In Memoriam Part 2: Michael Jackson – Long Live The King
Saturday June 27th, 2009
It has taken me this long to get my thoughts together.
I’m not trying to make this some definitive tribute statement, either…I’m just speaking from my soul…
Another Black man is gone before he could grow old…that in itself is a tragedy…but what makes it significant is that that Black man is the greatest entertainer ever…
Yes, I said it.
Michael Jackson is the greatest entertainer ever.
I definitely do not wish to shortchange James Brown. James Brown is the blueprint of modern Black music. Michael knew this and studied JB’s every move. He loved James—as a mentor, as an entertainer, and as a person. To me it speaks volumes that Michael came out of his exile to honor James when he passed….
Michael put his own issues aside and came out for JB when so may of JB’s disciples and progeny were shamefully absent….
James Brown lived a long life, and good sense would tell you that JB was older than what he said he was….so when JB passed, it was major but not unexpected…
I haven’t told anyone this until the last couple of days…Michael Jackson introduced me to music…It was because of him that I made up my mind early in my childhood that I would make music…
I’ve heard quite a few other people, famous and not, say the same thing over the past few days…
Over the years, I have defended him against unfair and false criticism…the thing that angers me the most about his life is the willful ignorance of those who hate him…
I’ve never seen anyone be hated with the fervor I’ve seen some people hate Michael Jackson…
I’ve heard people call for his death…and now that it has happened, I’ve heard people say that they are glad…
and they base these feelings on what exactly?
Because he was eccentric? I bet you there are weirder people in your family…
this didn’t start with the allegations, this hatred of Michael Jackson has been building steadily since 1987….I’ve watched it with my own eyes…
I watched the press start going out of their way to make it seem like everything he did was cat shit crazy…
“Bizarre singer Michael Jackson flew a kite in his yard today…the famously weird singer for some odd reason flew a kite for about an hour this afternoon ….some found the scene disturbing…”
Silly shit like that…
A real life example is when Michael bounced his baby on his knee to calm his crying…Martin Bashir acted like he was choking the baby…
Who DOESN’T bounce crying babies on their knee?
I think the thing I found most disturbing about the venom directed at Michael Jackson was the Black people who turned their backs on him…
Michael Jackson represented for Black people all of his life.
His career is based on his Blackness…
He paid for David Ruffin’s funeral.
John H. Johnson (publisher of Ebony and Jet) was one of his advisers.
He owned Sly Stone’s publishing and made sure Sly was taken care of.
His heroes were James Brown, Jackie Wilson, and Sammy Davis., Jr…he spent his 50th birthday listening to James Brown…
There are rumors that after acquiring the publishing rights to Little Richard’s songs, Mike gave them back to Richard…not sold, gave…
Michael would bring in busloads of poor children South Central, Watts and other black populated areas of LA county to Neverland to have their run of the place…
Saul Williams said that his education was funded by part of a 25 million dollar donation by Michael to the United Negro College fund.
Michael was friends with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
He loved to vacation in Africa and tried to spread the word about the historic and physical beauty of the continent…he stated that he believes all things come from Africa….
He made a song called THEY Don’t Care About US (feel free to read between the lines)
He loved the documentary Unforgivable Blackness about the story of Jack Johnson.
He made street dancing popular long before the breakdancing phenomenon of the mid-80s….in the mid-70’s, Mike was popping and locking. He always gave credit to the dancers in the streets, many times hiring them for his videos.
He made a video with real gang members, long before gang-banging became chic.
He made a video showing Black people as royalty in Africa.
His vocal style with all the ad-libs, scatting, and slang is undeniably Black.
Michael NEVER looked down on hip-hop…he reached out to, collaborated with, and mentored many young hip-hop artists.
He called Tommy Mottola a devil, loved to eat KFC (with the skin removed) and drink Crown Royal, his first date with Lisa Marie was to go see the Temptations and The Fifth Dimension in Las Vegas.
She asked him, “Where will we stay?
“In my room.”, he replied.
“Will we sleep in the same bed?” she continued
“Hell yeah, girl!…” was his answer…
was he not Black?
He had a perm and married a white girl…how Black is that?…LOL
I kid….but I never felt that Michael did not want to be Black.
I don’t want to focus on the controversy because that cheapens his legacy…as a man, he had faults…but who among us does not?
The plain and simple truth is the reason why Michael touched so many of us in such a personal way is because what his mission was….
he summed up it here, very succinctly:
“Love is my message….”
-Michael Jackson, 1980
he told us many times over the years…
“All the colors of the world should be lovin’ each other/wholeheartedly/Yes, its all right/take my message to your brother and tell him twice/Spread the word and try to teach the man/who’s hating his brother/when hate won’t do/When we’re all the same/cause the blood inside of me is inside of you…”
Michael Jackson was not just a simple singer and dancer…he was a revolutionary…
As a songwriter and producer, he does not get his due…he is the definitive for behind the sound…he is the funky one…he is the one with the gift…
he used Quincy to articulate his intent, but he did it without Quincy, before and after Quincy….
He is a musical genius…bar none…
His lyrics are rich with meaning and emotion…people get caught up in the spectacle and miss what he was saying…
“something’s soon to come over you/you just cant please the world and yourself/gotta start doing what’s right for you/cause life is being happy yourself…”
-Bless His Soul
“live inside cryin’ eyes/your touch/your heart/your warmth/lullaby/love to dream/don’t it seem/the tears/the pain/reality/
don’t cha know/these dreams I wish could be/the real you and me/I come running back to you/you push me away/you push/you push me away…”
-Push Me Away
“I am the damned/I am the dead/I am the agony inside the dying head/this is injustice/woe unto me/I pray this punishment will have mercy on me…”
-Who Is It
“this time I’m leaving all of my cares behind/I taste the good life and its fine/no more this pain and strife/this life’s willing to be/and I’ve got enough/and I know what’s right for me
I’ve done my time and I have paid the price/all you have to do/is state my name out loud/forget your worries/and let’s dance and shout/cause we’re here to live so free/Ive got to let me be…”
-Everybody
“the world keeps changing/rearranging minds and thoughts/predictions fly of doom/the baby boom/has come of age/we’ll work it out
I told my brother/don’t u ask me for no favors/I’m conditioned by the system/don’t you preach to me/don’t scream and shout
she pray to God/to Buddha/then she sings a Talmud song/confusions contradictions/the self/do we know right from wrong?
I just want you to recognize me in the temple/you cant hurt me/Ive found peace within myself…”
-Jam
“Now, I’m a man whose for all seasons/and what the city offers me/ain’t naturally/I live to greet the stars but there’s no stars to see/ I’m gonna search this world until I find my destiny…
If its the rich life/I don’t want it/happiness ain’t always material things
I want destiny/its the place for me/gimme the simple life/I’m getting ‘way from here/let me be me/cmon/let me feel free…”
-Destiny
These are words that came from his heart and his pen…incredibly profound words….a lot of us were listening…
This is why we felt Michael, because he reached out and did his best to make us feel, to unite us, to make us dance…
His voice is instantly recognizable…a beautiful, soulful instrument of both joy and pain…from his first songs to his last…
When I listen to Get On The Floor, I am captured by the breakdown….he breathes and scats in amazing rhythm…then he begins to chant:
“get up/wontcha gon’ get down/shake ya body/wont cha gon get down….”
he repeats this over and over….his vocal percussion blending in with the the drums and tom-toms…
he keeps repeating this until you feel like you are in some kind of voodoo ritual….he brings the groove back with a scream…he’s still chanting but harder…urging you to move…
the groove climaxes and he is whooping and screaming as if possessed…
when he comes back to the lyrics he is so exhilarated that he is laughing out loud while he sings…
he was feeling the groove as much as we were…we had no choice but to surrender…
many other folks my age, when we were kids, and we watched Michael sing and dance, he seemed to be a supernatural force of nature…he seemed more than human…
it was the little things…the glowing socks…the glowing pavement when he walked on it…the laser light behind him in Rock With You…it felt real….it felt natural…like he was some kind of funk sorcerer who knew magic…
Magic.
That’s the word that keeps coming up when people talk about Michael…his mystique and his brilliance made us think somehow, someway magic was real….
You watch him in The Wiz…and you realize that he really is The Scarecrow…
His music at its core…was primal…there was a combination of darkness and light behind it all…he could do the ballads and the smooth stuff….but when he was unleashed over a funk groove, that’s when we got the raw Mike…
songs like Workin Day And Night, Wanna be Startin Somethin’, Heartbreak Hotel, Remember The Time, Everybody…
We fed on his energy and we couldn’t get enough of it…
If you really listened to his music…I mean REALLY listened…he told us everything we needed to know…
One of his most enduring and heartbreaking songs is That’s What You Get (For Being Polite)…it is pure autobiography…
“love’s not harsh/love’s not bad/ but what he’s doing for love is so sad…
he wants to be so bad/he wants to be so bad/all the time/gettin in/thinks he can get out/something’s deep in side of him/eating up the pride in him/that makes him buy things for the girls/that’s what you get for being polite…”
-That’s What You Get For Being Polite
But even though we are grown men and women and we know that he is human just like us…we still have the notion that he is really some kind of spiritual force in human form…as we all are really…
But now that he has passed, it underlines with mean finality that underneath it all, he was flesh and blood…
All of that wisdom, artistry, energy, excitement, sensitivity and love seems like its been taken away from us….
People, my heart is heavy…because for all that the brother gave to us all,we did not return his love like we should have…
It is not just that it ends this way for Michael….for all the respect shown, the media still will not let go of their bigotry and disdain….they still allude and make innuendo…they fear his power and refuse to let the brother shine and go on to his glory like he deserves…
But then I think about it, and all of that wisdom, artistry, energy, excitement, love, and sensitivity will never die…Michael will live on forever…
We will never forget him.
We will still sing along, we will still dance, we will still watch and listen.
We mourn the loss of him not as a celebrity, but as a friend….he was a friend to us…
I listen to the people who knew him personally and I hear their devastation…I listen to what THEY say about him and I know I was right about him…if he wasn’t as special as he seemed to be, this might be just a little easier to take…
I’m not ashamed to say that I love Michael Jackson…and the world doesn’t feel the same without him here…
you kind of always expected him to be here…
Through his life, he taught me so much about life, music, compassion, survival, expression…and I feel I’m a better person for being a Michael Jackson fan…
I pray for his family, especially his parents, and his children.
I pray that people will show respect, restrain, and compassion now that he has moved on.
I pray that people will move away from the spectacle and really and truly re-discover his music and his gift…and even though its far fetched, maybe see him for who he really is.
Michael Jackson sacrificed his life to entertain us, to make us happy, and possibly teach us a thing or two…no matter what you thought of him, that deserves respect….
Michael Jackson is the greatest entertainer ever.
We will not see a phenomenon like him again.
Michael Jackson was more than the greatest entertainer ever…he was a great man…
and the world was a much better place when he was here with us.
He is The King.
I don’t know if these words made any sense to anyone, but I felt they needed to be said.
Rest In Peace, Brother Michael
Thank you. For everything.
Thank you for these words. Thank you. Thank you.
This was amazing. Oh my gosh. I cried. Thank you.
God bless you for this wonderful tribute. This is the type of recognition he deserved in life and in death.
amazing, beautiful truth.
An awesome — in every sense of the word — tribute to a great man. You brought more than one tear to my eye, thank you so much.
You said exactly what was in my heart, words that I couldn’t express. Thank you so much!
Thank god someone understands him.
Beautiful <3 I’m so frustrated with people who didn’t understand him and love him. I’m not Black, and I’m missing that piece of the puzzle– I don’t “feel” what he meant to Black people, although I see and hear people sharing their feelings on it like you did. I just feel what he meant to me.
Thank you for articulating this so beautifully so we could all read it and absorb it. <3
All I can say is thank you…. that’s was beautiful
I do not know what else to say to this writer other than “Thank You”. Thank you so very much. We all feel the same.
“I’m not ashamed to say that I love Michael Jackson…and the world doesn’t feel the same without him here…
you kind of always expected him to be here…”
THIS! this, this, this, this, this, this, THIS A MILLION TIMES!!!!!
thank you for this!
Man, what can I say that you have not said? He is one of the reasons I play music to this day. I kind of fell off from him for a while but he was always there in what I do. I use to do all his moves and was discovered at a talent show doing “Billie Jean”. The rest is history…
Wow. Just…wow. Thank you. I’ve been trying to articulate how I feel about this and the words still haven’t come yet. So thank you for this.
it makes plenty of sense. thank you. long live the king.
…and “get on the floor” is one of my favorites, for just the reasons you mentioned. it always mesmorized me…
thank you so much for writing this. you have written exactly what i feel but could not express since his passing.
to Michael…….your biggest fan,
Michael…….i miss you so much as well as all your fans, friends and family. we just want you to know that we love you and that we are praying for you. you are truely the king of pop .Truely. i’ve never seen anyone do what you do better than you. you are clearly the best and you never deserved this life. You have been so gifted and talented and you have done such extroadinary things, youre a wonderful person and i hate the fact that people try to tear you apart and hurt you, but i love the fact that you stood strong all the way through those bumpy roads in your life you stood strong which is really brave. you know mike baby…we will never forget you and the wonderful things you have done for your fans. your songs touch my heart and the messages are very clear (your songs are the best eva) youre the best eva….no matter what happens mike……you will NEVER be forgotten EVER!! love you miss you, may you R.I.P !!LONG LIVE THE KING…..THE KING OF POP!!
love your biggest fan:Nicole
Michael Jackson Nomination 2010 Nobel Peace Prize
Please, I would be very grateful if we all could do this for Michael. Please go to petition.com or copy this down and put it into your search engines.
Thank you so much, please spread the message.
Thank you so much for articulating so much of what so many of us feel. How I wish that writing such as this was spread across our newspapers instead of the inane dross that is peddled out every day.
Thank you, thank you, thank you x
This blog was AMAZING! I could really feel your intense desire to defend Michael and tell the world just how important he is and how this loss is going to affect the world. I loved how you defended how it wasn’t true that Michael didn’t want to be black. I learned some new things that Michael did for his race.
Gosh, I wish stuff like this was the stuff that was being reported on CNN, ET, Extra etc. . . not all the false sh*t that we are getting each day.
Scorp,
Dope stuff! Thanks for highlighting the positives. More people need to know these things instead of the negativity the media has used to try and tarnish his legacy.
“Michael Jackson sacrificed his life to entertain us, to make us happy, and possibly teach us a thing or two…” This is exactly what i told my wife. Since the age of 5 he’s been an entertainer and never had a private life. It’s as if God put him here just to entertain us and make us feel good. He was loved globally and will be missed globally. Thank you for this tribute.
Thank you for this. I mean each day I wake up, I feel empty. Bascially, I’ve been watching his BAD concert each night before going to bed. My sister has forwarded youtube footage that I should take a listen to. I mean, all the shows done. WOW. I knew he did sooo much before I was born and I feel it will take the rest of my life searching through all that he has done. I find myself wishing I was born sooner, although ‘75 was still good timing to experience his magic.
I cried yesterday, because the E! channel keeps showing that THS episode which makes me so sick to my stomach. It was the first time I watched the parts that bothered me thinking someone will turn it around and fix the comments, but nothing. I stopped watching network TV along time ago and E! is right on my list. I’m really starting to think, they are trying to brainwash people.
The one thing I have is his music, videos and VHS tapes even of award shows which keeps me smiling. Funny, as I’m typing this, I hear Martin Lawerence on Martin saying he saw Michael with Tito and Janet. lol I uttered Michael’s name in the middle of many of my conversations for years, yes people would laugh, but I knew why deep inside. I even have an icon on my computer for him and it has been there since I’ve had this computer since 2005. I guess I thought if he ever came to my house and needed to use the computer, he was already set-up. lol Just me being me. Love You MICHAEL J. JACKSON. Always.
i’m glad… that i’m reading this months after his passing…
coz i’m crying now, i might pass out then. Michael Jackson is a good (due to lack of better words to use) person.
he will never ever be forgotten the bandwagon may leap off the bus but millions will stay. coz deep inside r hearts we know this is an honest man.
THANK YOU FOR THE BEAUTIFUL WORDS… MJ deserves this. Long Live the KING!
Are you going to see This Is It? If you do lemme know what you think.
i’ll miss u bro!!!!!!!