Rick had protege's before prince....and was comparable to Prince in a lot of ways..

I'll tell you this...if you listen to the Great White Cane album..the album Rick did when he was in Canada ...before he came out as a real funkster.... at that point in Rick's career he sounded more advanced musically that Prince did in his earliest recordings.... as a singer, songwriter, musician, producer....band leader... Rick was ahead of what Prince was at that same time in their careers...

by the time Prince was on the rise...and fukkin with rick on the same tour...Rick was passing his prime.... and Prince took off after that....

but there was digging back in forth....I mean Vanity and Jill Jones were Rick James jump offs before they left to go fukk with Prince... If I was Rick I would have had an attitude at the guy just for that....

Rick jabbed back and forth with P-Funk a little too..it was all in good fun.