Rick James complains about Prince copying him, then starts dressing like this:



What an AZZhole!

mozfonky said:

Very true, you really get to take a good look at who he was and why he did some of the crazy shit he did in his day by reading this book. And while he and Prince hated each other, I think that Prince got the ball rolling on the whole feud if you read the Bio. Theres also a really good chapter about MTV in there that talks about how they hated him for exposing their racist ways, so to get even with him they started playing Prince, he even said he never got repeat play until 1985 when he appeared along side Eddie Murphy in the 'Party All The Time' video. So yes, Prince got way bigger than Rick, but thats shouldn't be the only barometer for comparing their talent. The lack of exposure, Motown's cheapness, and Rick's excessive drug abuse dimmed his lime light dramatically. But his music still speaks for itself.

laurarichardson said:

rick had a better stage act than Prince at the time of those shows. Prince was only on his second album when he opened for rick and was still not the live force he would become. In fact, He was a very poor live performer at this point, his first album particularly he had poor performances, but my he made up for it in the next 5 years becoming one of the best ever.

That might be your opinion. I have run into a few people who went to those shows and that is not what I was told. In addtion, Dez said they were blowing Rick off the stage.

mozfonky said:

Straight men have no problem with gay men. They are too busy doing their own thing to worry about what gay men are doing. Homophobic men actually do hate gay men though. They hate them because they aren't wearing dresses. Homophobic men are usually sick perverts that go after the dragon queens. Could you imagine sleeping with something dressed like a woman that has a dick? Now, that's sick. And they have the nerve to talk about gay men.

I've heard this for years and I believe it. Rick and MTV had a major feud and he did expose them for the racists that they were and still are. Rick also had a very big mouth when it came to his dislike for Prince. Everybody knew how much he couldn't stand Prince and I'm sure MTV probably heard about it also.

I heard that "1999" was actually played on MTV before any of the Michael Jackson videos. I always thought that "Little Red Corvette" was the first Prince video they played but I read somewhere that it was actually "1999". Now, if MTV was so hellbound on sticking to a rock format, why the hell would they play a funky jam like "1999"? "Little Red Corvette" I could understand, but "1999"? Look how hard Michael Jackson had to fight to get his videos on MTV. His record label had to threaten to pull out their white videos if MTV didn't play his videos. Now, why would they play Prince with no fight whatsoever? It's because they knew it would piss Rick James off who was the thorn in their side at the time. Actually, Prince should have called Rick up and thanked him for his success.
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[Edited 11/7/07 20:47pm]

I've said this on here several times. Being a big fan of both artists, Prince DID bite off of Rick to an extent. Not musically, but definately in his stage show and even some of Rick's stage mannerisms. Some on here can't even respond to this claim cuz ya'll didn't even see Rick live in concert during his prime. Prince either, for that matter. That said, I'm not the cat that's EVER on someones' jock. I don't wear rose colored glasses and if someone's fucking up, I call it. Be it me, Hendrix, P-Funk, Prince, whoever. And a lot of shit P did, he has and will answer for. He fucked over a lot of people who worked for and with him. The punk shit he did towards Rick and his total disrespect for his mother deserved a Grade A ass whooping. Totally uncalled for. U couldn't pay me to do no shit like that. That's the only reason he had Big Chick around him at all times; so to keep cats from sincerly fucking him up. And I'm not talking about cats off the street either. Sure, Rick was no saint, but he never claimed to be either. Rick was envious of P. I knew that years ago. That shit was evident. He shouldn't have been though. If P didn't want to be stuck on the r&b circut touring with Rick, (and Rick certainly wasn't R&B) he should have never took the tour. He took it cuz Rick was hot as fire and this was BEFORE Street Songs. P needed the exposure. But P's angle was totally different than Rick's. Rick was a black man and proud of it. P fucked with that "I'm not really black" shit partly cuz I believe P was/is colorstruck and two, he knew the media, black and white, are colorstruck too. So he used that shit to his advantage. Girls, especially black girls favored P cuz of his complexion. More white women favored Rick and favored Dez, who were darker in complexion but yet acted more like a real man. And yet was STILL flashy and cool and had sex appeal to boot.

vainandy said:

A lot of that is true. Michael gets credit for being the first black artist to be played on MTV with Billie Jean. MTV played Billie Jean so much that this seemed to be the case. I do know for a fact that they played 1999 BEFORE Little Red Corvette. And late at night, they would sneak and play the Controversy video as well. This too was BEFORE Little Red Corvette. In 81, with Street Songs, Rick was bigger than both Michael and Prince. There is no way in hell MTV can justify NOT playing Rick's new wavish ass SuperFreak song. That song had more of a white sound too it than either Billie Jean or 1999. It's cuz Rick wasn't feminine acting and he had the black, white and oriental women in his videos. Which is way more of a threat than Michael and P's prissiness. That wasn't a threat at all. The scariest shit in the world to some white cats is a black man's sexuality. ESPECIALLY if it's Hetrosexual. That's been a fact since the beginning of time. And that's what was the real problem MTV had with Rick. They weren't threaten by Michael who was so anti women that he had to cast his OWN sister in the video The Girl Is Mine. Lionel wasn't a threat when all he wants to do is dance on the ceiling and shit. Ans say Outrageous every chance he got. Rick called MTV out on shit that was accurate and was the first to call P out in the media EARLY in P's career.

I agree,it was crazy that MTV rejected Rick's "Super Freak" video.That song is very New Wave/pop influenced.It became a sizable pop hit regardless.I can certainly see why Rick was pissed at MTV.

In his book,he mentions that MTV later played videos of songs he produced for other artists ("In My House" by the Mary Jane Girls,"Stomp and Shout" by Process and the Doo Rags" and "Party All The Time" by Eddie Murphy,which actually featured Rick making a cameo appearance).I didn't see MTV complaining that those songs "didn't fit their format"

SoulAlive said:

Exactly.

poisonmouth said:

Exactly!! I love Rick, but I think he was just mad that Prince was probably stealing his THUNDER not his act.
I don't see ANY similarities in Prince's music or image with Rick's.
As far as the people who say Prince doesn't bring the hard funk...
STUPID.

olskoolfool said:

from the above pic and some of the later albums, Rick did a bit of copying which didn't work for him. So what, Prince talked crap about rap for years and still went and did it when it was the hot thing. Pop artists have to do superficial things sometimes, it's just the nature of the beast. And as far as Rick having a harder, more aggressive funk sound, I don't believe that can be argued. The entire attitude, image to go along with the music all made his funk very potent. Prince was funky but in a different way and I wouldn't say either was even better, they were both damned good in many departments it's just that Prince has never layed down some funk like You and I, Superfreak, etc.., I doubt he even could, they are both two different people from different worlds.

hey i wanna see those pics. can anyone post them?...oh shit...

olskoolfool said:

Prince ain't never funked as hard as Rick. Never.

The scariest thing in the world to them is that black dick. It makes them feel inferior.

How can Rick James write a new biography when he's been dead for the past three years? It must be ghostwritten.

"and Rick certainly wasn't R&B

To black people and white people at the time Rick was an RnB act so was Prince.
P just did not want to stay an R&B act.

I don't see anything wrong with wanting to do other things and as far as P dissing Rick's mom I remember Dez saying that Rick and his crew were mean to P and the band. Andre Cymone said that Rick pulled a gun out on him !!!

The two groups just did not have anything in common and there is nothing wrong with that. It probaly made the shows better (LOL)

We all know that P is no fucking saint but, Rick was a drug dealer, part time pimp,and drug addict and he seemed to have a thing for teenage girls.

Neither one of them is going to win a prize for model behavior.

Please let's not talk about color struck. If you read Rick's book he had a thing for white woman.
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blackguitaristz said:

mozfonky said:

agreed. at the time prince toured with rick, rick's live act definitely was superior to prince's. over the next few years however, prince worked on his live act considerably, eventually coming up with something (possibly in part due to rick's influence) about a million times better than rick james could ever have dreamed of

blackguitaristz said:

You mean Say Say Say right?


Latoya was in that one...

Never understood that one

Too weird...
[Edited 11/8/07 21:15pm]

If you doubt rick had an influence on Prince's live show, listen to some of ricks live performances, He calls and responds with the audience in a manner very similar to how Prince did only he did it more convincingly than Prince. I always felt that Prince was a natural introvert who had to pretend to bridge the gap between the audience and himself, Rick was a natural extrovert who had easy rapport with the audience. Some performers have that gift, Elvis and Bruce had it in spades, someone like Marvin Gaye had struggles with it. This is just a social relationship that I'm talking about, not the behind the scenes artists craft that is done away from the spotlight.

poisonmouth said:

He began writing it in the late 90s,then completed it in 2003,before his death in 2004.

SoulAlive said:

'Twas a joke. It was ghostwritten because he's dead. He's a ghost. Get it? Forget it.

" He calls and responds with the audience in a manner very similar to how Prince did only he did it more convincingly than Prince"

That goes back to the black church. Thousands of artist do it. Just listen to any old JB live recording. Who I think P stole a lot of stuff from and he has admitted so. I see JB has P influence not Rick.
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mozfonky said:

and also, listen to rick's live stuff for some absolutely relentless funk, he had a no let up energy and his best songs were more fleshed out, alive and uptempo, outfunks the record tracks which is saying something.

I rented the DVD of Rick in Germany from 82. Just not a good show. I have a tape of P in Houston from 81. The songs just rock and the audience is going crazy.


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mozfonky said:

Sounds as if Rick was jealous of Prince.

funkpill said:

Yep, I do mean Say Say Say. Thanx pill. What was that all about? Having your own sis play your love interest is weird to say the least.

laurarichardson said:

I don't know if that's a fair statement though, your talking about an American audience versus a German one; & I'm no expert on German culture or anything, but I don't think they go crazy for anyone other than David Hasselhoff. But they were jamming to the funk.

mrpunkfunk said:

I'm not judging on anything other than what I heard and what I hear in Rick is a man genuinely having a great time and an audience also having a great time. I also hear a harshness in the very texture of the music which makes it an entirely different funk than P's. Not better, just different. Check out some of his other live stuff it'll leave you thinking.