January 07, 2006
IS IT BECAUSE HE'S BLACK?: What They Don't Want You to Know About Michael Jackson
What do you think of when you hear the name, Michael Jackson? Wacko? Criminal? Great Entertainer? Businessman? Whatever you think of MJ, throw all your thoughts out of the window and let's examine some facts.

For years the media has labeled him "Wacko Jacko." What happened to MJ? Wasn't he the biggest thing in music at one point? When did he go crazy?

All anyone has to do is look when Michael started being portrayed as "Crazy." It wasn't during the "Thriller" years. It's cool being a song and dance man. That's what they want. DON'T DARE BECOME A THINKING BUSINESSMAN. DON'T DARE BUY THE BEATLES CATALOG. DON'T DARE MARRY ELVIS' DAUGHTER. DON'T DARE BEAT THE RECORD INDUSTRY AT THEIR OWN GAME. Michael started being labeled crazy when he began making business moves that no one had been successful at doing.

Michael took two cultural icons and shattered them to pieces. All our lives, we've been bombarded with 2 facts. The Beatles were the greatest group of all time and Elvis was the King of Rock and Roll. Michael bought the Beatles and married the King's daughter. (if that ain't literally sticking it to the man) If I wasn't a cynic, I'd say Michael did the Lisa Marie thing just to stick it to the people who consider Elvis the King.


The Beatles were great, but they weren't great enough to maintain publishing rights over their own songs.


Elvis was great, but he didn't write his songs. His manager, Col Tom Parker, was the mastermind behind Elvis ... keeping him drugged with fresh subscription pills and doing all the paperwork.


Michael could do no wrong as an entertainer. "Off the Wall," first solo artist with 4 top ten singles. "Thriller," the biggest selling album of all time, with a then record 7 top ten singles. "Bad," the first album to spawn 5 number one songs (even Thriller only had 2 number one songs). All this is cool. But that is all you better do. SING AND DANCE. Michael wanted to be greater. He bought the legendary Sly and the Family Stone catalog and no one really cared. When he bought the Beatles, people noticed. The Sony merger took the cake. Sony, in their eagerness to have a part of the Beatles catalog, agreed to a 50/50 merger with Jackson, thus forming Sony/ATV music publishing. Now, Michael co-owns half of the entire publishing of all of Sony artists. Check out the complete lists of songs at sonyatv.com. A sampling of the songs he owns the publishing rights to are over 900 country songs by artists such as Tammy Wynette, Kenny Rogers, Alabama. All Babyface written songs. Latin songs by Selena and Enrique Iglesias. Roberta Flack songs, Mariah Carey songs, Destiny's Child's songs. 2pac, Biggie and Fleetwood Mac songs. In essence over 100,000 songs. "What is this man doing?" None of the greats did this. Not Bono, Springsteen, Sinatra. "Who does he think he is? Get whatever you can on him."


To "get" someone, you have to attack what they love the most. I'll say no more on that.


The only man who even approaches MJ in taking on the industry is Prince and to a lesser extent, George Michael. They went after poor George Michael, publicly outing the man as a homosexual. Prince fought hard and made his point, but nevertheless still had to resort to using a major company to distribute his materials. There is nothing wrong with that. Prince would get the lion's share, but the result were years of being labeled crazy and difficult.


The greatest moment for them was the Sneddon press conference. "We got him." Never was such glee so evident. Who cares if we have evidence?


Michael was acquitted, did not celebrate, went home and left the USA. Best move ever. Now what is there left for the haters to do? He's gone. "Gone, what do you mean he moved to Bahrain? Well, how the hell can we get him if he's not here? Quick, get that columnist to write a series of articles on how MJ's teetering on the brink of destruction. Oh we did that? Well, what can we do?"


On the outer surface, it appears Michael is not doing anything to make money. Don't even count the weekly sales of his CDs. 15,000 CDs a week is nothing for Michael. The Sony/ATV catalog is money for Michael Jackson every time he breathes. Serious money. The fact that no one reports on the actual amount is proof of that. They would rather you believe he is broke than tell you the truth. Neverland is still owned by MJ. The family home in Encino is still owned by MJ. Michael still owns the Beatles songs through the merger with Sony as well as full ownership of his own songs. But, hey, that's our little secret.


Michael Jackson is literally walking in the shoes that no Black person has ever walked in before. If he ever writes an autobiography, it will be one of the most interesting ever. A Black man with no real formal education becomes the most powerful man in the industry, DESPITE hatred, racism, enemies in his own camps and a media willing to be bought to the highest bidder.


If Sony had any sense, right now they should offer to continue the partnership. That's the only way they will make future money off of Michael's catalogue. Tommy Mattola did not lose his job with Sony because he was a bad label head. It was a casualty of war. MJ exposed him and Sony had to cut their losses. Companies do it all the time. Notice no one at Sony nor did Matolla himself ever sue MJ for slander. Michael always was loyal to his bosses at Epic/Sony. Back at the 1984 Grammys, he even brought then label head Walter Yetnikoff on stage with him at one point. He's always thanked Dave Glew, Mattola and others at Sony in his acceptance speeches.


Sony can still do right by Michael, but it may be too late. However, they still should make a goodwill gesture, but how many times do businesses do that? If I were them, I'd still want MJ as an ally, not as an enemy. It is/was a mutally profitable merger.


I'd be scared as hell if I was an enemy of MJ while he is with the multi-billionaires overseas. Believe me, they aren't just over there discussing designer clothing. A conglomerate is in the making.


One last note, these facts that I write here should not be the only times you hear this, but the sad fact is it probably is. I was worried that Michael would go down because of the uncertainty of the jury. That's playing unfair. If I'm presenting these facts here at EURweb, YOU CAN BELIEVE THE MEDIA KNOWS IT ALREADY AS WELL. They aren't salivating over everything MJ related just because he made "Thriller." They know what's up. Think about it. That's why I laugh when I see shows like BET's "The Ultimate Hustler." We all know who that is. (How can Damon Dash know who the ultimate hustler is anyway? He lost Roc-a-fella to Jay-Z)


In the end, Michael won't be known for being an alleged child molester. He won't be known for "Thriller." He will be known as the man that fought the record industry and won and lived to tell the tale. That is a book worth buying.


Source: Euroweb.com/eMJey

Christopher Hamilton is a freelance entertainment writer. He can be reached for questions or comments at mrcjhamilton@hotmail.com

First time I heard about this shit I laughed at the brilliance of it.

I think people started calling him crazy when he started showing up places with, alternately, Webster and a chimp attached to his hip. The stories he sold to the tabloids about sleeping in hyperbaric chambers and buying the elephant man's bones didn't help either.

oh, and i finished reading.... clearly this was written by a) Michael himself or b) a crackhead.

vashtidmsr said:

Quite interesting...

...and I thought people posted crazy slanted one sided shit that makes no fucking point to anyone with a brain in the politics and religion forum but this takes it to a whole new level.

umm i coulda swore dude graduated high school or got a ged

this is one phenom wendy and lisa have nothing to do with...

Moonwalkbjrain said:

Nah he didnt, he never went to high school or he already dropped out earlier i read this ages ago but im not really sure.

c'mon, this was posted already.

DorothyParkerWasCool said:

yup...

i honestly dont think elvis would of had a problem with lisa marie marrying michael. i dont see why people think michael marrying her would of hurt elvis or see it as a huge fuck you thing
[Edited 1/22/06 19:50pm]

funkpill said:

The Beatles signed a very bad Publishing contract at the beginning of their career. Didn't Michael claim that Motown did something similar to the Jackson 5, and that's why he and his bros split from there as soon as they could.?

What pissed some people off was not that MJ owned the Beatles catalog. but that he didn't treat it with the respect it deserved . Remember, he allowed the songs to be used in commercials, which was not that common at the time for major acts

hellomoto said:

She also marroied Nicholas Cage, publicly a huge Elvis fan. But then so is the majority of the world! Guess thats just what happens when your Dad is a legend. I dont think its a point worthy of note

Interesting article but I don't think Michael making Thriller the biggest selling album of all time and buying the Beatles catalog is the real reason the media label him crazy or became a tabloid punching bag.

Krytonite said:

agreed....there's plenty of reasons to call MJ crazy that have nothing to do with his business practices.

Rhondab said:

There is?

Rhondab said:

yes the boy seems to have truly lost the plot on several levels !!!!!

The thing that MJ fans have conveniently forgotten is that MJ was the person planting stories in the Enquirer in the mid-80's to keep his name in the press. For all of the bitching he does about "Tabloid Junkies" and his privacy, MJ is as much to blame as the journalists that helped perpetuate his Wacko Jacko reputation.

Never thought there'd be so much MJ info on a Prince board. He so needs his own org.

JackieBlue said:

Axchi696 said:

That is another rumor people cannot prove, so its normal for "fans" to ignore things like that along with the stupid things that were printed back then...

MichaelsLight said:

BULLSHIT !!! of course this has been proven...by the people that planted the stuff...frank dileo ..his crew...and people that worked for MJ like bob jones ect...He wanted to become the greatest show on earth...like a howard hughes or PT barnum...so he encouraged the media to call him wierd or "UNIQUE" strange...it back fired on him because he became more wierd than any story he could ever come up with !!!

I don´t get this theory. Why would he wanna make up stories about himself at the hight of his career, where he was just EVERYWHERE anyway? Why doesn´t he come up with such stories now, when he´s not performing? Or are you saying that those sex charges were also his "idea" to keep himself in the media? I don´t believe Bob Jones, I´d more believe Frand Dileo, so if there´s an interview, where he claims that, could you please post it?

BTW, I was just listening to an interview by one czech writer who has sued local tabloid for something and the journalist tried to prove him wrong saying that those celebrities need tabloid otherwise public would forget about them and the writer argued that it´s not true. That "true artist and true superstars" do not need media at all, only those "celebrities". And I believe it´s true. When was the last time you´ve heard anything scandalous about Beatles, Elvis, Mozart whatever. They are gone for a lot of years now. They´re not in tabloids anymore and has their art died? have people forgotten about them? No. Their music is what keeps them alive, not the media.

Another question of mine (maybe off topic, but who cares) is why do the media keep calling MJ "self-proclaimed" King of Pop? Why do they keep doubting this title and not Elvis´, for example? Because if MJ is truly not the King of Pop, who is?

dag said:

I could not agree with you more...

Axchi696 said:

And pretty much every celebrity arranges for paparazzi to follow them about at certain times, agreeing on a percentage of the profits from the photos... and then they get pissed when they're followed without prior knowledge. It's a game with everyone, not just MJ. At least the mid-80s NE crap was funny.
[Edited 1/23/06 15:10pm]

Oh, and I wouldn't believe what Bob Jones says. Don't even get me started on that racist sleazeball. He sat on his arse for the last 10 years on the payroll for doing fuck all. Tell a lie, he created shit for himself to clean up just so he could have something to do.

Ellie said:

That's a valid point, but then what kind of weight would the "Leave Me Alone" song and video hold? Aren't they supposed to be responses to the rumors he himself helped fabricate?

True, but that video was more poking fun at it than whinging. And it was great