Wednesday, June 25, 2014

MJ Gone 5 Years Later: Do You Even Give A Damn?







I hate Transformers 2.  Not because of the shitty dialogue, or the shitty acting, or the over the top special effects, and the non-stop explosions.  That just comes with the territory when it comes to Michael Bay films.  I hate that movie because that was the exact movie I was watching when I got the news that somebody close to me passed away.  Every time that movie comes on my television I instantly get transported back to my seat at that AMC Theater.  I instantly remember glancing down on my cell phone when I refreshed my twitter page when the following tweet popped up on my screen: “@BreakingNews: TMZ CONFIRMS. MICHAEL JACKSON DEAD AT 50” It has been exactly 5 years since I seen that tweet, and I’m still in denial that he is really gone.   Now I know that I am not related to him in anyway shape or form.  But Michael Jackson has been apart of my life ever since I was born. 

I was introduced to him at a young age through my baby sitter who ran a day care center.  When she wanted the kids to settle down, she would always go in her video collection, and put on a movie so we would all shut up.  The movie she would always put on was Moonwalker.  It was Michael Jackson’s musical movie opus of his career up to that point. From the very first shot of Michael performing Man In The Mirror” in front of what looked like SEAS of people, I was hooked.  I was convinced that man had superpowers the way he would sing and dance.  It was unlike anything I have ever seen in my life. When I saw him lean in the Smooth Criminal” video I thought the dude wasn’t human. At that moment, I become a Michael Jackson fan.



From the early to mid 90’s, everybody in the world LOVED Michael Jackson.  He was literally the biggest thing on planet Earth, the only person he came close to was Jesus, and I’m not even exaggerating when I say that.  Now don’t get me wrong, the dude did do some weird shit.  I mean who the hell would walk around with a damn monkey and name him Bubbles?  Who the hell puts an amusement park in his backyard and call it Neverland?  Who the hell dresses up in a rhinestone outfit suited for Captain Crunch? Who the hell takes Madonna and Brooke Shields out on dates and by the end of the night he puts THEM in the friend zone? Michael fucking Jackson that’s who!   He sold millions of records, he was selling our stadiums, MTV was doing greatest hits specials on him, he was getting awards named after him, and he was still in the prime of his career!  He called himself The King of this pop music shit, and at that point, the man was untouchable.

The keyword here is that he was a MAN, and he was still mortal.  With all the fans in the world that loved him, he still had a huge group that hated him and wanted to tear him apart.  When the child molestation accusations came out it just opened the floodgates for the media to pick apart the man that the world loved.   Even though there was no evidence, the media had all the ammo that they wanted to use against him.  And in a matter of a few years it seemed like the world turned their back on Michael.  He became a running punch line and it wasn’t too long ago when late night talk shows were just having a field day with Wacko Jacko jokes.  Who can forget Katt Williams stand up routine when he just went on a 5 minute rant and screamed “Fuck Michael!” from the top of his lungs.  Let’s not forget Eminem’s Just Lost It” video, or the jokes that SNL, Mad TV, and countless other shows made about him.  Very few people defended him, and when they did they would just get laughed at.  I was one of them.


I was the dude in my high school that was still blasting the Dangerous album like it was the hottest thing on the planet.  I was the guy that would go up to the DJ at my school dances and tell them to blast You Rock My World so I can holler at my crush.  When I was chilling with my homies, I would put on a random MJ record, blast it at ignorant levels, and just sing every note to the song.  And of course, I would just get laughed at and just be told, “Man turn that shit the fuck off bruh! You know he touched them boys!”  And I would just look at them and argue with them about what evidence they had that he did “touch them kids” and when it came to the music I would just look at them like they were the weirdos and say, “You don’t hear this shit?!”  Maybe my ears were developed differently, but Mike’s music was so ahead of it’s time that’s it’s not even funny.  He paved the way for the Ushers, the Chris Browns, the Biebers, the Ne-Yos, the Burno Mars, the Timberlakes, and anybody else that ever tried to moonwalk.  I mean seriously, do y’all remember THIS nigga?


I find it funny how everybody just LOVES Michael Jackson all of a sudden.  I remember the day after he died, the same people that told me to turn off Michael’s music were calling my phone asking me to burn them CD’s of all of his work.  DJ’s would play his music at the club like it was a regular thing to do.  People all of a sudden were calling him the G.O.A.T. and started acting like they were fans from the beginning.   After-death overnight bandwagon fans are the worst, but it comes with the territory.



In the 5 years since his passing, the wound is still fresh.  Even after watching the hologram performance at the Billboard Music Awards it just made the wound worse.  A computer cannot mimic the moves that Michael Jackson made.  Michael Jackson and Michael Jackson only can make them moves.  Sure we have a few new Michael Jackson albums with unreleased material. But it doesn’t feel right when we will never see Mike perform those songs or do extravagant videos for them.  It just isn’t the same.  5 years after his untimely death the world realized that we really lost a gift.  There can never be another Michael Jackson.  The throne is not for the taken.  When he died, he took that crown with him.  I just wish we all appreciated him a little more when he was still here.  Danyel Smith has the perfect quote to sum up how I feel about his death 5 years later.

“It’s still unbelievable to me that he is ACTUALLY dead. We should ALL be ashamed..”

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