Prince, Jack U Off | Controversial Songs

In the seventh edition of Controversial Songs (2025), we explore the controversy behind the “Jack U Off” by Prince.

Bring on the controversy! Controversial Songs is a column that provides background information and insight into songs that raised eyebrows, stirred the pot, or were banned. The more censorship censor$hit, the better! The records that grace Controversial Songs are old and new alike, with all genres of music welcome.  In the seventh edition of Controversial Songs (2025), we explore the controversy behind the “Jack U Off” by Prince.

“If you’re looking for somewhere to go / Thought I’d take you to a movie show / Sitting in the back and I’ll jack you off.”  Oh, snap 😳! Prince (1958 – 2016) was the exemplification of a provocative musician, particularly in the 1980s.  “Jack U Off” is a prime example of him playing provocateur (emphasis on play 😈). The Purple One suggests he’s going to ‘jack off’ a woman, which is an unusual way to word a male to female masturbatory act. If it were a female to male perspective, or referencing a male-male interaction, “Jack U Off” would be slightly less ambiguous and, slightly less controversial.  The only other explanation is questioning if Prince was referencing somebody other than a cis woman…  Speaking of controversial, “Jack U Off” is the eighth and final track from his 1981 album, Controversy.  

On “Jack U Off,” there is no gray area. It is a blunt title referencing a specific sex act. While his bassist, Mark Brown, suggested that Prince didn’t understand the terminology, that seems unfathomable for a 23-year-old, particularly a 23-year-old who excelled at sex songs. There are plenty of eyebrow-raising moments from this pre-PMR Filthy 15 song.  This was years before “Darling Nikki” was infamously “Masturbating with a magazine.” “Come on over to my neighborhood / We can jump in the sack, and I’ll jack you off,” Prince asserts in the first verse, continuing, “If you’re tired of the masturbator / Little girl, we can go on a date / And if you like, I’ll jack you off.” The Purple One wants to be the one to pleasure her instead of a vibrator.

One of the interesting incidents that involves this controversial song is when Prince opened for The Rolling Stones in 1981.  As bassist Brown asserts in a Music Radar interview, The Rolling Stones’ audience was not Prince’s audience.  The performance didn’t go well. Prince was infamously booed, called homophobic slurs, and ill-received.  Why? Prince’s androgynous appearance and fashion, and this risqué, rockabilly-sounding number that only drew more ire from an audience that wasn’t hip to him.   Admit it, a song where you assert, “I’ll jack you off” repeatedly is a tall task, particularly for what would have been an entirely different fan base.  “Jack U Off” embraces controversy, but it does so in incredibly funky fashion.  Prince’s voice sounds amazing, as always, while the musical accompaniment is high-energy and utterly infectious.  Jacking U Off never sounded so… never mind!

Appears in 🔻:  

• In Remembrance: 13 Provocative Songs from Prince (2020)
• 17 Songs Featuring Self-Pleasure Lyrics (2022)

Prince // Controversy // Warner // 1981

Prince, Jack U Off: Controversial Songs No. 7 (2025) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Warner; Andrea Mosti from Pexels; AcatXlo, OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay; christian buehner on Unsplash]