In an illuminating scene from Michael, the record-breaking, debate-igniting music biopic, the future King of Pop and his brothers are relaxing at the pool inside the Jackson family’s lavish Hayvenhurst Estate in Encino, California. It’s 1982, and Michael Jackson is plotting his Thriller world domination. Nothing… no one can get in his way. That’s when a floating MJ realizes that there is a certain multi-hyphenated, one-man-band talent out of the City of Lakes who poses a serious threat to his goal of global supremacy.
“If I’m not here to receive these ideas, God might give ’em to Prince,” he said with a wry smile. Yet the hilarious quip is no contrived Hollywood punchline. It was a real-life anecdote that Kenny Ortega, director of the posthumous 2009 Michael Jackson documentary This Is It, recalled back in 2010 during an interview for VIBE’s Michael Jackson vs Prince oral history. Longtime followers of both musical titans understood the deep and complex historical and cultural connections between the two Black eccentric, gifted artists who transformed the ‘80s and ‘90s into their own playgrounds. Younger MJ Stans, however, were left scratching their heads on social media: What’s the big deal with Prince?
