Music News
For complete coverage of the life, career and passing of the legendary entertainer, visit "Michael Jackson Remembered."Share your Michael Jackson memories by uploading video and comments to Your.MTV.com or joining the discussion below.
On June 26, the day after Michael Jackson passed away, President Obama issued a statement on the singer's tragic death though his press agent.
The song featured in the clip appeared on his 1995 greatest-hits collection HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I and it was one of Jackson's most controversial late-period releases thanks what some deemed its anti-Semitic overtones.
Among the lyrics were the lines, "Jew me, sue me, everybody do me/ Kick me, kike me, don't you black or white me," as well as "Skinhead, deadhead, everybody gone dead/ Hit me, kick me, you can never get me," which said at the time could be interpreted as being "pointedly critical of Jews."
Jackson denied the charges in a statement released at the time, saying, "The idea that these lyrics could be deemed objectionable is extremely hurtful to me, and misleading. The song in fact is about the pain of prejudice and hate and is a way to draw attention to social and political problems. I am the voice of the accused and the attacked. I am the voice of everyone. I am the skinhead, I am the Jew, I am the black man, I am the white man. I am not the one who was attacking." He later apologized again and eventually re-recorded a second version of the song without the offending lyrics.
It's the ultimate American dream: a meteoric rise from obscurity and struggle to worldwide fame and adulation. Untold riches, palatial estates, a fiercely loyal crew of hangers-on, private jets, screaming fans and limousines come with the territory. But so does seclusion, paranoia, loneliness and access to any and all vices the heart and mind can imagine.
It's a dark side of celebrity that has come into focus all too well recently, from Eminem's admitted struggles with painkillers to Britney Spears' very public difficulties and, last Thursday, Michael Jackson's death at age 50 after decades of isolation, plastic surgery, multiple allegations of impropriety with young men and an allegedly fierce addiction to prescription medications.
How does superstardom so quickly turn into a life-threatening fall from grace?