Michael Jackson slammed The Beatles and Elvis in scathing racial inequality rant
Unearthed notes written by Michael Jackson have shown that he vowed to show how racial inequality had affected the music business and called out a number of big acts in the process
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Michael Jackson hit out at The Beatles and Elvis Presley in a handwritten rant against racial inequality and how he used those injustices to fuel his rise.
The acclaimed ‘King of Pop’ ranted about racism in the music business, as well as life in general, in a number of unearthed notes which are believed to have been from 1987.
Michael was still at the height of his powers at that time and he vented his frustrations in the notes at how he believed that MTV and US magazines were ‘shunning’ black entertainers.
The singer called out a number of the biggest white music stars of the time and in history to try and prove his point.
He claimed that he would show Bruce Springsteen “who’s boss” and that “Elvis is NOT King.”
Jackson also took aim at The Beatles, writing: “Yes these guys were good, but they weren’t better singers or dancers than the blacks.”
He then declared that it was his time to rule the world of pop, writing: “I am not prejudice, it’s just time for the first Black King now.”
The star spoke up against infamous American racist organisation Ku Klux Klan and said he feared that parents at the time were raising their children to be prejudiced when it came to colour.
Jackson also laid out his aims when he was writing Thriller in 1982, stating that he wanted to sell 200 million copies so that he could be a role model for a new generation.
He wrote: “My goal is to become so ‘Big’, so powerful. To become such a hero, to end prejudice.
“To make these little white kids love me by selling over 200,000,000 albums.
“Make them look up to me. I will change the world.”
While Thriller went on to sell 66 million copies, it is still one of the biggest selling of all time and has gone a long way to influence the pop scene.
Jackson also pledged to use his status and creativity to help stop the next generation of children having racist feelings, alluding to a newspaper clipping from 1987 about a march in South Carolina by the Klan.
In a passage, attached to a June 1987 newspaper clipping about a Klan march in South Carolina, he vows to use his creativity to stop racism seeping into the next generation.
He wrote: “I want what’s fair. I want all races to love as one.”
A source told The Sun that the notes were ‘passed to a friend’ when police were searching Jackson’s Neverland ranch in California after he was accused of child abuse in 2003.
The source added: “Michael trusted his friends more than his family, and he wanted his treasures to be in safe hands.”
Michael Jackson died in 2009, aged 50, after suffering a cardiac arrest.
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