When I was  3 years old I had two of my very own 8 track cassette tapes, my mom and dad gave them to me so I wouldn’t break theirs .
The first was a Shirley Temple album because I  developed a crush on Shirley  watching her movies on WPIX 11.  The second was a compilation of solo songs from a young Michael Jackson.

Every time I played that tape my mom would tell me about seeing the Jackson Five at the Apollo when she first came to New York from Suriname.
My dad was a big fan of Young Michael until “He put Jherri Curls in his hair”, from that point on he felt something was “strange with that boy”. That didn’t matter to me, by that time Thriller had dropped
and Michael was MEGA.

My dad never bought that album, so we didn’t have a copy of our own to play.  I used to go with my mom to work in Manhattan, she was a housekeeper for one of the senior designers at Anne Klein and he owned a copy of Thriller. I wanted to take his copy but there were a few factors involved that prevented me from getting it: I couldn’t reach the top shelf, He played it when he threw parties, which were almost everyday and he’d know if it went missing. Lastly, there was no way I could hide a vinyl record on a trip home back to Brooklyn without my mom seeing it.   So I waited  for Michael’s songs to come on 98.7 KISS and WBLS.
Thankfully my dad wasn’t hating, so I could also watch his videos and practice my moves.

Michael Jackson buttons, T-shirts and posters were all over New York during the release of Thriller and of course I had a few them, but what set me apart was I got a pair of “pleather” pants and some loafers to wear to Tori’s birthday party. Tori was mad cute and back in the day “Light Skinneded” shorties got all the attention growing up, so I had to take a number if she was going to be my girlfriend for the month.  I knew this birthday party was the only chance to show my moves in  “street clothes” instead of my school uniform. Throughout the evening we participated in the usual birthday activities, Tori was being sweated by most of the boys at party, including my homeboy Paul who wanted to get with her and was hating on me. His older brother drove us to the party so he felt he had first dibs(looking back I should’ve punched him in the face, but you know what it was all good)and now it was time for some music. From what I remember most of the shit that was played was wack. Then they put on Thriller. When Billie Jean played, Yo!, It was on!

I had my street gear and busting out my MJ moves, I even tried to do the Moonwalk, but that was Michael’s signature. I had no chance at perfection so I resorted to the crouch grab and that got me the attention I needed from Tori so we got to dance for a bit.

I thought I had it in a lock, but Paul got to be her boyfriend the week after cause everyone in his family had a car and that was pretty big shit back then.  That same week I got reprimanded by Principal Archer (AUNTIE) for running up the stairs. She grabbed me by the arm and told me she didn’t know what had gotten into me at Tori’s birthday party. It wasn’t Christian like to be dancing like Michael Jackson at my age and when my dad was coming to drop off my tuition payment for the week(EARNED FROM MY MOMMA’S HARD WORK,MIND YOU) she’d have a talk with him. They got into it, and my dad told her if I wanted to dance like Michael Jackson then it was my right to do so,  “Don’t try to break my boy’s spirit!” My dad stood up for me and Michael that day and I won’t ever forget him telling me don’t let anyone ever break your spirit.

It’s important to remember Michael as human being who possessed  immense talent, he may have made mistakes along the way, but his spirit was never broken in enjoyment to entertain us.  Thank you MJ for sharing your gift with us all.

-Setty Mac-

A RARE VIDEO WITH JAMES BROWN, MICHAEL JACKSON AND  PRINCE PERFORMING TOGETHER!

Photos: Courtesty of the New York Times for more PHOTOS

DOWNLOAD THE MICHAEL JACKSON MIX FROM DJ AYRES

Contributor: The Internet Indiana Jones,K J Watts and Microphone Memory Emotion

Tags: Micheal Jackson, MUSIC

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