I'm still in shock. Michael Jackson, undisputed King of Pop, is dead at the young age of 50 as of June 25th @ 5:26PM EDT. He didn't even make it to the average theoretical black man maximum age of 54, and according to Moonwalker he could turn into a car AND a robot. No pun intended, my world has been rocked. You see, Michael Jackson, while world renowned for his heavenly tenor voice and physics defying dancing, was especially powerful to young black children such as myself. I vividly remember being in second grade watching and listening to this guy, who looked like me, doing things on television and radio that no other black man had ever done before. I had posters, t-shirts, I occasionally wrote my name as Robert Jackson to be silly, I won the 'Thriller' LP at a Champ's Rollerdrome Thriller event and even took a picture with my Michael Jackson glove on. One of the most significant memories I have of MJ was the first time I saw him moonwalk - "Mama, Daddy, did you see that?? How did he do that??". And we all rushed out to the garage to try it ourselves. That moment solidified his superstardom at the Motown 25 the world over, and was a lock for me as a fan for life.
Sure, his personal life shenanigans would get in the way of what I loved him most for - his music. His bloody brilliant musical talent. It is becoming increasingly rare to find genius songwriting and vocals skills - most of what I hear on the radio is tired, cookie cutter, repetitious, sampled to hell and just poorly written. Michael Jackson delivered on all aspects, even after 'Thriller' albeit not as consistently, keeping in mind 'Thriller' is the number 2 album of ALL TIME to this day. One of my first compact discs was 'Dangerous', and I used to test my audio equipment with 'Jam', but then letting it continue until 'Keep It In The Closet' played, but then letting it go to 'Who Is It' and 'Give Into Me' - those songs are hauntingly exceptional. I remember the time... when I bought 'HIStory', my best friend and I would ride around in my Buick singing all of the classics together, and then I would play 'Scream' and 'They Don't Really Care About Us' for my co-workers at the game store. I still remember my manager literally jumped back when the guitar really kicks in on that song. And I smiled that MJ could still bring it to an older white man. While his final album, 'Invincible', didn't sell like previous efforts, it was still a work of art for me. The title track (gosh, so good), 'Break of Dawn', 'Whatever Happens' and surprisingly 'Butterflies' are songs I play regularly. I played 'Heartbreaker' for a friend because one of the lyrics sounds like her very distinct name, and I still sometimes call her Heartbreaker :) My bro and I would fire up his music and dance and see who could lean the lowest - I don't recall who won :) It's all aboot the music - being a young black man, his music inspired and influenced me greatly, to go and make something of myself, and I still get goosebumps when listening to MJ's tracks - I may swell up into tears the next time I hear 'Billie Jean'.
So that is that - I'm not on suicide watch but I just can't believe Mr. Moonwalk has passed on. One of the most influential black artists, if not arguably the greatest entertainer of all time, has left us. It still hasn't registered in my brain that he is gone - my emotions are all over the map. I first heard the news from a buddy on AIM on my BlackBerry - he just said "MJ died" and I refused to believe it was Michael Jackson - especially since I had JUST been at CNN.com before leaving work. I tried to bring up CNN (while driving, yikes) to figure out if he was pulling my leg but literally the Internet was NOT working. All of the talk aboot the Internet slowing down to a crawl I was personally experiencing. Then the phone calls, texts, emails, FBs, and BB messages started pouring in. I had arrived at my grandmama's house as it was lightening and storming outside and her TV was showing that two icons had passed on - Farrah Fawcett (who had the most perfect smile EVER) and Michael Jackson. My grandmama was in as much disbelief as I was. I still am. I mean, not that long ago I was at a bar with my wife and 'Shake Your Body Down To The Ground' came over the speaker box - The Girl and I started dancing and I went to iTunes to purchase that song realizing it was missing in my collection. That prompted she and I taking road trips and going through his entire collection from Jackson 5 songs to current (final) album. And neither of us complained - we danced in the car, turned it up and enjoyed - dare I say looked forward to - our next automobile outing so we could queue up the next MJ record. Great times. This was days ago. It's going to be difficult to queue up that next album. But when we do, I'm positive it'll jam.
Prayers for the family, friends and fans, may he rest in peace, God bless.
