Monday, June 29, 2009

Michael Jackson Tribute by Scorpion (Okayplayer)


please read this post by long-time charter member "scorpion" of okayplayer (also a music producer). i really couldn't say it better myself:

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Michael Jackson - Long Live The King

I'm sorry if this is too long...and I apologize if I am breaking any of the board rules...but I have to pay tribute to a man who affected my life in a very personal way....so here goes:

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 from 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:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6TzvE6b_lM

“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 force 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.
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DJ Premier's Tribute to MJ: http://www.zshare.net/audio/61934373dba0571d/

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