By Ralph Richardson

This is SAD, real Sad. What happened?

Michael Jackson died yesterday of cardiac arrest. And when he died, I believe a little piece of us died with him. Just like when Kurt Cobain, Tupac and Biggie died tragically. I am completely stunned, completely in shock, and I am completely at a loss for words. I’m sitting here right now, sitting here as the world mourns the loss of a father, a son, a brother and a genius. No matter what they say he was a genius, our genius.

I am sitting here, tired of the news, tired of the talking heads. I am sitting here BLASTING Michael Jackson’s “Wanna be Starting Something?”

Like everyone else who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, Michael Jackson was it. He was the man. He was BAD. Michael was young, handsome, talented, and let’s not forget, black.

Before Obama, there was Michael Jackson, a talented, welcoming figure that could bring white and black people together. His first solo album Off the Wall (1979) was the record I remember doing the “bump” and “the rock” to with my mother, aunts, and cousins during cookouts and family reunions. We all rocked with Michael, even though his style wasn’t my style: an afro with a slightly moistened dew look (a no-no on the East Coast), wearing a tux with high waters (another no-no) that showed off his sparkly socks (huh?). None of that stuff mattered to us. He was us, and we were him.

Off The Wall went to sell over 20 million albums worldwide. Little did we know that that was just the opening act to Thriller (1982), literally and figuratively-Thriller actually started off slowly. The first single, “The Girl is Mine,” left a lot of critics thinking it would only be a minor hit. But then “Billie Jean” hit, and I do mean hit. Who could forget that infectious Quincy Jones produced song with a bass line that was thickened up and executed by The Brothers Johnson? At its peak, the album was selling a million copies a week worldwide.

Michael single-handedly forced MTV to stop its form of music video apartheid and totally changed the way music videos were made and received. I remember going to his concert with my aunt and my brother. We loved it! We loved it so much. Just as much as going to see kung fu movies, but instead of my brother and I kicking each other’s butt when we left the theatre, we were seeing who could do a better moonwalk.

When I got to Cedarbrook Middle School the following Monday, I couldn’t stop moonwalking; I couldn’t stop even if I wanted too. And being one of the few black students at my school and the only black student to go to his concert that weekend, I had the responsibility of teaching all of my friends how to slide backwards like the King of Pop.  Soon, no one was walking normally; soon everybody was sliding on their feet to class. Hey, I might not be a great dancer, but one thing I could do was moonwalk. And at that time I didn’t mind being Michael’s ambassador. Things were changing, it seemed. Not only was Michael changing America, but, little did I realize, Michael was changing himself.

On Thriller’s album cover we can see that Michael narrowed or “whitened” his nose, shaped his eyebrows, and shaved his chin to give it a Kirk Douglas ruggedness.  And let’s not forget the jheri curl. These changes in Michael were a not too subtle blow to the psyche of Black America, and though we still loved him, we were, as Kanye West sings, “MAD, real mad, like Joe Jackson.”

In its first year Thriller became the all-time best-selling album in America and has gone on to sell over an estimated 75 million albums worldwide. It seemed the more famous Michael became, the whiter his physical appearance became. In most cultures, whatever the minority culture invents, over time the majority or mainstream culture absorbs and claims as its own – i.e. blues, jazz, and rock and roll to name a few. But this has to be the first time in which the majority culture’s pressure actually turned a person’s physical attributes from the minority to the majority. Even Ralph Ellison would have been taken aback at how literal Michael’s transformation was.

Despite his change, not only was Michael a special talent, he was a great humanitarian. Jackson co-wrote the charity single “We Are the World” with Lionel Ritchie. The single became one of the best-selling singles of all time, with nearly 20 million copies sold and millions of dollars donated to famine relief.

Michael Jackson died, ironically, preparing for his farewell concert. From his peak, Thriller, until now, he had turned himself from black to white (my wife taught an elementary school class a few years back, where all the students swore up and down that Michael was white), from a world icon to a circus freak, from being beloved by children to standing under the dark cloud of child molestation.

This is a Greek tragedy, this is a King Kong story painted by Salvadore Dali. But Michael Jackson was also a bridge of hope, and humanity. He made us feel good about ourselves. No matter what, Michael leaves a magnificent and powerful legacy, and nothing can cloud that.

He’s BAD, real Bad, Michael Jackson

-        Kanye West

Ralph Richardson is a filmmaker who lives with his wife and son in Brooklyn. www.SexDrugsandComedy.com

Readers: What is your Michael Jackson theme song?

• Michael Jackson Fact Sheet
• Michael Jackson Timeline
• Michael’s Music
• A soul-stirring tribute
• Michael’s Death Causes Music Sales to Soar, Twitter to Crash
• Charting Michael’s Hits
• Quincy Jones Reflects
• “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough”
• “Thriller”
• “Beat It”
• “Wanna Be Startin’ Something”
• “The Girl is Mine”
• Michael performs “Billie Jean” Live at the Motown 25th Anniversary Special in 1983
• “The Way You Make Me Feel”
• “I Want You Back”
• “ABC”
• “I’ll be There”
• “Remember the Time” (with Iman, Magic Johnson, Eddie Murphy, etc.)
• “Smooth Criminal”