Old School Friday: Remembering Michael Jackson

The Old School Friday theme is week is Michael Jackson, in remembrance. I will never forget how I learned of Michael Jackson’s death. It will be embedded in my mind like the day I learned of Tupac’s death, or when I found out that Mike Tyson had been knocked out by Buster Douglass.

My wife and I were out and about and I pulled over at a service station to get a couple of Icees. We were listening to the radio (The Ticket), and they were reporting sketchy details of someone having a heart attack, but we couldn’t figure out who they were talking about.

Just before I got out of the car they said it was Michael Jackson. We both kind of shook our heads and I left and entered the store. When I got back to the car, she looked at me and said “he’s dead.” The news was just that fast yesterday, it’s just a surreal sort of thing.

For someone my age – I was around 9 when Thriller was released- Michael Jackson is sort of the beginning of our musical consciousness. I was at the age where we put MJ Jackets in the layaway, sported a glove from time to time, and spent hours watching Michael breakthrough on MTV which rarely played black artists before then.

I remember how at the skating rink they would shut down the floor and drop a screen to show the “Thriller” video, a ritual that continued for years and years. There were also “Michael Jackson” contests to see who had the best M.J. dancing skills. I remember my classmate Yamesha moonwalking her way to victory one night.

Michael had problems due to his harsh and business driven childhood, but he was one of the few people that you can drop the tag “musical genius” on without question. Today truly is a sad day.

Anyway, here are my OSF entries. I stayed away from Thriller because its the best of all time, and you can’t just pick one song from that album. So here are my entries. R.I.P. MJ (1958-2009)

Butterflies (written by Marsha Ambrosius Floetry)

Butterflies was Michael Jackson’s last hit on the top 100 (#14), and it reached #2 on the R&B chart.

Remember how the release of a Michael Jackson video was like a movie premiere. Everyone made sure they were in front of the T.V. to see what Mike might pull off next. This was the case with “Remember the Time”, “Smooth Criminal”, “The Way You Make Me Feel.” Those were the days.

Michael Jackson – Remember The Time

Uploaded by hushhush112. – Watch more music videos, in HD!

Couldn’t pass up the chance to post the deut with Michael and Janet (Ms. Jackson if you’re nasty).

Last but not least, this is when everyone realized that Mike was not only a special talent amongst his brothers, but that he had solo breakout potential. It was part of the progression to Thriller. God Bless the Jackson family