MJ has been a formidable foe these last few decades...

1979: Off The Wall vs. Prince Equal.

1984: Thriller vs. Purple Rain Both are equally loveable, but Purple Rain is way ahead in terms of musicianmanship.

1987: Bad vs. Sign 'O' The Times Prince, hands down - No comparison!

1991: Dangerous vs. Diamonds & Pearls. MJ won this year.

1995: HIStory, Disc 2 vs. The Gold Experience. This is a toughie, both are great -- but I hate HIStory's intense paranoia and Gold's tacky keyboards.

2001: Invincible vs. The Rainbow Children. A lot of y'all disagree with me, but I have said before that TRC is his best album ever and I stand by that. So Prince wins again.

One thing that has to be said for MJ... you've got to admire him for getting to the position he is with a minimal amount of album releases, whereas Prince has had almost one a year for thirty years.

Just look at thier love interests.

Lisa Marie vs. Mayte----sorry, but Mayte wins hands down.

Mani vs. Debra Roe -- Mani wins yet again.

Appolonia, Vanity, Careen Electra and Shiela E. Vs. MaCully Colkum and 12 year old cancer patiients -- You have to admit Prince wins again.

MrSquiggle said:

you've got to be joking with this one. OTW is a fucking pure, world renowned, 100%, bonafide, stone cold classic. 'Prince' isn't.

as for the musicianship on Thriller, MJ drafted in some of the finest players in the world so cannot be faulted in that respect.

BTW MJ got where he was by being prolific in the 70's @ motown and epic.

i'll give you the rest though!


[Edited 9/5/04 7:30am]

Marrk said:

Tottaly agree re OTW - I'm no MJ fan but that is some album and 'beats' Prince hands down, but had MJ been alone in the studio things would have been different. QJ has to take a lot of the credit there as can the 'drafted' players on Thriller and for that matter the other albums. I think that from Purple Rain and Thriller on they were playing different games and have both won and lost playing their own games with themselves.

AsianBomb777 said:

MJ Apples
Prince Oranges

Prince is a better musician. Period

the rest, is a matter of taste

I've never considered Michael Jackson as any sort of competition for Prince. The only person I have ever seen as competition for Prince was Rick James in the early years.

Michael Jackson has had some great albums and they have outsold Prince's but hell, he takes about 5 years to make a new album, gets the best producer out there at the time, and has countless guest artists on the album. Prince, on the other hand, put out an album every year (with the exception of 1983 and recently) and did everything on the albums himself. In 1995, on Michael's "History" album, he had Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis to produce it. These are two exmembers of Prince's camp.

There's no comparison.....Michael is good but Prince is great.

AsianBomb777 said:

*
[Edited 9/5/04 9:00am]

yeh this is true BUT say prince had restricted the number of albums he released and only put the best of the best on them from the last few years of writing then he would also have had , say, 10/11 absolutely outstanding albums with no bad songs on them. with the amount of albums he has you cant b xpected 2 like evrything on each. on each of his albums i only seriously like about 5 or 6 songs normally (with the xception of the best albums like pr, sott etc)

AsianBomb777 said:

OMG this is so wrong, especially the last one, but it is so funny as well, im evil

My personal take: Triumph and Destiny are at least as much Michael solo albums as Thriller and Off the Wall, and they're just about as good (Destiny at least is better IMO). Also, Off the Wall should probably be compared more to Dirty Mind, and in that case they'd be more even (although I love Off the Wall WAY more).

Also: Michael may not produce, write, arrange and play all the instruments on his own stuff, but in regards to everything except instruments, I think he's more than capable of it. All the best songs on his albums are the ones he wrote himself. If Michael made an album entirely of his own songs keeping the demo recordings like on the bonus tracks of the reissue of Off the wall, I think he would have come up with something at least the equal of Dirty Mind.

Prince is superior, but assessing them purely on the value of their songs when they were both at their peak, they were about even.

I hate these type of threads, but what the hell, I got time to play.

MrSquiggle said:

That's what the media wants you to believe, anyway...

1979: Off The Wall vs. Prince Equal.

1984: Thriller vs. Purple Rain Both are equally loveable, but Purple Rain is way ahead in terms of musicianmanship.

If you're going strictly by album release years Thriller would there with 1999 - in 1982 when both were released. Although of course Thriller dominated 1983. I'm more likely to listen to Off The Wall than Thriller, and more likely to listen to 1999 over either of them.

2001: Invincible vs. The Rainbow Children. A lot of y'all disagree with me, but I have said before that TRC is his best album ever and I stand by that. So Prince wins again.

Stand by it, bruddah, stand by it..

1979: Off The Wall vs. Prince
Off the Wall the Prince LP is my shit, but Prince was still sorta finding himself Off the Wall is a better LP

1984: Thriller vs. Purple Rain
Purple Rain I don't even think that one is fair. I'd be more likely to compare 1999 and Thriller... even then P would still win.

1987: Bad vs. Sign 'O' The Times
Sign 'O' the Times definitely

1991: Dangerous vs. Diamonds & Pearls.
Both albums were spotty but I'm going with Diamonds and Pearls for melodies and better arrangements. The whole Quincy Jones and MJ relationship was destroyed by Teddy Riley, if Rod Temperton had done one song for Dangerous, maybe I would've voted for it.

1995: HIStory, Disc 2 vs. The Gold Experience.
The Gold Experience How could you vote otherwise?

2001: Invincible vs. The Rainbow Children.
The Rainbow Chirren

Christ for people who seemingly "Hate" MJ

You F*Cking talk about him alot...

Luv4oneanotha said:

AHHHHH, SHUT UP!!!!!

Marrk said:

i concur.

i love the album Prince, but OTW still kicks its ass.

TheDeacon said:

Luv4oneanotha said:

AGAIN.....AHHHHH SHUT UP. LUV4ONEANOTHA
[Edited 9/7/04 10:28am]

TheDeacon said:

yes massa

I'd like to see a year by year comparison of Rick James and Prince....anybody???

LouieLaFunk said:

2004 has been great for P but it has to be said it hasn't been a good year for Rick. I don't see it getting any better either.

LouieLaFunk said:

Prince has had a phenomal year--he just needs some radio rotation to boot.

Ricks' record company is trying is planning a comeback tour for the singer. They're just in the process of resurrecting a few things.

I am willing to accept that I am the ONLY person on the face of the earth who thinks MJ is the most overrated 'artist' of all time. I also think I'm the only person on the face of the earth who didn't like Thriller, but think OTW is a much better album. Love it!

Luv4oneanotha said:

House N---er

laylow03 said:

I've always been partial to Off The Wall at the expense of Thriller too. As far as Mike being the most overrated artist of all time...I ain't goin that far. I can think of more worthy candidates.

"I Wanna Be Your Lover" went to #1 knocking "Off The Wall" from the top of the R&B (USA) charts -- and deservedly so! Prince is the better album. Nothing on Off The Wall comes close to the musicianship Prince put into this album -- "Bambi," "Sexy Dancer," "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?," "It's Gonna Be Lonely," "With You," and "When We're Dancing Close & Slow" -- who wrote these songs and played every instrument? These ARE all classic!! Can you imagine Michael doing these?

MJ vs. Prince? PLEASE!! As someone else said: apples and oranges.

TheDeacon said:

Lmfaooooo

I gave a year by year comparison of Rick James and Prince months ago on a thread I started asking if anyone had ever seen the "Fire It Up" tour that Rick James and Prince was together on. I don't know how far back you can search on here but I posted it either in May or June, I think.

I would love to do it again but it was very long and my computer keeps acting crazy when I make a very long post.

I got some great responses though, if you can find the thread.