SEXYMOFO said:

Since when could MJ produce?

doctamario said:

Since the 1970's!!

doctamario said:

Since he produced tracks like Who Is It, Morphine. Stranger In Moscow, Little Susie, They Don't Care About us etc entirely by himself???

yeah and a whole lot more, Earth Song too, um Black or White. Oh and MJs vocal ability far surpasses Prince. Prince only has a 2/2.5 range and has to sing in falsetto coz his mid-range is non-existent. MJ on the other hand is amazing in mid-range (prob the best) and can choose when to move in2 falsetto. Mj also proved he could sing as low as Prince (2000watts). MJ's vibratto is flawless, his staccato unique.

I would say, however, that P and MJ are unique musical icons who are at the very top of music. You cant get any better than these two so they are both no 1 in my book.

Madonna doesnt even touch them, Mariah has more talent than her. Mariah has written some of the best pop tunes ever and does her own production a lot of the time. Until Madonna can write a "hero" or "anytime you need a friend" or even a "all i want for xmas is u" she is bottom of the pile in musical talent.

FunkyBrotha said:

Madonna would never write boring schlock like that!

SEXYMOFO said:[quote]

murph said:

Oh stop it please!

I'm an MJ fan,but this is ridiculous.Michael does NOT play all those instruments and you know it.In fact,these days,he doesn't even write most of his own lyrics.On 'Invincible',I think there are only two songs that he wrote/and or produced.

meow85 said:

Absolutely.

Jennifer Batten, MJ's guitarist on the Bad and Dangerous tour has said MJ plays those instruments. Maybe he doesn't play them all on his albums, but he knows how to play them. On Invincible MJ wrote/co wrote 14 out of the 16 songs.

SEXYMOFO said:

If he's capable of doing so much on his albums,why did 'Invincible' cost over $30 million to make?


Surely,a person who can play several different instruments could easily produce their own album,right? There are numerous rejected songs written and produced by people like Missy Elliot,David Foster,Lauryn Hill,Wyclef Jean,The Neptunes,and just about every other "hot shot" producer from that period.
[Edited 9/1/05 6:15am]

DavidEye said:

Yeah he probably did try to work with those people. However you have to give him more credit than 'he wrote only 2 songs and produced none'

SEXYMOFO said:

No we don't. I've had this argument with someone in the past, and I'll say this again, the proof is in the video. I just ask that any fan of MJ show me some footage of him playing at least three instruments and I'll believe you. I've seen Madonna playing instruments, so I know she has at least semi-moderate skills. But, until I actually SEE Michael Jackson playing a guitar or piano, a FULL SONG, then I won't believe he can.

If someone has a video file handy, shoot it over. I would love to be proven wrong.

You show me a video of Prince playing all 30 of the instruments that he can play. MJ plays Piano and Keyboards thats for sure. You honestly think he and the people he work with make this shit up?

ThePowersCreepin said:

Thank God 4 sum sanity in this topic at last!!!!!


Agree with everything except MJ being a spent force in 87 in fact 4 me that was his peak as a performer at age 30 just like Prince's peak was around the same time those 2 at age 30 were the greatest arguably ever!

But Prince is the ultimate pop artist/musician of his generation.

TheBigBang said:

Beautifully said.....that is what i have always said to these dreamers!

I don't think there's really any comparing the 3. Madonna & MJ will never b the caliber musician that Prince is. Madonna & Prince will never match MJ's sales and Michael Jackson & Prince will never equal Madonna's cultural impact. I'm happy 2 say I enjoy all three, but my username should indicate the two I lean harder towards.

DarkKnight1 said:

I'll hear your confession on 11/15.

and about dancing Jamie King has worked with all 3 he only works with one now.

he's pretty confident in his bosses dancing ability
[Edited 9/1/05 19:30pm]

npgmaverick said:

rock on i agree with ya

ehuffnsd said:

so Lavelle Smith has worked with MJ and Madonna also. She's still in the bottom three when it comes to dancing. Madge is certainly the smarter choice for Jaime though.

1. Prince - Aged like a fine wine. The new cats like Outkast and Alicia Keys
will never let the new generation of music lovers forget his impact on music. Still has the style!
2. Michael Jackson - A worldwide superstar, but will never atain half of
the success in his early solo, but i think he'd still sell out on tour
3. Madonna - Everybody will wanna know what she does, but the music is just
not as timeless as the above... She built a empire on press media and the music
is stuck in the times it was made. ( I'll admit a few are classics though! )

Prince - June 7, 1958

Madonna - August 16, 1958

Michael Jackson - August 29, 1958

can somebody do a chart reading for all three

that would be interesting
[Edited 9/1/05 20:54pm]

lilgish said:

i don't agree.

look at MJ and Prince they do the same moves all the time.

Madonna has always changed style.

Favortie dance moments would be the Swing Dance in A League of Their Own Human, dance break at the end of La Isla Bonita on the Girlie Show, Nature, Tango in Evita, Krumping during RIT.

she has a lot more talent in dance than either just doesn't use it.
[Edited 9/1/05 22:11pm]

ehuffnsd said:

where? what year, what show can hold up there with SoTT or anything MJ has done for three decades?

She changes routines, she never had a style or any moves. Most of her early routines were lame, especially based on the years of her trained experience I've heard you guys mention.

lilgish said:

Blonde Ambition: Where's the Pary, Into the Groove, Vogue, Keep it Together

A League of Their Own: Swing Dance

Girlie Show: Fever, Vogue, Deeper and Deeper, La Isla Bonita, Holiday, Everybody

Human Nature Video

Evita: Tango

Don't Tell Me Video

Drowned World Tour: What it Feels Like for a Girl (Spanish)

RIT: Vogue, Nobody Knows Me, Die Another Day, Into the Groove, Holiday.

and Jamie has said watch out for Confessions

I think I'd say Prince no matter what, but with MJ's wierdo status and Madonna's kabbalah wierdo status, I'm positive that Prince would win in any contest...

Yeah, Madonna dances great...flanked by a dozen or more dancers doing the exact same moves. Same goes for MJ. The advantage Prince has is that he can do a three hour concert ALONE. Yeah, the band is there and typically an integral part of the show, but generally a Prince show is a PRINCE show. I can't imagine Madonna or MJ doing a three hour concert alone, with just a backing band.

TheBigBang said:

Hell, Prince could be up there all by himself with just a guitar or piano and still give a great show!

MJ and Madge couldn't even dream of pulling that off!!

TheBigBang said:

Well I can imagine MJ doing something like that as he's the best vocalist.

Triumph Tour

But you know he has the messiah complex since Thriller came out so...

thEfRIeNdChiP said:

Here’s how I see things. If you are measuring greatness as I do, giving consideration to musicality, performance, commercial success, and perhaps most importantly influence/passed on musical legacy, then Prince stands alone at the top. Let’s look at each one though.

Michael has certainly been a force to reckon with in the first three categories. He has some all time jams under his belt. His commercial success is undeniable. One has to take into account all of the years prior to his solo career as the frontman for the J5 and then the Jacksons. Those years both prepared and primed the launch of his solo artist success. He was already cemented within the American musical conscience and had the advantage of doors opened to him that neither Prince nor Madonna could boast when their careers were getting started. By the time Thriller was released, he was also the beneficiary of a few media and cultural phenomena that along with a very slickly produced record were able to put Michael in a place of pop music preeminence for years to come despite the infrequency of new album releases. In as far as performance, Michael is perhaps without peer at what he does. I have often heard or read the term, “great song and dance man” ascribed to Prince. I always take issue with it because it’s simply too narrow and paltry a description of what Prince is all about as a performer and artist. It does however fit Michael like a glove if you will. Also, where is the continuation of Michael’s musical legacy? Does he really have one? I know that we have the Ushers and Justine Timberlakes of the world but their homage to Mike is on the performance side. Who can we say is out there carrying forth his sound or at least some credible offspring of it? Lastly, we have to consider how he has performed as the primary custodian of his own image over the years, and to this present day. Believe me when I tell you that it’s going to be critical in shaping the way history will remember him and he just hasn’t done himself any favors in this regard.

Madonna is an interesting one because I argue that she is the only one of the three whose success and celebrity is not rooted primarily in her music but in controversy and her uncanny adeptness at image and media manipulation. Don’t get me wrong. She certainly has had chart success. She has some jams but we invariably have more to say about Madonna herself than her music. Madonna is a gifted and dedicated performer with a penchant for the theatrical and has been a masterful purveyor of “shock value” which of course is not an unknown area for Prince. The difference is that while shock value has always been a kind of condiment for the delicious musical meat that Prince has always served up, one gets the sense that it often passed as meat on Madonna’s musical menu. She works her butt off onstage but as High Priestess of the Cult of Personality, a great deal more of her work has been offstage, and I don’t mean in the studio. Again as in the case of Michael, where is her musical legacy? Is Britney Spears the sum total of her progeny? That’s hardly an immaculate conception if you ask me. Madonna has however tended the garden of her image and celebrity far better Prince or Michael. It’s been her #1 commodity over the years and she has managed to escaped fatal overexposure.

Prince is the greatest because to an almost equal measure, he has all of the attributes that make the other two successful, and all of the things that they lack. He has had and still enjoys real commercial success. His level of musicality is matchless. He is the Motzart of his generation. Onstage, with all else being the norm, he is the anomaly, an absolutely wonderful freak of nature. “Song and Dance Man” doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of all that Prince is. His influence didn’t wait for this current cadre of artists because a number of his own contemporaries were coping his sound to get hit records. The number of artists around today who name Prince as a significant influence on their writing, playing, producing and so forth is too long to even get into. His image has taken some hits due to his own fault for the most part, but even during the worst of all that, his work and the depth of it commanded respect. You simply can’t get around, over or under it, and it is his work and talent alone that has kept him from being written off during the worst of times. Not media hype, not shock and awe tactics or anything else. Not only is he the greatest of the big three but as of today he is also the one best poised to have continued impacting success in the years to come.

Just one man’s opinion. Peace.