It would have been Michael Jackson’s 56th birthday this year, it’s already 5 years since his passing in June and yet there is still so much we don’t know about the King of Pop or we’ve forgotten because the media have forwarded their own agenda (let me rein in my fan mode feelings for a minute).
One particular story that missed the radar was the tale of Mike visiting Japanese composer Isao Tomita, a familiar name to J Dilla fans. According to this story via a MJ forum, when Michael toured Japan in 1987, he was invited to dinner at the composer’s house and offered a cup of Sake. The translator told Mike beforehand the Japanese tradition of eating and drinking until your plate and glass was empty.
The cup being so small, MJ knowing the purity of the rice wine and not wanting to offend, he knocked back glass after glass until he couldn’t take anymore and subsequently passed his receptacle under the table to the translator, who drank the wine and passed it back to look like Michael had drunk it. Politeness and intelligence while intoxicated on Japanese rice wine. Unfathomable.
Below is a video of The King of Pop in Tomita’s studio playing around with one of his synths. It was rumoured they had arranged to collaborate but this unfortunately never came to be, which is a mighty shame as that would have been sampling gold at the very least.
No need to rein in you fan mode. The media has been horrible in properly documenting the life of the greatest artist of our time, Michael Jackson. The media’s petty preoccupation with the inane, unimportant, and frankly lies, when they could have told the story so much more accurately, as journalists should, to paint a whole picture of this creative giant who lived in our midst for 50 years. Our society seems to punish those who dare to be butterflies among the caterpillars desperate to destroy the butterfly.
Spot on. We try to remain impartial as much as possible as not to push an agenda but it’s no secret the media played a major part in ruining his life. However, his musical legacy remains intact.
Hard to remain impartial with Michael Jackson if you are a true fan and understand what the media did to him in its zeal to destroy and profit. I am thankful that his musical legacy is intact and he gains new fans each day.
It’s true. That’s why we have a whole heap of Michael Jackson posts here haha