LittleBLUECorvette said:

yanowha said:

What I wanna know is how/why did Freddie fall off like he did in the early 1990's after scoring 18 top ten singles (15 top fives; 10 #1's)? Surely he had a strong fanbase and was making lots of money for someone. Was the music he was putting out just that bad or out of touch with the times?

The same reason every other 70s-80s star fell of in the mid 90s not named MJ, Janet or Prince.

Dem III II.

Haha LBC has a good point.

missfee said:

To me, Freddie's situation is a lot like Lufer's...you know what's going on, but no one speaks on the elephant in the room. It's something that's not said, but understood. Just how I see it. Now as far as his major weight loss, I believe he's been sick but concealing the illness.

Illness could be one explanation, but I wouldn't rule out gastric bypass surgery, which often enables fast weight loss and the person ends up looking a little haggard and gaunt (like Star Jones).

People who have gastric bypass for some reason often don't want to admit it, and want everyone to believe that by force of will they exercised and ate right and presto!

Maybe Freddie's Bi, if you know what I mean

Timmy84 said:

Haha LBC has a good point.

EWF couldn't do it, Kool & The Gang, Lionel, Cameo, Jody Watley, Peopbe Bryson, ect.

Afew had moderete success like Patti, KEith Washington, lol.

So the 2 Jacksons, Prince, Whitney, Babyface that's about it.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Timmy84 said:

Haha LBC has a good point.

EWF couldn't do it, Kool & The Gang, Lionel, Cameo, Jody Watley, Peopbe Bryson, ect.

Afew had moderete success like Patti, KEith Washington, lol.

So the 2 Jacksons, Prince, Whitney, Babyface that's about it.

True.

missfee said:

^^^Not disrespecting your opinion, but to me, I'm not purposely saying that there HAS to be a reason why he has lost weight. The reason why I've said that he must had lost weight as a result of an illness is because he doesn't look healthy to me. Now let's take Heavy D for example (God rest his soul)...he lost weight and no one said, that I could remember, that he was sick. He actually lost weight to the point where he actually LOOKED healthy, so no one would question even question that.

Freddie on the other hand, in my eyes, DOES look sick. Similar to how Freddie Mercury (God rest his soul) started to look once people started figuring out that he was INDEED sick although he kept denying it until he revealed his illness when he got good and ready.

With that said, there's nothing wrong with a "black man" losing weight. It's just that if the weight loss doesn't look natural, that's when people talk. People talked with Aretha lost all that weight too.

And let's be for real, at the Soul Train awards, Freddie came out switching his hips harder than Rupaul on a catwalk in New York Fashion Week. Honey, no.

Freddie Jackson's appearance these days is certainly startling.

To be completely honest, and with no intention of any disrespect or to engage in idle gossip, I agree completely with every point in your comment. I also think Heavy D was a great example of how a big man can lose a lot of weight and not only look healthy, but look damned good! Freddie Jackson does indeed appear to be sick (...to me personally), but that doesn't mean he's dying. Regardless, whatever the case may actually be with him, I wouldn't expect him to reveal it (...in fact, I would EXPECT him to try to dismiss the speculation, even if it meant saying whatever to get people to mind their own business). Clearly, he just wants to move on and continue making music.

Personally, I don't feel any need to wonder about what's going on with Freddie (...it seems clear to me). I have appreciated his music, I respect the man and his desire to remain private, and he has my complete support.

^ I got that from Freddie too like "enjoy me while I'm here". I think some of us worry too much about what's going on with celebrities. He does look sick but I can respect why he won't tell it.

phunkdaddy said:

We will have to stay tuned. Never know if he may have had a bout

with cancer. I wasn't a huge Freddie fan but he had a huge impact on r&b

radio in the mid 80's and the guy always stayed true to his formula.

He sure did....for the worst. He was like a male Shitney.

Shango said:

he gotta discuss his pre-solo days

Yes. He used to jam. My favorite is "Sixty Thrills A Minute". Damn shame he went solo.

scriptgirl said:

Shango, what the fuck? Where did you get that promo stuff and what kind of music did they make?

Funk.

Timmy84 said:

^ I got that from Freddie too like "enjoy me while I'm here". I think some of us worry too much about what's going on with celebrities. He does look sick but I can respect why he won't tell it.

phunkdaddy said:

prodigalfan said:

WTF??

They look like Lakeside on crack.

On a serious note the i dug the music. I would say i enjoy this music

moreso than a lot of Freddie's solo material.

No need to hide. It was 50 times better.

PDogz said:

Personally, I don't feel any need to wonder about what's going on with Freddie (...it seems clear to me). I have appreciated his music, I respect the man and his desire to remain private, and he has my complete support.

I agree with this PDogz statement in that I don't feel the need to wonder what's going on with him. I don't think artists/entertainers/whoever have an obligation to report to us on their personal lives. One thing I do want to say though is that the people who are mentioned as having lost weight and still looking good (HeavyD [R.I.P.], Ruben Studdard, Aretha) have not lost the kind of weight that Freddie did. His is more like Star Jones, for example or Jennifer Hudson in terms of amount and, when I think about it, the lines in his face are similar to theirs after the weight loss. He is older so his are more pronounced. He did look better with a fuller face, but I think most of these people finally lost the weight for health reasons. I think if we get used to seeing him this size (and as I mentioned before, he's been this size for a while now) maybe folks will stop saying he looks sick or that he has some disease. Finally, his "Unsung" episode was well-done (but then, I've enjoyed them all!)

babybugz said:

bboy87 said:

Ruben NEEDED to lose weight. Brotha's face always looked like he woke up from a spell of sleep apnea

There is nothing funny about sleep apnea my mother has that smh.

Anyway..I do agree with whoever said he might have AIDS or Cancer or some other illness. Was his unsung worth watching?

I apologize

Here's the whole thang

http://tvone.tv/unsung-videos?pid=95va3z2mJ8RDGgWXTOqSw_dIG6s3bdeV

While it's always interesting to find out what was going on behind the scenes for the artists profiled on Unsung, this one felt a bit underwhelming. The producers for this ep probably felt the same so they decided to air the part about him talking about the rumors of his sexuality to draw viewers in. And that part wasn't even all that revealing, just more dancing around the subject. So as far as I'm concerned, if he isn't gay he's at least bi. If he was straight, would he really be so ambiguous about it? Careerwise, nothing really that surprised me. The major reason that his career fell off was just simply changing public tastes and that happens to just about everyone.

missfee said:

To me, Freddie's situation is a lot like Lufer's...you know what's going on, but no one speaks on the elephant in the room. It's something that's not said, but understood. Just how I see it. Now as far as his major weight loss, I believe he's been sick but concealing the illness.

missfee said:

^^^Not disrespecting your opinion, but to me, I'm not purposely saying that there HAS to be a reason why he has lost weight. The reason why I've said that he must had lost weight as a result of an illness is because he doesn't look healthy to me. Now let's take Heavy D for example (God rest his soul)...he lost weight and no one said, that I could remember, that he was sick. He actually lost weight to the point where he actually LOOKED healthy, so no one would question even question that.

Freddie on the other hand, in my eyes, DOES look sick. Similar to how Freddie Mercury (God rest his soul) started to look once people started figuring out that he was INDEED sick although he kept denying it until he revealed his illness when he got good and ready.

With that said, there's nothing wrong with a "black man" losing weight. It's just that if the weight loss doesn't look natural, that's when people talk. People talked with Aretha lost all that weight too.

And let's be for real, at the Soul Train awards, Freddie came out switching his hips harder than Rupaul on a catwalk in New York Fashion Week. Honey, no.

[Edited 1/23/12 17:51pm]

KCOOLMUZIQ said:

Can't believe people on this thread insinuating he is sick or has aids, because he lost weight. Very mean to say something like that. I think if he did it would have gotten out by now. Plus his high energy perfomances says otherwise.

Very sad indeed. Even if he was "sick", a 46" waist and all of the illnesses that go along with it probably would have killed him quicker than HIV would.

HuMpThAnG said:

Here's the whole thang

http://tvone.tv/unsung-videos?pid=95va3z2mJ8RDGgWXTOqSw_dIG6s3bdeV

Thanks for sharing the link, I hate that my cable company doesn't carry this channel. I just watched the episode and learned a lot about Freddie's career and the course that it has taken. My heart really goes out to him, even more now that I understand a little more about what he's been through to get to where he finds himself today. He says the best of Freddie Jackson has yet to come, I look forward to hearing it.

Another thought crossed my mind while learning what happened to him with these various record companies and contracts, I can appreciate even more now some of the steps Prince has taken to secure his music and career.

PDogz said:

HuMpThAnG said:

Here's the whole thang

http://tvone.tv/unsung-videos?pid=95va3z2mJ8RDGgWXTOqSw_dIG6s3bdeV

Thanks for sharing the link, I hate that my cable company doesn't carry this channel. I just watched the episode and learned a lot about Freddie's career and the course that it has taken. My heart really goes out to him, even more now that I understand a little more about what he's been through to get to where he finds himself today. He says the best of Freddie Jackson has yet to come, I look forward to hearing it.

Another thought crossed my mind while learning what happened to him with these various record companies and contracts, I can appreciate even more now some of the steps Prince has taken to secure his music and career.

PDogz said:

HuMpThAnG said:

Here's the whole thang

http://tvone.tv/unsung-videos?pid=95va3z2mJ8RDGgWXTOqSw_dIG6s3bdeV

Thanks for sharing the link, I hate that my cable company doesn't carry this channel. I just watched the episode and learned a lot about Freddie's career and the course that it has taken. My heart really goes out to him, even more now that I understand a little more about what he's been through to get to where he finds himself today. He says the best of Freddie Jackson has yet to come, I look forward to hearing it.

Another thought crossed my mind while learning what happened to him with these various record companies and contracts, I can appreciate even more now some of the steps Prince has taken to secure his music and career.

First off, i went like when seeing footage of the unreleased video of Mystic Merlin's "Mister Magician", and as one of the bandmembers said in the ep, Freddie took that band to another level.

Now that i've watched the complete ep from the link above ( thanks for posting Humpthang! ) you could say that he somewhat looks harder in the face although not shockingly bad . Other than that, he's making a vivid and healthy impression, living in Harlem where he feels comfortable and interacting with people over there. I'm also keeping in mind that there's an amount of years between his face of today and back in the day. Comparing his current face with the one when he was much younger is unrealistic imo. I don't know, some people might age earlier in the face than others, but again it doesn't give me the impression that he's not being well.

sosgemini said:

WTF? Is it the 90's up in here?

Do you all serious think that he would not be getting proper medical treatment if he had AIDS/HIV? Only in cases where people are not getting early treatement are they dying of this desease nowadays. Unless you live in a third world country or are not getting treatment, AIDS/HIV is no longer a death sentence.

Come on folks! Just cause someone shakes their hips hard it don't mean they are dying of AIDS.

Not always the case. I recently took care of a young man who died of AIDS, his diagnosis to death time was like 7 years. He was a college graduate from a highly respected HBC and was receiving proper treatment. Unfortunately his strain of HIV was very aggressive. Like any other virus (like the flu) there are different strains (types) of HIV. Some more aggressive than others.

[Edited 1/24/12 8:48am]

banks said:

PDogz said:

Thanks for sharing the link, I hate that my cable company doesn't carry this channel. I just watched the episode and learned a lot about Freddie's career and the course that it has taken. My heart really goes out to him, even more now that I understand a little more about what he's been through to get to where he finds himself today. He says the best of Freddie Jackson has yet to come, I look forward to hearing it.

Another thought crossed my mind while learning what happened to him with these various record companies and contracts, I can appreciate even more now some of the steps Prince has taken to secure his music and career.

PDogz i see you live in NYC. who's your Cable provider because Time Warner and Cable Vision both carry TVone

Ah, thanks for that info man, I appreciate it.

I should have been more specific. I have Cablevision, but TVone is not part of my current package (...I actually just called Cablevision to confirm). I would have to upgrade to iO service in order to get the additional channels which include TVone on channel 178, at an additional monthly charge of $11.95 a month, and that's way more than I'm willing to spend for the occasional Unsung episode that I'd be intersted in seeing (especially if I can just catch it on the Internet like I did this one - where I was even able to download the video to keep and watch again whenever I want). But it's at least good to learn that it's available if I ever wanted to cough up the extra bucks, and I wouldn't have known that if you hadn't made me aware. So again, thanks!.

prodigalfan said:

sosgemini said:

WTF? Is it the 90's up in here?

Do you all serious think that he would not be getting proper medical treatment if he had AIDS/HIV? Only in cases where people are not getting early treatement are they dying of this desease nowadays. Unless you live in a third world country or are not getting treatment, AIDS/HIV is no longer a death sentence.

Come on folks! Just cause someone shakes their hips hard it don't mean they are dying of AIDS.

Not always the case. I recently took care of a young man who died of AIDS, his diagnosis to death time was like 7 years. He was a college graduate from a highly respected HBC and was receiving proper treatment. Unfortunately his strain of HIV was very aggressive. Like any other virus (like the flu) there are different strains (types) of HIV. Some more aggressive than others.

Wouldn't that be considered the exception though now and not the rule? People's comment's toward Jackson appear to be fueled by stereotypes and not reality as we know it. IMHO.

prodigalfan said:

missfee said:

To me, Freddie's situation is a lot like Lufer's...you know what's going on, but no one speaks on the elephant in the room. It's something that's not said, but understood. Just how I see it. Now as far as his major weight loss, I believe he's been sick but concealing the illness.

Funny thing is, the "elephant" did not really affect Lufer... but it did seem to affect Freddie. I wonder why.

....Lufa became a family member and Freddie was a friend of the family. Nothing against Freddie of course but that's how it seemed at least. There seemed to be a deeper emotional connection to Luther's work than Freddie's, imo.

Interesting episode, Freddie is one of the popular acts from the 80's who doesn't get talked about often so it was good to see something about him.