprimise with Prince to meet him half way, little bit of tone & a little bit of deadness.
Also, just give one spin to TRC and you will see Blackwell's unique style, alot of colour & dynamics that no other drummer has ever shown, and to top it all off the showmanship.

Get Blackwell's DVD and recoginise!

SHEILA!!

1) John Blackwell
2) Michael Bland
3) Sheila E.
4) Prince
5) Kirk Johnson (I think yall are judging him on his programming skills and not the drumming skills)
6) Bobby Z.

Michael B.
John Blackwell
Sheila E.
Bobby Z.
Kirk J.

Prince doesn't get behind the skins enough for me to classify him as a drummer, but on the rare and occasional drum solo, he rocks.

Bobby Z. was really good and did alot with the Revolution, of course Sheila made the band look good. Blackwell is awesome for being able to play "777-9311" and making it sound like the record, but Michael was a monster on the skins.

My favorites in order would be:

1. Michael Bland
2. Sheila E.
3. Bobby Z. (Parade tour, and I play because of this man)
4. John Blackwell
5. Kirky J only because I have to

CokeJohnson said:

Aint no doubt Sheila, coming from a percussionist background, she can play them skins.

Any unbelievers? Watch SOTT

dnaplaya said:

Agreed... Michaels kit had to be the BEST sounding of ALL Prince drummers plus, his drum licks and fills are wicked.

I just a clip of P performing on Britain's top of the pop show doing this song and you know what?
Kirky actually didn't sound that bad, in fact.. he sounded really good. I had to give it to him. Kirly's pretty good.

Bran