tonyat said:

[Edited 6/25/07 23:57pm]

That whole thing is bullshit.

Right from the get-go, when he says Prince was on the drums playing "some bullshit beat"... OK. So Prince has played the drums on how many recordings? U all have heard his instrumentals from his teen years, right? The man can play the skins, and several major musicians and drummers have commented on this, including Miles Davis.

Rick didn't even play the Bass on his records.

I wouldn't believe 98% of that crap.

along, and I'd never name Rick James or Michael as his main influences.
[Edited 6/26/07 9:59am]

Then you could blame every black artist in history until the early 90's. It wasn't until Heavy D. made a conscious effort to use dark skinned models in his videos did the trend even begin to change, even in Afrocentric Hip Hop. Don't put this solely on Prince my friend.

One day I walked into the auditorium, getting ready to go on and I heard the crowd chanting loudly. I went to check it out. Here's Prince doing my chants. Not only was he stalking the stage like me, he was doing my trademark funk sign, flipping the microphone and everything. The boy had stolen my whole show. I was *!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&*ed and so was my band. This went on night after night, every show I'd see more of my routine. It got to the point I couldn't do the stuff I had always done because Prince was doing it before I came on. It started to look like I was copying him.

Black guys in general usually distance themselves from people looking like Prince most think he is or looks gay ...there is this macho thing going on ...& i dont blame the guy for keeping his distance to avoid himself embarrasment ...i cant relate to that ..,i find it tough being light skined around my kind so i keep my distance cause i have no choice. then they turn around and pass the same remarks ,oh ,he think he is all that ,he tinks he is white ,he hangs out with whitey only ...DUH !!! cause you have issues with my complexion.I am a black man we come in differnt shades.

airbak said:

I'm not blaming this on Prince alone: Please see my comment on "historical conditioning." I'm also black and fully aware of the issues that we have within our race concerning skin color and hair texture. I mentioned Prince's color issues as it relates to the discussion. RJ said that P hung with only whites and I was stating that although he certainly had his color issues, RJ had no room to point the blame at Prince because he definitely had color issues as well, if not more so than Prince. And in today's black music videos, nothing's changed. Mostly the light women are portrayed as the objects of beauty/girlfriends/love interests, while the chocolate girls are usually in the back bumping, grinding and doing everything short of standing on their heads. This is an observation that I have made. I don't have issues because I'm neither dark or light. LOL I'm in between so I don't care! LOL

Giovanni777 said:

I don't know if these are direct quotes, but if this is the type of phraseology Rick uses throughout the book; little azz, bullshit beats etc. it's sad. In all these years, he hadn't gotten over his frustration and jealously that Prince was BETTER than him. MOVE ON! His angry preoccupation with Prince in this book convinces me that I can't believe too much of what he's saying. Besides, he was soooo blasted most of the time, how could he accurately remember the details of his past with such great clarity? PUHLEASE!

that's my point, rick should have never even been on the slide, he should have never been in that position of having to wear ruffles cus the man had his own funk. he still wrote shit that was unique from anything prince was doing but his choices got in the way, he rationalized it away by blaming our reaction (or white folks reaction) to prince. Andre was never a lead guy, he and jesse took the bait and tried to be leads when he could recruited a bad ass lead and put his name on the bill. An All star band of prince cast offs would kick his ass but all of them wanted to be prince.

I am not hating on Rick, I love his best work, but this part right here made me go

Explain to me how you're a veteran superstar — who has built his persona around being a superbadass, no less — and you let some young punk who's opening for you (accepting this claim at face value for the sake of discussion) steal your thunder to the point that you can no longer "do the stuff [you] had always done." WTF?!?

Can you imagine some guy who's opening for Prince coming out doing the screams and the splits and shredding the guitar leaving Prince feeling like his wad has been shot because of it? Oh, HELL NAW! P would come out like a wild tiger uncaged. That punk would never pull that sh*t again out of sheer humiliation.

That Rick wasn't able to son Prince using his own damn trademarks speaks volumes about both of them, IMO.

Taurus said:

I mentioned this months ago in another thread and everyone refused to respond.
I remember him(Rick) in the red paisley suite, the white ruffled shirt, even boots. The only difference was the hair thing as Prince has chopped off his
locks the year before while Rick was still rocking his extensions.

The song "Glow" still is my favorite of Rick's though.....banging music.

airbak said:

Word. Well put.

airbak said:

Word. Well put.

Did ya'll read this?


Rick James Words

"While on the road, I never saw Prince hang out with black men or black women. In fact, his demeanor was like that of a short uppity white boy."

Bitter Rivals:

In the 80's, Rick James asked Prince to open up the "Fire Up Tour." James states in his book, "The Confessions Of Rick James, Memoirs Of A Super Freak," that he had yet to meet Prince. The only thing he had heard about him was that he was shy. James had hoped this was false because if he was shy, he had no business being out on the road with him.

James said he walked through the backstage entrance, Prince was sitting on his group's drums playing some bullSHYT beat. James sat down and began playing some serious stuff. He said Prince looked over at him and got his little AZZ up and walked away.

James adds, "Prince was just starting out and the first time I saw Prince and his band open for me, I felt sorry for him. Here's this little dude wearing high heels, standing there in a trench coat. Then at the end of the set, he'd take off his trench coat and he'd be wearing little girl's bloomers. The guys in the audience booed him to death."
The following weeks of the tour weren't very different from the opening date. Whenever I was on stage I'd see Prince on the side of the stage just staring and watching everything I did, like a kid in school.

One day I walked into the auditorium, getting ready to go on and I heard the crowd chanting loudly. I went to check it out. Here's Prince doing my chants. Not only was he stalking the stage like me, he was doing my trademark funk sign, flipping the microphone and everything. The boy had stolen my whole show. I was *!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&*ed and so was my band. This went on night after night, every show I'd see more of my routine. It got to the point I couldn't do the stuff I had always done because Prince was doing it before I came on. It started to look like I was copying him.

Everyone knew what was happening, his management, my management. The atmosphere backstage was not improved by the fact that Prince's band members were not on good terms with my band and my guys wanted to kick their *!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&*es. Prince's musicians would stick their noses in the air and not even acknowledge the Stone City Band, even if they were all standing together, waiting for the elevator. Prince's group was a bunch of egotistical AZZholes who never even played on a record. The kid did it all, they were just hired players.

One day, things blew up and management called a meeting. I told Prince's manager, that if Prince did any more of my show he was off the tour. Finally, we all met in Prince's room, Prince, me and our bands. Prince's band was afraid, very afraid. Prince sat on the bed and hardly said a word. He acted like a little BYTCH while his band and mine patched up our differences.

Soon after this episode. There was a birthday party for me. Prince came, he was sitting at a table with some people not drinking. I walked up to him, grabbed him by the back of the hair and poured cognac down his throat. He spit it out like a little BYTCH and I laughed and walked away. I loved fukking with him like that.

I always felt our competition was healthy, although I was jealous when he started getting big, more than jealous, I was *!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&*ed, because here was this little short ego'd out fukker who I had a feeling didn't like people of his own race and wanted to be white and taller. While on the road, I never saw Prince hang out with black men or black women. In fact, his demeanor was like that of a short uppity white boy.

A few years later when James was performing at the Universal Amphitheater. The second night of the show, Rod Stewart and his wife Alana came to the show. James decided to have them sit in front row seats that belonged to Prince.

From the stage, I could see Prince's attempt to throw Rod and Alana out of the seats. Alana told Prince to kiss her *!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&*. Then, during a performance with the Mary Jane Girls, James saw Prince being carried around the venue in his bodyguard's arms just to get attention.

After the show, when Prince saw Rick and Rod backstage, he jumped over the stairs and fled. Allegedly, Rod told Rick, "I hate that little prikk." Rick was *!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&*ed and called Prince all kinds of little *!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&**!@$%&*es. Rick said, "Had Prince not jumped over the stairs and ran, I swear I would have kicked his AZZ."

James heard later that Prince went to see Michael Jackson's concert and tried to disrupt it. When Michael allegedly found out that Prince was in the house, he came out badder than ever and Prince left the show before it was over. lol.....

Rick adds, "I always thought of Prince as a great player and a very innovative person but as far as himself as a person, he could use a good ghetto AZZ kicking."
_____


Of course Mistermaxx had something to say!!

Giovanni777 said:

Well sadly, Rick HAS moved on. U know what I'm sayin'?

That's a good point about James incorporating the drug lifestyle into his music(remember the "Fire It Up" album?). And you know Rick would have welcomed the mega success that Prince has had over the years, and he probably could have had that if he hadn't dabbled too much in drugs. You also have to think that if Rick would have reached out to Prince in some way when he fell on hard times late in his career, Prince would have helped him out. He's done that for a lot of artists who never got their due(George Clinton, Chaka, Larry, etc...).

jstarr2000 said:

I don't think he would have helped Rick.

There was a birthday party for me. Prince came, he was sitting at a table with some people not drinking. I walked up to him, grabbed him by the back of the hair and poured cognac down his throat. He spit it out like a little BYTCH and I laughed and walked away. I loved fukking with him like that.

That explains lots of things. ( Maybe the reason why Prince doesn't want to celebrate birthdays
Thanks you'all for this very interesting thread.
[Edited 6/26/07 23:02pm]

. Rick acted like a grown MAN who no one ever doubted his sexuality.

prince worked what he had to astounding results in regards to image, look at him brotha's wouldnt have accepted him anyway had he tried to step into that "grown man" arena rick is in. people of color have binary ideas when it comes to gender, we are ultra conservative when it comes to "what is masculine" because we've had to fight 100's of years just to be human. Prince understood that gender and sexuality are different things entirely and the 80's were a perfect time for a brotha that looked like him to benefit (look at boy george).At this time i was a short, androgynous teenager getting all the girls, brotha's were not only offended but frightened because they feared that someone that looked like me was doin something to their girl that they couldnt follow.Yet i was just a horny assed young boy just like them, i just benefited from the broadening idea's about "what" is attractive. Prince was responsible for broadening that idea with black folks. Black Male Comedians still joke about loving him at the expense of how they might be viewed sexually ( sometimes we can be so small). The funny thing is you can take the wayans, jamie foxx bill belamy and put them all together and they aint seen more ass than this brotha. He takes our black male fears sourounding masculinity, pisses on it, does what he wants and laughs his ass all the way to the bank and to the bedroom.i even love how he is now cherished as a national treasure by conservative black america giving him NAACP awards and shit. Watching him perform for that set is funny to me cus i know that this brotha is so bad that half of those people in that crowd called him a fag at one time or another and still his talent broke them down. Now that's pimpin 4 real.