Fat Joe says Chris Brown would have had Michael Jackson’s status without the Rihanna incident

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MLet us make this clear once and for all. There is no next Michael Jackson, no next Prince, no next Stevie or Aretha. There are only the artists who follow in their footsteps. That’s something rapper Fat Joe should have considered before making a questionable comparison in a recent Instagram Live.

On the social media platform, Joe expressed that he believed Chris Brown, with whom he has worked, would be viewed in the same way as Michael Jackson had he not been involved in the incident with Rihanna. As you may recall, Brown pleaded guilty to assault and criminal threatening in 2009 following an argument with his then-girlfriend before the Grammy Awards.

“If Chris Brown had never gotten into the controversy with Rihanna, we would be calling him Michael Jackson right now,” Joe said. “Not like Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson. He is the most talented singer, artist, performer and hitmaker of our time. There is no one that even comes close to Chris Brown. And it’s time we got over it. It’s been over 20 years. As far as I know, there have been no further incidents. Man, are we letting this life go by without telling the truth?”

Joe added: “So what I’m saying is, it’s a shame that we lie and we’re taking the king of R&B and outranking him. The king of music. We think he can take on Michael Jackson, that’s all I’m saying. When you look at his body of work, all his hits, when you look at what he’s doing… You forget that we don’t like it. We don’t like that he caused controversy… He was just a little boy 20 years ago.”

Brown has been involved in other incidents since then, including his ex-girlfriend Karrueche Tran accusing him of abuse and successfully obtaining a restraining order against him in 2017.

Comedian Faizon Love protested on his own Instagram page, saying: “This will never happen.”

“Listen, Chris Brown is incredible,” Love said. “I met him when he was young… and he was incredible then. But Michael Jackson, never! Apparently there was a Michael Jackson that Fat Joe was talking about who lives in the Bronx, Michael Jackson in the bodega, Michael Jackson in the pizza… I don’t know. But Michael Jackson from Indiana, never. There will never be another Michael Jackson.”

Chris Brown is one of the most successful African-American artists of all time, having broken a long list of sales records. He is the first R&B artist in history to have more than 100 chart appearances on the Billboard charts. He has set standards as one of the most successful touring artists and one of the most successful digital artists, among other achievements.

But this is where Brown falls short. Name a Michael Jackson record. Now name a Chris Brown song. Depending on how old you are, you might immediately come up with a few options. But now ask a 5-year-old, a 55-year-old, and a 75-year-old. Each of them can name a Michael Jackson song. But can they name a Chris Brown song? That’s just one example of how dominant Jackson was as a global pop artist.

His second solo album from 1982 thriller is the best-selling album of all time, when fans still had to go to the record store to buy it. Jackson was nothing short of a global icon when he died in 2009 at the age of 50. All these years later, he is still making money from projects like Michael Jackson: The Musical, Michael Jackson One by Cirque de Soleil and its still valuable catalogue.

Brown addressed the topic in a 2023 interview with Big Boy. When asked to respond to people who thought he was better than Jackson, he shook his head and said, “That’s Cap.”

He added: “I’m staying the hell out of it. I wouldn’t even be able to breathe or even sing a song if that man didn’t exist. So I don’t know if they see it as the Jordan/Kobe thing, but I can’t even see it as… he’s light years away. You can’t compete with him.”

But you have to hand it to Brown. When he was shut out of the 2022 American Music Awards tribute event, he was robbed of the chance to show how much Jackson’s influence impacted his career. His rehearsal video, however, went viral for obvious reasons. Watch it below.