James even said Prince was jacking his performance style:
[Prince was] emulating my moves like a motherfu*ker. I know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but because my act followed his, it looked like Rick James was copying Prince rather than vice versa.”
Later, once Prince became famous, he refused to sign an autograph for James’s mother. It didn’t end well.
The you-know-what really hit the fan after Rick got tired of losing, and since many say he felt like he was losing to the new kid on the block, Prince, Rick handled it in a true Rick James-like fashion:
‘[According to Teena Marie, James got back at Prince by] allegedly stealing Prince’s programmed synthesizers and using them on his own 1981 album “Street Songs,” and then sending them back to him “with a thank-you card.” ‘
Now that was really “COLD-BLOODED!”
