What really happened between them? why did Rick James have so much resent towards Prince literally until the day he died. I know he always accused Prince of copying him, but I know its deeper than that.

It is said that Prince stole the idea of a ladies group in lingerie from Rick. Als it is said that he stole away Vanity from Rick's camp. Furthermore Prince and Rick toured together and whilst Rick was headlining, at some shows Prince stole the show, so to say. There is more but I don't remember all the details.
[Edited 8/23/05 12:28pm]

You almost named it all. Also, Jill Jones came from Teena Marie's camp when Teena opened for Prince on the "Dirty Mind" tour....the very next tour after the one that Prince opened for Rick. I always wondered how that came to happen, maybe if Teena had a fight with Rick and opened for Prince for spite. What puzzles me though, is that she was back with Rick the following year on his "Street Songs" album and tour and was still working with him on her albums. That one's always puzzled me.

Rick also had talked to magazines and on "Soul Train" in the very early 1980s about making two movies....."Alice In Ghettoland" and I can't remember the name of the other one. Prince beat him to the punch with "Purple Rain".

There's also talk about Prince allegedly being rude to Ricks mom backstage during the tour where he opened for Rick (she allegedly asked for an autograph but he declined/igged her), he once came to Ricks show piggy back riding on Big Chick upstaging Ricks own show before Rick even came out(audience members were in a frenzy to get a look at him...and when told of this, Rick replied bitterly "obviously Princess came to see a pro),and he was also the new player of ribald funk.

You know your stuff. I had forgotten about that.

vainandy said:

I had a good teacher

will this be another skywalker/vainandy showdown.
[Edited 8/23/05 22:22pm]

We raised some hell up in there didn't we. We just took over Michael Jackson's thread.

I take issue with the notion that Rick is more responsible for this feud. Rick was a real mofo and if P wasn’t such a prick I doubt he would be so resentful of the man. Rick wasn’t perfect, but he was more lovable; prince has been rude to many people in the industry.
[Edited 8/23/05 22:35pm]

lilgish said:

There were many reasons for their feud.Most of it was just because of silly misunderstandings,and the media's desire to pit one artist against the other.I think that,if the two of them had just sat down and talked,there wouldn't have been any animosity between them.But these are some of the reasons for all the tension...


***Prince opened for Rick James in 1980,and many critics were saying that Prince was stealing the show,night after night.

***On tour,Rick's people thought that Prince's people were stuck-up.They weren't very sociable and didn't really hang out with Rick and his crew.It's likely that Prince didn't really want to be on this tour in the first place.

***Rick's mother once asked Prince for an autograph,and he completely ignored her.

***After the tour,Rick began trashing Prince in interviews."He's out to lunch",James said."He's a mentally disturbed young man.He sings songs about incest and oral sex.Something else,he doesn't want to be Black".

***In the early 80s,Rick began talking about a female singing group that he was gonna put together,to be called The Mary Jane Girls.But in 1982,Prince put together Vanity 6 and released their album first.Rick has claimed that Prince stole the concept from him.

***In 1983,Prince showed up at a Rick James concert in L.A.,having his bodyguard carry him to his seat during the opening act (Mary Jane Girls).Of course,this distracted the audience and they were paying more attention to Prince.Rick later responded "I don't mind.Princess obviously came to learn from a pro".

***In 1982,Rick began making plans for a movie that was to be based on his life and his quest for fame.It was titled 'Spice Of Life'.He had even written parts for associated artists Teena Marie,The Stone City Band and The Temptations.But in 1984,Prince beat him to the punch with his own movie 'Purple Rain'.



as you can see,their feud was based on silly things that could have easily been worked out.They both deserve equal blame for acting like children.

Yes, but only Prince was the actual size of children. So he was allowed to.

Aw man. Just last night I was thinking about Prince and his little knife, the whole Gayle Chapman ordeal when P "caught her" with Rick's homeboy, that little tantrum he threw and stuff. My wife thought I was nuts. i was trying to explain it to her and she was just like

Man somebody please repost that story.

Rick James = a No Talent Crack Head wannabe Prince.

When he saw Prince he saw himself IF IF he didn't smoke crack for 20 years.

But, even if he was clean as a whistle, he wouldn't be shit!

lilgish said:

-----
But to Prince's credit he never said anything bad about Rick in the press. Rick was always slaming Prince in the media. In addtion, I remember Andre Cymone talking about Rick pulling a starter pistol out on him. Rick was no angel.

laurarichardson said:

yea, Andre has the best stories. Has P said anything about Rick on wax? Rick had awful flaws, but P has the extreme conceit, which probably rubbed Rick the wrong way.

Come on now David, now you know you were loving this feud just like the rest of us. The rivalry sparked some great albums coming from each of them for years to come. It also made things very interesting and exciting in a time when there weren't many music videos, especially from R&B artists, and we had to depend totally on magazines like "Right On" for pictures and info on the top R&B acts. This was a good healthy rivalry between two of the most talented artists of the day and even as nasty as it got, there was never any violence (today's rappers should take notes on how to have a rivalry).

It's almost like Rick was trying to force the ever mysterious Prince to speak, which would take away from his allure, but he still wouldn't. In the process, Rick was telling all his valuable future plans. Prince, however, was sneaky and knew just how to piss Rick off without ever saying a word. He just sat back, listened, and beat him to the punch with similar projects.

By the way, excellent post on the rivalry. You covered all the bases in an objective way to both artists. Great job.

No talent....you got Rick mixed up with today's artists. Rick wrote, sang, produced, and played instruments. He didn't "talk" over sampled records, he sang over original music. As far as a wannabe Prince....Rick was doing almost all the same things Prince was doing, before he ever heard of Prince, and was more successful than Prince in the earlier part of their careers, which started the same year, in 1978....that's why Prince was eventually Rick's opening act. Learn the facts and sober up from the purple koolaide.



Of course he saw himself. Prince was the only one bad enough with the amount of talent that Rick had to dethrone him.



Correction. If he had been clean as a whistle from the beginning, he probably wouldn't have been shit. The use of, boldness of, and flaunting of drugs were a big part of what made Rick James, Rick James. Just like mystery and sex were a big part of what made Prince, Prince. The drugs eventually got out of hand. Anyway, some of the biggest musical greats of all time have lived and died by drugs just like Rick James.
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[Edited 8/24/05 21:27pm]

lilgish said:

DavidEye said:[quote]

***Rick's mother once asked Prince for an autograph,and he completely ignored her.

quote]

If it's true this is all it would take.

and he carried that hatred until death because when I saw Rick live a couple of years ago, he went into this insane speech and started bashing prince....and he got boo'd....Ppl kept yellin'..."Just Sing!! and STFU"

vainandy said:

What songs of Prince's would pertain(sp?) to Rick?

Now that I think about it, perhaps "Loose!"?

nayroo2002 said:

Pop Life!!!!

Thank you everybody for your info. Some of those things I already knew, but many of them I did not. Does anybody know anymore about Gayle Chapman getting caught with one of Rick's friends?

BEAUGARDE said:

Hmmmmm

There may be more to it!

Schöne Gruß

I think Prince had Rick killed.

Neither one of them wrote songs about each other. They just kept releasing some of the hardest funk of their careers during this time attempting to outdo each other.

I wish I could give the link but it no longer exists. On Rick James' old web site (there's a new one now), his pyro man, "Pyro John" claims to have become good friends with Gayle Chapman when Prince was on the tour with Rick James.

Pyro says the relationship never escalated further than a few kisses but of course Prince didn't know that. Prince came to Gayle's hotel room one night and found Pyro there. The next day, Prince met with Rick James and wanted Pyro fired. Rick confronted Pyro and asked if he was "fucking Prince's woman". Pyro told Rick that it was none of his business. Rick told his people to get the word out to "Princess" that Pyro was getting a big fat raise. Pyro was excited and asked if he was really getting a raise. Rick said "Hell no, I just want Princess to think you are getting a raise".

I think that was something like a cap gun. Rick had a hit during that time called "Love Gun" and I think the gun was mainly for show. Rick was a prankster though and loved pulling pranks even on his own people.

From what I've seen from the Rick James camp, they didn't have a problem with Andre or any of the other band members. Their beef was mainly with Prince.