Hathaway
Someday, We'll All Be Free
One of the few people in music that I consider a God. The pure, raw talent. The swagger. The voice. The dancing. Most importantly, the mind.
He just had something other legendary artist of his day didn't have. He was competitive and a perfectionist. Now I'm sure a lot of big time artist were ultra competitive but MJ was on some MJ23 shyt.
When Off the Wall dropped, it was only nominated for 2 Grammys. It only won one : Best R&B Vocal Performance. MJ was embarrassed, ashamed, angry. Think about his mindset. Your first real solo album away from Motown. Away from the Jackson 5. He expected it to blow up the world. The album was very successful but Michael expected more. Imagine being disappointed in Off the Wall. If that album dropped today, it would turn the music world upside down.
Enter Thriller. Thriller was born out of pure competition. Pure genius. It's insane. Mike said he expected every song on his album to be hits. 9 songs on the album. 7 of them were top 10 hits. 2 of them #1 hits. This wasn't just an album. This was war. This was conquest.
Its almost arrogance. Insanity. The 1st single released from this monster was Girl is Mine. That's crazy to me. But I get it. It's foreplay. Get it warmed up. Play with it a bit. Get it moist almost. Let's give em something light. Girl is Mine released and soared to #2 on the charts. Then they opened the fukking floodgates.
Beat it was released and went number 1. Michael said he wanted a song aimed at young white men. Ingenius. Who thinks like that? What black R&B artist thinks like that? The song featured Van Halen on the guitar solo, one of the greatest fukking rock guitarist of all time. Mike said hey, just hop on the bridge for me and eat this shyt up like you at a heavy metal concert. He obliged.
They said when Van Halen was recording his solo at the studio, it shook the fukking hallways so much that other artist were running into the room to see wtf Quincy and MJ was cooking up. Imagine having a front row seat to the gods terraforming the music world right in front of your eyes. The song broke the color barrier on MTV. MJ wanted to be seen as sort of a bad ass. He had actual gang members in the music video just posted up in the background. Historic.
Then Billie Jean. Michael wanted to completely shed the boy band image. This aint ABC nikka. This aint Dancing Machine. The song was sexy. The groove was sexy. The bass line was primal. It dug into your core. Makes you move. Hypnotic. The lyrics. Bad boy. The child is not mine. It painted Mike as a sex symbol. "Yeah, I fukk these hoes raw. But the kid ain't mine". Mike was really like that even though the song lyrically was a compilation of stories about his older brothers. But let Stephanie Mills tell it, Mikes innocent act was just an act. Beat it and Billie Jean both occupied the top 5 at the same time. Both went #1. Only a few artist have ever done this. But MJ debuting the moonwalk at Motown 25 sent the song into God tier. The publicity was astronomical. Who was the artist that went on after Mike did Billie Jean at Motown 25? Yeah... Me neither. Imagine having to follow that shyt? I would've left the building mad as fukk and went home.
Thriller the song didn't even make it to #1. It topped out at #4. Unbelievable. I don't even need to mention the music video and the impact it had. True entertainer. Mikes team thought a short film was a bad idea. It's supposed to be a music video, not a film Mike. It's never been done before. They told Ray Charles that. Ray, you can't combine R&B and Gospel. Why not? Boom Soul music. Mike wasnt just a singer/dancer. He entertained. He made himself a film star too.
MJ created the pop star. He was the 1st. He created the blueprint that so many other artist try so hard to replicate. He was an entertainer. He never fit inside a box. He didnt just want to be the biggest R&B star. He wanted to be the biggest star period. He wanted to conquer multiple genres. Disco, pop, r&b, rock. Everything.
Thriller won 12 grammys that year. If I was nominated in any category with MJ that year, I wouldn't have even showed up. I wouldve known this shyt was about to be a sweep. You know when they call out the nominees and show their faces on the big screen? I would've told the camera man to keep that shyt off me. What's the point?
I laugh when people try to compare to MJ so haphazardly. You can tell they really dont understand. Beyonce is legendary but she'll never reach that level. Never. Everything she does will be in tribute to MJ. She can never surpass him. She can never be close. It's impossible. I dont care about the skewed streaming numbers/sales. MJ sold over 100 milly without streams. Straight physical album sales. Godly. Usher will never be there. Chris Brown is not even in Ushers league artistry wise, so when I hear him being compared to MJ, I want to vomit. Bruno is a cheap imitation. Talented, yes. But an imitation.
These are great artist but there are levels to this shyt. People are so quick to want to crown the heir aparent. MJ took this shyt seriously. He saw music differently. It was spiritual. He said that every song he ever wrote was already prewritten by god. He thought of himself as just the vessel that was used to put it on paper and sing it. Thriller was the Bible and its songs, scripture. MJ was the prophet. That album prophesied a force of nature that the world would never see again. There can only be one God. They all sit at the feet of MJ. Everybody from 1982 to the present has been fighting for 2nd place.
He just had something other legendary artist of his day didn't have. He was competitive and a perfectionist. Now I'm sure a lot of big time artist were ultra competitive but MJ was on some MJ23 shyt.
When Off the Wall dropped, it was only nominated for 2 Grammys. It only won one : Best R&B Vocal Performance. MJ was embarrassed, ashamed, angry. Think about his mindset. Your first real solo album away from Motown. Away from the Jackson 5. He expected it to blow up the world. The album was very successful but Michael expected more. Imagine being disappointed in Off the Wall. If that album dropped today, it would turn the music world upside down.
Enter Thriller. Thriller was born out of pure competition. Pure genius. It's insane. Mike said he expected every song on his album to be hits. 9 songs on the album. 7 of them were top 10 hits. 2 of them #1 hits. This wasn't just an album. This was war. This was conquest.
Its almost arrogance. Insanity. The 1st single released from this monster was Girl is Mine. That's crazy to me. But I get it. It's foreplay. Get it warmed up. Play with it a bit. Get it moist almost. Let's give em something light. Girl is Mine released and soared to #2 on the charts. Then they opened the fukking floodgates.
Beat it was released and went number 1. Michael said he wanted a song aimed at young white men. Ingenius. Who thinks like that? What black R&B artist thinks like that? The song featured Van Halen on the guitar solo, one of the greatest fukking rock guitarist of all time. Mike said hey, just hop on the bridge for me and eat this shyt up like you at a heavy metal concert. He obliged.
They said when Van Halen was recording his solo at the studio, it shook the fukking hallways so much that other artist were running into the room to see wtf Quincy and MJ was cooking up. Imagine having a front row seat to the gods terraforming the music world right in front of your eyes. The song broke the color barrier on MTV. MJ wanted to be seen as sort of a bad ass. He had actual gang members in the music video just posted up in the background. Historic.
Then Billie Jean. Michael wanted to completely shed the boy band image. This aint ABC nikka. This aint Dancing Machine. The song was sexy. The groove was sexy. The bass line was primal. It dug into your core. Makes you move. Hypnotic. The lyrics. Bad boy. The child is not mine. It painted Mike as a sex symbol. "Yeah, I fukk these hoes raw. But the kid ain't mine". Mike was really like that even though the song lyrically was a compilation of stories about his older brothers. But let Stephanie Mills tell it, Mikes innocent act was just an act. Beat it and Billie Jean both occupied the top 5 at the same time. Both went #1. Only a few artist have ever done this. But MJ debuting the moonwalk at Motown 25 sent the song into God tier. The publicity was astronomical. Who was the artist that went on after Mike did Billie Jean at Motown 25? Yeah... Me neither. Imagine having to follow that shyt? I would've left the building mad as fukk and went home.
Thriller the song didn't even make it to #1. It topped out at #4. Unbelievable. I don't even need to mention the music video and the impact it had. True entertainer. Mikes team thought a short film was a bad idea. It's supposed to be a music video, not a film Mike. It's never been done before. They told Ray Charles that. Ray, you can't combine R&B and Gospel. Why not? Boom Soul music. Mike wasnt just a singer/dancer. He entertained. He made himself a film star too.
MJ created the pop star. He was the 1st. He created the blueprint that so many other artist try so hard to replicate. He was an entertainer. He never fit inside a box. He didnt just want to be the biggest R&B star. He wanted to be the biggest star period. He wanted to conquer multiple genres. Disco, pop, r&b, rock. Everything.
Thriller won 12 grammys that year. If I was nominated in any category with MJ that year, I wouldn't have even showed up. I wouldve known this shyt was about to be a sweep. You know when they call out the nominees and show their faces on the big screen? I would've told the camera man to keep that shyt off me. What's the point?
I laugh when people try to compare to MJ so haphazardly. You can tell they really dont understand. Beyonce is legendary but she'll never reach that level. Never. Everything she does will be in tribute to MJ. She can never surpass him. She can never be close. It's impossible. I dont care about the skewed streaming numbers/sales. MJ sold over 100 milly without streams. Straight physical album sales. Godly. Usher will never be there. Chris Brown is not even in Ushers league artistry wise, so when I hear him being compared to MJ, I want to vomit. Bruno is a cheap imitation. Talented, yes. But an imitation.
These are great artist but there are levels to this shyt. People are so quick to want to crown the heir aparent. MJ took this shyt seriously. He saw music differently. It was spiritual. He said that every song he ever wrote was already prewritten by god. He thought of himself as just the vessel that was used to put it on paper and sing it. Thriller was the Bible and its songs, scripture. MJ was the prophet. That album prophesied a force of nature that the world would never see again. There can only be one God. They all sit at the feet of MJ. Everybody from 1982 to the present has been fighting for 2nd place.
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Mike got a big dikk, breh
