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"National Action Network" Speech

Date confirmed in “MTV News” (archived)

 (“Michael Jackson returned to Harlem on Tuesday (July 9) to address artist rights”)

 Michael Jackson, speech transcript

I remember a long time ago in Indiana, [when I was] like 6 or 7 years old, and I had a dream that I wanted to be a performer, you know, an entertainer and whenever I’d be asleep at night, and my mother would wake me up and say, ‘Michael, Michael, James Brown is on TV!’ I would jump out of bed and I’d just stare at the screen and I’d do every twist, every turn, every bump, every grind.

And it was Jackie Wilson; the list goes on and on you know, just phenomenal, unlimited, great talent.

It’s very sad to see that these artists really are penniless because they created so much joy for the world. And the system, beginning with the record companies, totally took advantage of them. And it’s not like they always say: ‘they built a big house,’ ‘they spent a lot of money,’ ‘they bought a lot of cars’ — that’s stupid, it’s an excuse. That’s nothing compared to what artists make.

And I just need you to know that this is very important, what we’re fighting for because I’m tired. I’m really, really tired of the manipulation.

 I’m tired of how the press is manipulating everything that’s been happening in this situation. They do not tell the truth, they’re liars. And they manipulate our history books. Our history books are not true, it’s a lie. The history books are lies, you need to know that. You must know that.

All the forms of popular music from Jazz, to Hip Hop to Bebop to Soul, you know, to talking about the different dances from the Cakewalk to the Jitterbug to the Charleston to Break Dancing — all these are forms of Black dancing!

What’s more important than giving people a sense of escapism, and escapism meaning entertainment? What would we be like without a song? What would we be like without a dance, joy and laughter and music?

These things are very important, but if we go to the bookstore down on the corner, you won’t see one Black person on the cover. You’ll see Elvis Presley. You’ll see the Rolling Stones. But where are the real pioneers who started it?

Otis Blackwell was a prolific phenomenal writer. He wrote some of the greatest Elvis Presley songs ever. And this was a Black man. He died penniless and no one knows about this man, that is, they didn’t write one book about him that I know of because I’ve searched all over the world. And I met his daughter today, and I was honored. To me it was on the same level of meeting the Queen of England when I met her.

But I’m here to speak for all injustice. You gotta remember something, the minute I started breaking the all-time record in record sales — I broke Elvis’s records, I broke the Beatles’ records — the minute [they] became the all-time best selling albums in the history of the Guinness Book of World Records, overnight they called me a freak, they called me a homosexual, they called me a child molester, they said I tried to bleach my skin. They did everything to try to turn the public against me. This is all a complete conspiracy, you have to know that.

I know my race. I just look in the mirror, I know I’m Black.

It’s time for a change. And let’s not leave this building and forget what has been said. Put it into your heart, put it into your subconscious mind, and let’s do something about it. We have to! It’s been a long, long time coming and a change has got to come. So let’s hold our torches high and get the respect that we deserve. I love you. I love you.

Please don’t put this in your heart today and forget it tomorrow. We will have not accomplished our purpose if that happens. This has got to stop! It’s got to stop, that’s why I’m here with the best to make sure that it stops. I love you folks. And remember: we’re all brothers and sisters, no matter what color we are.

Michael Prince, studio engineer, The MJCast, Episode 52 (March 19, 2017)

MJCast: Being on "Team MJ", what's going through your mind [during the 2002 Sony protests]?

Prince: Well, we were always working on something, so when Michael would--like we might go to the ranch and work on stuff for two--when I say "we", it's always Brad Buxer and myself, it was only me without Brad Buxer starting in 2008. Brad was as integral as I may have been, multiply that times about I think 10 is reasonable, and that's how integral Brad was in Michael's sounds and getting his ideas onto a recorded media so that we could--I wanna say onto tape, but we didn't use tape anymore. In the old days, you'd go onto tape. It was onto a hard drive, and then onto a CD. But Brad was really Michael's collaborator from the probably mid-nineties on, and very happy to be. So normally what would happen is, we didn't hear about most of these things until you did, and we saw them on the news. So Michael would start on maybe two or three new songs, and we'd be up at the ranch, and he'd go, "Alright, I'll see you guys in a couple weeks". We wouldn't know where he was going, it wasn't any of our business. And we would go back to Brad's house, and I had a studio at my house, and we would work on things, like different drum sounds, three different types of string arrangements for a certain part of a song, those kind of things that Michael would just say, "This is what I want on these songs. I want to hear some different ideas, and some different percussion ideas", and so we would go back and keep working on these tracks that Michael had started, and then you'd see on the news, Michael's with Al Sharpton in New York, and saying, "Tommy Mottola is devilish" or something like that. And I didn't really ever--and it's probably my own fault, but I also had a wife and was raising two kids, and was working almost every day--so I wouldn't like, try to reach out to Michael and go, "What are you doing?" or--and Brad and I wouldn't really even talk about it. I mean, we had work to do, and we knew in a week or two, or a month or so, Michael was gonna be back or call on the phone and go "Let me hear what you got". And sometimes we were actually up at the ranch for a week or a month while Michael was out of town. And we wouldn't know where he was, but he would call like every day, and we'd plan the things that got changed from the night before, and he'd say either "yay or nay" and give you some more changes and you'd just keep working. So I never really looked at the big picture, nor did I really formulate any sort of personal opinion on what was going on.

“MTV News” (July 9, 2002) (archived)

Hot on the heels of Saturday's controversial press conference during which he called Sony Music chairman Tommy Mottola a racist, Michael Jackson returned to Harlem on Tuesday (July 9) to address artist rights.

As part of the Music Industry Initiative summit, Jackson appeared at the Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network to lend star power to the fight for better contracts, royalties and distribution for black artists.

But with Jackson's fight with his record label and his personal attacks on Mottola overshadowing the purpose of his alliance with Sharpton and attorney Johnnie Cochran , the summit came off more like a vehicle for damage control than a constructive outlet for record industry reform.

Trying to take the focus off of himself and his accusations that Sony failed to promote his last album, Invincible, Jackson addressed criticism that his alliance with Sharpton was born out of self-interest and not out of a genuine interest in the plight of black artists and civil rights. Saying that the record industry system was corrupt, Jackson again spoke of a conspiracy that not only keeps black artists down but also co-opts their music and dance forms.

"I'm tired of the manipulation," said Jackson, who would not allow the media to tape his brief remarks. "The press has manipulated the truth. They're liars. History books are a lie. You need to know this, you must know this, that all forms of popular music, from jazz to rock to hip-hop, and dance, from the jitterbug to the Charleston, are black. But go down to the corner bookstore, and you won't see one black person on a cover. You'll see Elvis Presley. You'll see the Rolling Stones. But where are the real pioneers?"

Citing Otis Blackwell as one such pioneer deserving of larger recognition, Jackson said that there was something terribly amiss in a system that would find Blackwell dying penniless despite having penned such classics as "Don't Be Cruel," "All Shook Up" and "Great Balls of Fire." "They didn't write one book about him that I know of, and I've searched the world over," Jackson said. "And he was a prolific, phenomenal writer."

Jackson then said that as soon as he started gaining power, the system that once propped him up started working to destroy him. "Once I started breaking sales records," he began, "I broke Elvis Presley's record, I broke the Beatles' record — once I started doing that, overnight, they called me a freak, a homosexual, a child molester. They said I bleached my skin. They did everything they could to turn the public against me. It's a conspiracy."

He added, "I know my race. I look in the mirror, and I know that I'm black."

Before Jackson's speech, Sharpton exhorted the 300-person audience to consider not just how much record labels spend on their artists, but also where and how. Jackson echoed Sharpton's call for discussion and action when he asked the crowd to not forget why they were assembled.

"Let's not leave this building and forget what was said," Jackson said. "Let's do something about it. ... And remember, we're all brothers and sisters, no matter what color we are."

Sharpton then called upon the crowd to break into discussion groups to address issues such as royalties and distribution. At this point, however, Jackson — escorted by Sharpton and Cochran — left the building. This caused a slight disturbance as those attending attempted to follow them — some almost toppling a speaker stack on the trio, some even chasing his car down the block — leaving the actual work of the summit for another day.