Just like about any artist out there, Prince has also been blamed for stealing riffs, chords, melodies, production etc from alot of both assosiated artists and other artists outside of his camp. Songs like Kiss(Mazarati/Frank Williams/David Z), Do Me Baby(Andre Cymone/Eddie Hazel), Black Sweat(Andre Cymone) as well as a hell of alot of uncredited work/inspiration from band members not credited...

So what if he is a thief. Does it make him less good? Or does this just make him great when it comes to being able to see hit potential in something that other musicians are not able to see in a greater context? Some musicians might create cool details. Isn't music about putting sound and silence into system?

Prince knows, or atleast knew how to put good details into context. Being the music sponge that he is, he probably will/would just add everything that he heard that sounded good into his repertoire almost without thinking about it. If you produce songs and arrange music for a living, you'll get better and better at this. And Prince sure is not an average dude when it comes to that kind of talent.

musical sponge i don't care how prince does it/what he does to it, music is facinating & has no limits.. just another noise popped into the library of audible treasures