All About Laughs
Michael Jackson is the ultimate entertainer. The former child star rose from his humble family band beginnings and took the world by storm. His career is one that very few are lucky to find theirs compared to. His legacy is the pinnacle of pop perfection.
Despite how unique and in many ways untouchable his achievements have been, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his fair share of comparisons.
Most famously Michael had a “rivalry” with fellow eccentric legend Prince. The two were the perfect match up; flamboyant stars with larger than life music, performances and personalities.
Famously its rumored that Michael wrote “Bad” about Prince, after the “Purple Rain” hitmaker refused to collaborate with him.
In the years since, maybe acts have drawn comparison to the “Thriller” legend. Male acts like Usher, Justin Timberlake, Chris Brown and Bruno Mars have all been they resemble the late icon in some way. They’ve taken turns donning outfits, referencing famous performances and overall just borrowing from his genius to enhance their own legacies. Chris Brown has famously used horror elements in his music and videos that have been obvious nods to Jackson. From his “Wall to Wall” video to his famous VMA performance referencing Charlie Chaplin, a hero of Michaels.
Timberlake was influenced heavily by Jackson as well. N’Sync found a lot of their sound early on borrowing from the new Jack Swing craze that Michael helped popularize in the early 90’s. Later on, producer Pharrell confessed that much of the records contributed to Timberlakes debut album “Justified” were actually written for Jackson, including “Like I love You” and “Rock Your Body”.
Even pops current reigning prince pulls from the Michael playbook. The Weeknd resembles Jackson in his vocal style and darker tones, even covering “Dirty Diana” early on in his career.
Of all the people who have and deserve to be paralleled to the King of Pop, the most unlikely would be Atlanta based rapper Future. However one fan claims that had Future dropped his 2017 album HNDRXX during Michael’s reign, he would have derailed history.
Future caught wind of the tweet that read “If HNDRXX woulda came out in 1982 MJ woulda never blew up.” He reposted it and cosigned it with “just saying…” via his Instagram stories. Everyone’s entitled to think they’re the best, but better than Michael???
“Cocaine Is One Hell Of A Drug” said one commenter. “Future woke up and chose Delusions” said another.