Tell me all. I'm curious!

Prince opened a show 4 Rick James,and they both dated Vanity. That's all I know.

sexxydancer said:

interesting...So Vanity had a bit of both funk!

MikeMatronik said:

Yeah- it goes a little bit deeper...
Prince was the opening act during rick james hey day. Prince was supporting dirty mind at the time. James was dating denise matthews and supposedly prince picked "stole" her way at a party. He renamed her vanity- he wanted to call her another name beginning with a V but she told him only if you change your name to Di#@. Rick James had a 3 girl group called the mary jane girls and prince later put together a 3 girl group with Vanity- Vanity 6...Thus the rivalry was heating up and their careers would be intertwined forever but on very different paths. James was trying to create a crossover sound. But as we know it is prince who blew the doors away with the landscape changing 1999 album and subsequently Purple Rain. James' jealously never subsided- see Amadeus for a similar musician/musician relationship. The difference is James spent his bitter latter career ripping Prince and of course went down the path of drug abuse and wasted talent. Rick was a funky, bad assed musician- he just wasn't prince....

fmarasco said:

SEX

What's that story about the coat....?

They were ex-lovers who had a huge falling out.

there only connection is musical. look rick had just as many chances that prince had in this biz,only difference is rick was more smarter. imean he got motown to give him a million dollar an hour to record music. street song tour made 98 million dollars right behind the rolling stones tour and each album when the smoke cleared sold over five million so i ask you who better rick or prinncr.

For me its simple:

Rick James was an artist just trying to combine rock and funk at the same time Prince was attempting to do the same (around the release of Dirty Mind)

But Princes musical scope and interests were much broader then that of Rick James. Prince developped himselve musically, Rick James couldnt do any better, also because he was spending way too much time snorting coke and beating women.

I mean, i never really understood the comparisons.

Okay, there paths crossed at some time in history, they were more or less attempting to mix 'black' and 'white' music, but apart from that, Rick James, next to Jesse Johnson are footnotes in history.

Prince belongs in this kind of list: 'Duke Ellington-Elvis Presley-Miles Davis-James Brown-Beatles-Led Zeppelin-David Bowie etc'

while minor musicians like Rick James belong to this type of list:
'Ohio players-Cameo-Debarge'

I beleive Rick had movie plans similar to Purple Rain that were scraped right after PP came out.

Ceaser said:

I can relate.
I can't even begin to tell you how many of my plans ended up being scraped right after my PP came out.

vaginas

vainandy said:

now finally a connection that I think is possibly the most correct one!

Illustrator said:

I'd blame it on my keyboard, but well I can't seem to keep my pp in my pants.
Opps.

Both P and Rick used similar musical innovations from a production standpoint. and i've always wondered who did it first.


For example,

1. the signature synth sound. both artists use similar synth brass lines with lots of modulation on them. Rick's work with the Mary jane girls has it all over them, as does superfreak.

2. Using drum machine with live dums combined.

Who started these trends? One of them had to have done it first.

I always thought that their connection was in attitude toward things like Eddie Murphy's white couch.

Riverpoet31 said:

That sounds harsh because I'm a big Rick fan too, but I guess it is true.

To me, looking back at the time their careers crossed paths briefly, in hindsight, it's easy to say/see that Rick represented the 70s, the past, and Prince represented the 80s, the future.

Riverpoet31 said:

I see where you're going with this...however, Prince truly is on a list
all alone. To simplify, those cats were "good", Prince is "great", with
an exclaimation point.

jackson35 said:

Prince has had a much longer career, sold more albums overall, had more hit singles, had bigger tours (Purple Rain, Musicology), has his own multi-million dollar recording/filming studio (Paisley Park) had a huge hit movie, is in the Rock N' Roll Hall of fame, etc.....

Don't get me wrong, I love Rick James. But IMHO he wasted so much of his talent on drugs and jealousy.

Plus I have to call you on album Sales for Rick James, I don't believe ALL of his albums sold at least 5 million. In fact probably most did not sell 5 Million.

In fact if you check the RIAA sight, his ONLY ceretified albums are:

JAMES, RICK COME GET IT 08/22/78 MOTOWN G ALBUM SOLO Std
JAMES, RICK STREET SONGS 07/07/81 GORDY P ALBUM SOLO Std
JAMES, RICK STREET SONGS 07/07/81 GORDY G ALBUM SOLO Std
JAMES, RICK THROWIN' DOWN 07/19/82 GORDY G ALBUM SOLO Std
JAMES, RICK COLD BLOODED 12/12/83 GORDY G ALBUM SOLO Std

With Street Songs listed as his ONLY Platinum selling album.

Albums like Urban Rapsody (peaked at 170) and Wonderful (pieked at 148) barely even charted.

vainandy said:

That would explain Rick's Ruffly shirts during the late 80's .

vainandy said:

Awww hell no.

[list]first of all rick james had alonger career remember, before he gata contract he was a producer for motown getting hits for the spinners and the temps, secondly, those statistics for his albums represent only what was sold in chains stores at the time like sam goody, you have to talk about the mom and pop store where he sold more recors then prince and third princes tours got alot of press but did not make alot of money until mosicology, and fourth rickis just as innovotive as prince rick can write a hit song for a five man singing group do you known how hardthat is as a producer/ and if you ever listen to rick music he has a string quartet in his album con prince direct that/

jackson35 said:

And don't forget,
Rick did Vanity before Prince.
The concept & the girl.

shaedove99 said:

who was the top..who was the bottom...or were they versatile?

fmarasco said:

And there u have it Ladies and Gentlemen! I love the way u just broke it down. It's like Prince and Rick James 101 for all those who are uninformed.

And those are the best type of groups. They make funk and, if it happens to crossover, that's fine, but they don't go out trying to get a crossover hit. Prince himself had better music back when he was known only by the R&B world.
.
.
[Edited 2/24/07 16:50pm]

It's very obvious that Prince was the bitch since Rick was always calling him "Princess". Rick was the rough trade.

duplicate post
[Edited 2/24/07 16:49pm]