they don’t dance no mo’

At least not like Michael J. Jackson did. Oh, they try (I see you Chris Brown, Usher, Timberlake).

I don’t do RIPs (I’ve said that before) so I won’t start now. I’m just like damn, really Mike? While we all know about the tabloid chatter that’s attached itself to Mike’s legacy, it can’t really tarnish it. I wrote that fool R. Kelly off for his BS but that’s because he’s an asshole and his music wasn’t that great to begin with. Whether Mike “did it” or not, I always felt a combination of awe and pity for him. When they showed him wildin on TV there was a cloud of sadness about it all. Still, no matter what stage of my life (because MJ was there ever since I can remember hearing music), I could always groove to his music. My friends know that I’ve always wanted to be a dancer and I feel the most free and happy when I’m channeling music through my body. Michael Jackson was a bad ass dancer, even making the crotch grab/gyration cool. Musically, he was something like a genius, his voice true and clear when he was a boy… emotive and real as an adult.

So fuck all the BS. There will never be another and I’m glad I got to experience the man. Now I just gotta get my collection together so my children will have a proper education.

At a time when everyone is playing Mike’s music and blogs all over the net are featuring playlists and vids, I’m gonna share a video that most people might not readily choose. This was/is my jam:

Michael Jackson
August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009

No R.I.P. posts here

I’m just not into it. Never have been. Kinda like how I’m not into getting autographs. (Aside: I saw a grown man nearly maul two girls for a sweaty fitted cap worn by Phonte of Little Brother and signed by himself, Big Pooh and their DJ. Chill, son. End Aside.)

Now, I do feel badly when people die. Mostly because of the loss others around them are feeling. I don’t think about or worry much about what happens after we die, so I don’t feel any kind of anxiety over that. I’ve had people close to me die and I just miss them a lot sometimes. Not everyday, but when I’m reminded of them somehow and realize that I won’t see them again.

I also feel badly when I think people have died “before their time,” a concept I know usually goes hand in hand with some concept of fate and destiny and maybe even divinity – all things I don’t really subscribe to too tough. But you know what I mean. Senseless death or the death of the young always strikes us because it’s totally contrary to our sense of right, just and fair.

So when Bernie Mac died, I was like “oh damn” in my head. I thought to myself how funny he was and how one day he was just in the hospital with pneumonia and the next he’s gone. Then I got up and brushed my teeth, not really thinking about it until my girl called me to express her surprise at the whole thing. “I already heard,” I told her. Then when the news about Isaac Hayes came though I thought, “I wonder how the South Park people feel and if they’ll try to make fun of it.”

I don’t want to sound cold, but I’m not all RIP. I totally hate the phrase RIP. That shit better not come near my headstone nor any obituaries. I don’t want my face ironed on an oversized white tee. Nor do I want the wall of a chicken take-out spot airbrushed and spraypainted with my likeness. If I ever get mangled on a highway, do not pile up bears and flowers at the site. Just don’t.

Rest In Peace. Ok. I’ll try to do my best. As if I have some say in how that resting is gonna go. Or maybe you have a say in how it’ll go and you can will me into a better afterlife. Cool!
Is saying RIP like saying God Bless You? Just one of those pleasantries you exchange because you were “raised right?”

Honestly, I think people just say that one after another to let everyone know that THEY are aware of the death and yes, they are sympathetic. They’re not unfeeling monsters. They’re not me.

I’ll die one day and so will you. When the time comes, how about we just say “peace” and pour out a lil suntin’? Like this: