Tag: the King of Pop

They call him the King of Pop, they call him the greatest entertainer to ever walk the planet earth, he touched hearts all over the world, he made women faint at his concerts, he has a huge catalog of music that goes back to the 70’s and his name is Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson is an iconic artist that inspires a whole lot or artists that exist today, not just in singing and dancing but entertaining period. Every Black household, cookout, birthday party, wedding, has Michael Jackson’s music, whether it’s “Thriller”, “Off the Wall”, “Dangerous” or even music from The Jacksons like their “Destiny” or “Triumph” albums. When you’re listening to a Jacksons album or song or a Michael Jackson album or song, you can’t help but to mimic Michael’s mannerisms and dance moves, especially the classic Moonwalk dance that he premiered on Motown 25 while performing his smash hit “Billie Jean” in 1983. Let’s not forget the classic bio pic movie about the Jacksons starring Angela Bassett, playing Michael’s mother, Katherine, in 1992. Angela, as usual, does an amazing job playing that role. Growing up, my mom would play The Jacksons while she cleaned up around the house, their music was from the 70’s and 80’s and here I was, a 2 year old running around singing these songs. Til this day, their music is still amazing to me and I always loved their harmonies and how instrumental it was. “Destiny” is my personal favorite Jacksons album but my all time favorite Michael Jackson song is “I Can’t Help It” from his 1979 album “Off the Wall.” Also, how incredibly dope Michael Jackson music videos were? Off the chain yo! I personally didn’t care for the extra long concepts and short films and stuff, that was annoying to me, except “Thriller” but when the music finally comes on Michael is doing his thing. Another magical thing about Michael were his live performances. His live performances were just as dope as the music videos. We didn’t know what to expect so you couldn’t miss a Michael Jackson performance. Now music, we would be here for days talking about his catalog. “Off the Wall” was very disco-ish but a classic, “Thriller” was more on the pop side, the early MTV days when they weren’t playing music videos from Black artists and I believe “Billie Jean” was the first music video played on MTV by a black artist. “Bad”, Mike had a new image, people found out he had a skin disease called vitiligo. It’s when the skin loses it’s original skin color but in blotches all over the body. Michael was still loved though, he had the same spark and magic. Then there was the 90’s and there was “Dangerous”, which is my favorite Michael Jackson era. That “Remember the Time” video is my all time favorite Michael Jackson music video. I loved the whole Egyptian ruler theme where Eddie Murphy and beautiful model Iman were the king and queen and Magic Johnson was one of the servants. That choreography was bananas yo! I try to learn that whole dance til this day. LMAO! Then we have the “HIStory” Michael. This was when Michael became more political and was speaking about the injustices and his unfair treatment in the world by the government and the media. “Scream” with his sister Janet is too legendary. That’s another favorite Michael Jackson video of mine. Me and my sister always acted like we were in that video, jumping on the furniture, dancing everywhere, we pretended to have an audience and everything, that’s the Michael Jackson effect right there. “HIStory” is my favorite Michael Jackson album because the songs were powerful, unapologetic, strong, emotional and raw all at the same time. Michael didn’t give a fuck! That’s why they banned the “Scream” video back then. Songs like “Tabloid Junkie”, “D.S.”, “Earth Song”, “Money”, “Stranger In Moscow” and the best song to me on the album is “They Don’t Care About Us.” These songs were the answers to everything. Michael was giving it to the people raw and uncut and of course there was the remix album in 1997 called “Blood On the Dance Floor: HIStory In the Mix.” Me and my sister ran that CD to the death! Those remixes had a flavor of hip hop, R&B, pop and dance and the entire thing was banging from beginning to end but after that, nobody heard another album from Michael until 2001’s “Invincible.” To me that was his last REAL album because the posthumous music wasn’t all that. They should’ve just left it at “Invincible.” I remember when “You Rock My World” came out. They ran that video to death on MTV. Chris Tucker foolish ass was his hilarious self as usual in the video and of course in classic Michael Jackson fashion, it was a short film and lots of dancing all over a woman he was chasing, just like “The Way You Make Me Feel.” Let’s not forget about the remix featuring Jay-Z. When you live in the hood where people are selling bootleg CD’s off the street, you come across some underground dope shit and I loved that remix. I personally liked the remix better. That was a street joint only found on mixed CD’s provided by DJ’s. Songs like “Butterfliez”, “Cry”, “Heaven Can Wait”, “Break of Dawn”, “The Lost Children” and “Whatever Happens”, this was another dope Michael Jackson album but it’s underrated to me, people didn’t appreciate this joint. It’s been seven years since Michael passed and we all still feel the pain of his loss. It’s like a cut trying to heal but it’s healing incorrectly. It gets re opened on the day of his death and his birthday but we all love Michael very much. He’s moonwalking and singing in a new and better place. Happy Birthday and rest in peace King. We love you and miss you. Hee Hee!