Michael Jackson vs. Prince - Who's more talented?

[jefferz]

Prince could invite you over for a thorough ass kicking on his personal basketball court then feed you the finest pancakes he made himself.


Prince wins this easily

My local sports radio is based out of Minneapolis, and when he passed away, they had people call in to tell their stories about Prince.
There were so many calls from people talking about how great of a guy he was to meet. He'd show up to a little dive bar at 1am, and ask to play. He'd take the time to talk to everyone.
Or there were stories of music teachers asking him to donate a saxophone or trumpet, but Prince would send them tons more than what they asked for.

My favorite story was him kicking a bunch of women out of a limo. After every gig, Prince got food for everyone in his crew from a local restaurant. Sometimes he'd go with to pick up the food, talk to the workers, and he'd give every worker in the restaurant a $50 tip. Well, there was one time when there wasn't enough room in the limo for the food, and the women. Prince kicked the women out.

 

[Spam On Rye]

Prince by a long shot. Plus he wasn't a homosexual phile. Jackson was talented but more of a pure entertainer of the classic variety.

 

[Kryptt]

I knew a girl named Nikki...
I guess you could say she was a sex fiend...

 

[jefferz]

I knew a girl named Nikki...
I guess you could say she was a sex fiend...

Have you heard the Foo Fighters cover?

 

[TrueBias]

Now this is an odd poll result....

I dont like one Prince song.

 

[Sirwastealot]

It's close but i give it to MJ, at least from what i've seen, it's clearly MJ. He was a genius at his craft.

He may not be able to play as many instruments as prince, but he has the better songs, the better singing voice, a more impressive career. Some of his music videos and performances are probably the best of all time.

Prince is great in his own right, amazing guitarist and he could play a lot of instruments. But look at the end product. When you put it all together MJ was mostly better.

 

[AGGAMEMNON66]

My local sports radio is based out of Minneapolis, and when he passed away, they had people call in to tell their stories about Prince.
There were so many calls from people talking about how great of a guy he was to meet. He'd show up to a little dive bar at 1am, and ask to play. He'd take the time to talk to everyone.
Or there were stories of music teachers asking him to donate a saxophone or trumpet, but Prince would send them tons more than what they asked for.

My favorite story was him kicking a bunch of women out of a limo. After every gig, Prince got food for everyone in his crew from a local restaurant. Sometimes he'd go with to pick up the food, talk to the workers, and he'd give every worker in the restaurant a $50 tip. Well, there was one time when there wasn't enough room in the limo for the food, and the women. Prince kicked the women out.

My favorite story about him comes from Eddie Murphy who lived down the street from him at one point.. late at night Prince was driving by Eddies place in a limo when they heard something rolling off the car.. it was a hubcap. Apparently Prince had his driver pull a U-turn and they pulled up to Eddies place the back window rolls down and it’s Prince saying ‘can I have my hubcap back please..’ lol

 

[Streeter]

Performer- Michael
Musician/ writer - Prince

 

[Halifax]

My local sports radio is based out of Minneapolis, and when he passed away, they had people call in to tell their stories about Prince.
There were so many calls from people talking about how great of a guy he was to meet. He'd show up to a little dive bar at 1am, and ask to play. He'd take the time to talk to everyone.
Or there were stories of music teachers asking him to donate a saxophone or trumpet, but Prince would send them tons more than what they asked for.

My favorite story was him kicking a bunch of women out of a limo. After every gig, Prince got food for everyone in his crew from a local restaurant. Sometimes he'd go with to pick up the food, talk to the workers, and he'd give every worker in the restaurant a $50 tip. Well, there was one time when there wasn't enough room in the limo for the food, and the women. Prince kicked the women out.

They only told the good stories because it was a funeral.

I'm more entertained by the stories of his eccentric asshole behavior, which you could write a book with the material.

Apparently after an evening with Kevin smith came out, the workers at paisley park were quietly passing that VHS around and all laughing at how perfect a description of prince Kevin sketched. Which usually was not able to happen because of NDA agreements, but Smith never signed his. He said "I need my lawyer to look it over" and then prince staff forgot about it so they never got a copy. Apparently prince was so mad and wanting to sue Smith, he fired a bunch of paisley staff after they couldn't find the NDA

 

[Darkavius]

There's one part of talent that I don't see has been mentioned yet and while MJ is one of the best to ever do it the thing about talent is what you can also do for other musicians. Not looking at just Prince's solo career he made hits for Sinead O'Connor, The Bangles and The Time. He also made other artists bigger such as Sheila E. and was a music rival for Rick James.

Prince's solo music overall was and still is not better than Michael's but Prince was more talented. Part of The New Jack Era of 80's and 90's R&B and Hip-Hop was because Prince had The Time which had artists such as Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. If those names don't sound familiar Janet Jackson owes a lot of her early career to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis.

 

[evergreenrider]

More talented isn't even up for debate.

 

[Fedorgasm]

The only thing Prince was better at was playing instruments.

Michael was obviously the better singer and dancer, and more of a visionary in terms of how a musician can entertain in music videos and concerts.

The only part where there's any debate is song writing. Personally I think Michael's songs are better, but I can see how some might say Prince in this category.

 

[Kryptt]

Have you heard the Foo Fighters cover?

I like it!

 

[jefferz]

I like it!

Here's some lore.
The Foo Fighters released a limited edition album with this song, and they got an immediate cease and desist from Prince.

To get back at them, Prince played The Best of You at the Super Bowl.

 

[AGGAMEMNON66]

They only told the good stories because it was a funeral.

I'm more entertained by the stories of his eccentric asshole behavior, which you could write a book with the material.

Apparently after an evening with Kevin smith came out, the workers at paisley park were quietly passing that VHS around and all laughing at how perfect a description of prince Kevin sketched. Which usually was not able to happen because of NDA agreements, but Smith never signed his. He said "I need my lawyer to look it over" and then prince staff forgot about it so they never got a copy. Apparently prince was so mad and wanting to sue Smith, he fired a bunch of paisley staff after they couldn't find the NDA

Yeah but all the ‘bad’ stories almost always involve him with other celebrities. He seems to treat regular folks with a decent amount of respect -he loved to fuck with celebs tho.


Eddie Murphy on the other hand became friends with him and outside of some bizarre surreal moments has said Prince was a funny and chill dude once you got to know him.

 

[Shaun K]

Prince and its not even close. Master at everything he focused on

 

[Kryptt]

Here's some background.
Foo Fighters released a limited edition album with this song, and they got an immediate cease and desist from Prince.

To get back at them, Prince played The Best of You at the Super Bowl.

Another one I've never heard. I enjoy hearing many a iteration.

#Hespect

 

[mozfonky]

I guess Prince is the better musician technically speaking (I don't even think MJ played any instruments?) But MJ was mad creative and a way better performer.

At the end it's about personal preference. For me, other than a few songs i just can't get into Prince music. Most of it sounds outdated now. But MJ's music is timeless and doesn't sound outdated at all.

His 80's stuff doesn't sound dated with all the pop synths?

 

[mozfonky]

I've pondered many times over this as a major fan of both. Prince was a great singer and dancer, more athletic than MJ but MJ was still better at his peak than Prince in those department. Both were great songwriters but Prince was 100 times more prolific and had a lot more in the tank than MJ. He left thousands of songs to listen to, MJ hardly has any worth posthumous release. Prince also was the only one of the 80's megastars capable of going into the studio alone and coming out with a hit. MJ had a battery of producers, session musicians and engineers to help him and he still worked at a snails pace compared to Prince.

Then, we have instruments, Prince was great on piano, guitar and base, could cover drums too. MJ could hardly play any instrument at all.

It's a question that will go on forever just because there has always been a rivalry and just enough similarity between the two but really, they are apples and oranges. Prince would release music as it came to him, overglutting the market and not being strategic about how much he sold. MJ went years between albums and polished the music to perfection before a release, aiming to outdo the sales of Thriller. MJ had tightly choreographed live shows with pro musicians and dancers, Prince would change his setlist up every night and improvise his show a lot. So, it comes down to personal opinion, as far as musical talent on the whole, Prince could do more, as far as Singing and performing, MJ, even though he was overregimented and static and didn't grow as much as he could of, he was still the greater star. Only Elvis ever had charisma that matched MJ. Both were magic and we were lucky to have had them.

 

[Joe_Armstrong]

Diamonds and Pearls album is great start to finish