The events of the past 24 hours didn’t really hit me until today while on break from work. In a very testosterone filled environment, the combination of hearing a faint echo of PYT on a radio inside, the view of the murky afternoon sky from where I was sitting and some other intangible variable, suddenly had me misty as a muhf*cka. MJ is quite definitely the reason that music is more along the lines of a passion rather than say a casual indulgence for me. I used to get seriously angry as a child if an award show, any award show, was taking place without Michael as a headliner. On some “what is WRONG with you? how you not gon’ have Michael????” type vibes. I also remember trying to memorize the words to a song off of the Dangerous album and plotting on singing it to a girl in my building I thought was dope. Or having her overhear me somehow singing it. Something like that. Yeah yo, Mike’s that dude. And how I still managed to hear a couple of tasteless jokes today is beyond me. The man gave us Thriller. THRILLER!!! I swear, some folks just be ungrateful!

Revolutionary as a word ain’t revolutionary enough to capture the effect this man had on the world. I mean, you have the musical pioneer aspect via his collaboration with Quincy Jones (which tag team to this day is effin’ with that?), the style aspect which still remains untouched, as well as his being a completely new model of a black male and just a man period in the public eye. Joke or say what you want, but his tone, his ready displays of emotion and compassion, and movement, directly challenged the notions of masculinity prevalent in our culture.  Prolly had a lot of cats thinkin’ (on the low) in one way or another…maybe I need to step my sensitive game up n sh*t, nahmean? Amazing.

Rest easy Michael. Keep shinin’.

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