michael jackson ↘↖
return in peace
wow.
ok. so, it’s been over a week now. and i’ve been trying to write this post ever since the first day i got the news. i was in my hometown, flint, michigan, about to get on the highway and drive back to chicago when my mom called. initially, i wrote it off as just another rumor. there always seemed to be one floating around out there about mike. in my mind, this had to be number 3,898,673. so, i told mom that i’d check into it and call her back later. i hung up the phone and continued the convo i was having with my homie, e. harris. we were standing in the parking lot of what we flintstones refer to as a “party store” leaning against the back of my car and that’s when i got confirmation that the greatest entertainer the world has ever known had passed on. it was crazy. i got the homie in one ear, catching me up on the latest goings-on in the old neighborhood, and in my other ear, i catch the all too familiar opening chords of “human nature.” then, out the corner of my eye, i saw what could possibly be one of the most…peculiar(?) sites i have ever laid eyes on in all of my 37 years here on earth. did i just see four of the most thugged-out cats (i’m talking hardrocks), all piled into a candy-painted chevy impala, cruise past e & i BLASTING mj from their car stereo? did that really just happen? hear me out. i love my people and i hate to typecast, but to the untrained eye? these cats look like they were fresh off a drive-by. soon after, yet another car passed playing a different mj song. then another. then another.
damn.
then to top it all off, e turns to me and says, “oh yeah. you heard? mike j. is outta here?” (tact has never been e’s strong suit.)
i walk around to the front of my car, open the door, turn the ignition, and on comes the radio. sure enough…
wow. that’s all i could say then and it’s all i can come up with now.
i never quite understood the term, “larger than life” until now. i have never witnessed anything like this. from the press coverage (who’ll gain custody of the children? who’s named in the will?), to the 24 hour mj marathons on just about every radio station in the country (and i’m sure worldwide). it’s all just so surreal. they’ve interviewed everyone from spike lee to quincy jones to akon. there have been impromptu memorials in the streets of countries with names that i can’t even begin to pronounce. again…wow.
needless to say, michael joe jackson was a big deal. to EVERYONE. no matter who you are. no matter where you’re from. even if you hated him or loved to poke fun of his life, he meant something to you. i’m willing to put a little money on it.
i won’t go on. in fact i’ll wrap it up here. at this point, so much has been said that anything i add would be redundant.
thank you MJ.
return in peace.
