Harggh! Would have loved to see MJ involved in a non pop record.
I can rememberer his vocal aggressivity on tracks like Jam and other...
To me it was as shilling as some Tom Waits stuff.

Can you imagine him singing about something truly personal using that voice instead of pretending that he wants to save the world... Even a freakish theme.... I think we would be close to proper artistry. There can be no denial that he had it all... Prince made more with his ability and also got a good few pop hits.

:beer:

Actually, in the 90's MJ's music became more personal, especially in HIStory album. Stranger In Moscow for example is a song about his loneliness, 2 Bad talks about all those people who attacked him as well as Money and many other songs. I think he would go on like that from then on, but unluckily he was limited by his discography during the early 00's. In fact he also sang about his private life even in the 80's (especially Price of Fame and I also find Abortion Papers very interesting) but these songs didn't come out at that time.

I don't know what you mean by freakish but I recommend you to give it a listen to Morphine, Superfly Sister or even HIStory, in case you don't know them.

As regards the thread, I chose MJ of course. I really admire Prince and I think his unknown songs are far better than his hits. I mean, he's got many songs much better than When Doves Cry, Kiss or Purple Rain. Kiss especially is too much overrated (so is When Doves Cry).

On the other hand, I just love MJ's music. I love those unknown songs such as Monkey Business, We've Had Enough, Al Capone, Work That Body. Not to mention his hits.

They just had different skills, one plays better while the other dances better but what's important to me is that both were very original composers (yes, MJ did compose his songs) and I admire them both (although I like more MJ's music by far).

Prince was always a bit more different than MJ, I prefer the more funk sound Prince has

Michael Jackson has billie jean and thriller but does he have raspberry beret.... I didn't think so.

Michael Jackson and Prince were friends. In fact MJ went to some Prince shows to do his would have been tribute tour.

Friends is a bit of an exaggeration but they actually liked and respected each other contrary to the media feud that was perpetuated. There was a friendly rivalry between the two but they really admired each other.

MJ did attend a few of Prince shows and Prince covers a lot of MJ/Jackson 5 material in his live shows.

MJ really wanted to work with Prince on the BAD album but Prince declined and said that it would be a hit record without him. They had a few meetings, played some ping pong and chatted it up.

Both are legends but we already know who the KANG is!

I prefer MJ. They each are there own thing going.