[Blog] Jean Grae - "In Defense of Michael Jackson's Magic"

Because Your Favourite British Rapper said so....


"I kinda teared up when i read this...JG hit the nail on the head with this one, Read Below (A heartbroken rapper channels her grief into a solo Bed-Stuy dance party)"


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A year ago, I tried to convince a stranger that, yes, magic does indeed exist. I wasn't talking about David Blaine, Criss Angel, or street magic—no. I meant the magic in creativity, in manifesting things at will, in . . . in . . . aggh! I was so frustrated that I couldn't explain it to her, but then I realized that she would never just believe, wouldn't even attempt to understand it. It made me so sad for her, to be missing out on the beauty in the world around her.


I say this because in the wake of Michael Jackson's passing, I've seen too many people comment on their indifference toward it. Now, it's not the indifference that bothers me—it's the failure to comprehend the grief others are feeling on a mass, worldwide level. "How can you miss something you never had?" read one dispatch on Twitter. I jokingly told my friend to respond back with: "Forget it—you won't understand because you're dead inside." What could it be in a human that doesn't recognize, or can so easily dismiss, clear and announced magic incarnate? Even if there is something in you, your soul, your fiber, that is impervious to it—how can you deny its existence if it affects the rest of the world on a deeply profound level? To feel something as basic as thanks and compassion for receiving a touch of magic from the universe, grieving over the loss of its creator . . . to not understand the void people felt, to just not get it.

I cried, man. I cried HARD. I cry just remembering the feeling of reading the first online headlines, of waking my boyfriend to tell him the developing news. I cried harder because I saw his own tears well up. Then I Tweeted, re-Tweeted . . . felt the energy and outpouring of love from others. It helped to be a part of a real-time community at that moment—it truly did.
When his death was officially announced, we stared at the TV in awe. We each got up and wandered out of the room to cry alone, then wandered back in to have a shoulder. Back and forth with that for a bit.Read more of Jean Grae MJ Reaponce]