MICHAEL JACKSON: THE INEVITABLE TRIBUTES

By Aulistar Mark Michael Jackson was truly a great man. A man worthy of admiration, and respect though in life he didn't always receive the respect of even his own people as allegations of child molestation sparked more than a decade of cruel comments, negative press, parodies, and spoofs most if not all poking fun at Jacksons childish nature, white skin, and the alleged molestations that took place at his Never Land Ranch residence. Now that the man formally known as the King of Pop is buried six feet under, the majority of the bad PR revolving around him has dispersed. Even Jordan Chandler the boy who accused Michael Jackson of allegedly molesting him in 1994 came out, and admitted that his accusations were false though it is now far too late for the court to do anything about the matter. As expected the tribute projects to Jackson are starting to pile up as a tribute documentary showing in detail some of the last video recordings of the King of Pop as well as taking a look at his life is currently in the works. You can't forget the musical tributes as well as a tribute album is allegedly in the works with the alleged Queen of Pop Madonna as well as A-List stars like Beyonce, Mariah Carey, and Whitney Houston are all on call to contribute their talent to what may be a album to be remembered for years to come, or a complete catastrophe. These are not the first tributes to the man of course as a tribute song to Jackson featuring Boyz2Men, Usher, Diddy, The Game, and Chris Brown and more was also released immediately following his death. Could this be a new trend of r&b, pop and hip-hop? Some might ask but these artists are actually over a year late since compilation albums have already been released in the recent past in the form of free mix-tapes, with the most notable mix-tape being Rhymefest's "Man In The Mirror" which received much acclaim for gracefully adding his rhymes as well as hip-hop beats to many of Jacksons classics. Better Yet Man In the Mirror was released in early 2008 to heavy opposition by the Chicago rappers colleagues as I take a quote from a Hip-Hop DX interview. "I knew at that point, when I did Man in the Mirror...it [was] funny [because] people all around me were saying I was crazy for doing it because he was alive. We often don't give people the flowers they deserve while they're alive. We wait until they're gone, and people were like 'You're crazy, it's going to be wack, people are not going to relate to it,' but I knew something that they didn't. I knew that, man, Mike's got music that goes back to Rock, to Soul, to Pop, to Hip Hop-sounding, and that [Man in the Mirror] was going to be dope".