Michael Jackson and Prince,
their pop music rivalry, was legendary and they certainly had
a notorious love hate relationship with each other over their extensive careers.
But with competition also came admiration.
And the two definitely had a fascination
with each other, which was rarely ever expressed in public.
But privately, the iconic performers would
interact and on occasions meet with each other, generating much intrigue within
both parties inner circles and generating hordes of speculation in the press.
So here's part one of Michael Jackson and Prince's unspoken InterAction's heart
to hearts and outright bickering that they had shared with each other as quoted
by the friends, family and associates who were there at the time.
Let's get into the detail.
When Prince hit the music scene in the late 70s, Jackson was curious about
the new rising star with funky tracks and a high pitched sound at the time,
Hip Hop Weekly's editor in chief Cynthia Horner has been quoted.
I would give Michael copies of the magazines and he would see certain
people in the book and ask me lots of questions about the artists he was
interested in, and that's how he was introduced to Prince.
After that, I started to let Michael
listen to some of the Prince music I had, and he was intrigued.
At that point, I realized that there was somewhat of a rivalry developing.
Michael had been in the business longer,
so naturally he didn't want to get replaced by the newcomer.
The BeeGees, Barry Gibbs stated that Michael Jackson
once asked him, do you think Prince is better than me?
A shock. Barry then told the interviewer.
Can you imagine that?
After all, he has achieved,
Byron Moore, a former associate of Michael Jackson,
stated that in 1981, Prince had a song about mutual
masturbation on his controversial album called Jack You Off.
Byron goes on to say that Michael made
comments and ask questions like, what does that mean exactly?
What kind of person writes a song about that?
I mean, that's so private, isn't it?
Maybe I should write a song about
something like that, Michael said, teasing it.
But Prince's musical releases were starting to have an impact on Michael's
work during this period, as one evening during the production
of Jackson's Thriller album, composer, writer and engineer Brian Banks said
Quincy came to that he wanted this huge chord sequence.
He said, There's the sound that I've got in my head.
There's this underground, this new artist that nobody's ever really heard of.
But he's great, he's hot.
He's got this great song.
And he pulled out the album and it was Prince 1999.
And, you know, the opening sound on that.
Well, that was the sound that big bidi caught sound at the opening of 1999.
He wanted that, but bigger for Thriller.
And it is uncanny the similarity between the two tracks when played side by side.
As stated in Michael Jackson, The Magic, The Madness,
when Prince's first theatrical project, Purple Rain, was released in late 1984.
Warner Brothers had sponsored an afternoon screening for film critics.
The word in Hollywood was that the film, a drama with music, was so riveting.
Michael Jackson was deeply disappointed
that he had not been able to make a strong impression in films being so competitive.
He had to see Purple Rain before it was distributed to the public.
He arranged to attend the Warner Brothers screening.
When the house lights dimmed,
Michael slipped into the small theater, wearing a sequined jacket and sunglasses,
looking as if he were about to go on stage and accept an award.
He sat in the last row and watch the film, not once taking off his shades.
About 10 minutes before the movie was to end, he rose and walked out.
Later, a member of his entourage asked Michael what he thought of the film.
The music. OK, I guess, Michael said.
But I don't like Prince.
He looks me and I don't like the way he treats women.
He reminds me of my relatives.
And not only that, Michael concluded, the guy can't act.
He's not good.
Then Michael let out a sigh of relief.
However, Jackson's victory album was eclipsed by Purple Rain sales.
Liz Jones stated in Slave to the Rhythm
that Jackson was incredibly jealous of Prince, especially of the Oscar Prince,
one for the movie, something Jackson longed to win.
While Prince was in Los Angeles, Quincy Jones arranged for him to meet
Michael Jackson over dinner at Jackson's Encino family home.
Jones felt the two creative forces should know one another.
It was a strange summit, according to writer Quincy Troupe.
They were so competitive with each other that neither would give anything up.
They kind of sat there checking each other out, but saying very little.
It was a fascinating stalemate between two very powerful performers.
Prince is said to have made a few unsuccessful passes at La Toya.
At the end of the evening, Prince gave Michael a gift,
a box containing leaves, twigs and a cassette of some satanic like chants.
Prince's tour manager, Alan Leeds,
said that before they set out on the Purple Rain tour,
it was a case of Prince wanting to see what Michael and the Jacksons were doing
in terms of production, lighting, staging and everything with a victory tour.
They flew to Dallas, to the old stadium where the Cowboys play.
There was a feeling that while what they were doing was a very solid stadium
production, there was nothing really cutting edge about the technology.
Leads also stated that Prince had a lot
of respect for Michael, but he was mildly impressed with a show.
Michael, return the favor by attending
many of the Purple Rain concerts, four in a row, to be exact.
Ahmir Thompson, co-founder of hip hop group The Roots, questioned why Mike was
there for those four nights he had already created Thriller.
You've done the moonwalk,
you've done the groundbreaking videos, and you've sold a million a week.
You are officially in the Guinness Book of World Records.
So why are you this curious to who is behind you?
Then I realized that you can't be that successful without being competitive.
Michael knew Prince was a serious threat.
Tune into one of our latest videos right
here and also check out our online store for our latest pop icon inspired Styles.
Thanks for watching the detail.
We'll see you next time.