Charlamagne Tha God believes that Michael Jackson may be the only entertainer who was conspired against. Amid online conspiracy theories claiming that Diddy or even Drake are being targeted, the talking head appeared on a new episode of the Brilliant Idiots podcast, where he shared his thoughts. Charlamagne began by discussing various celebrities possibly being targeted “by the corporations.” He then refuted that idea by asserting that there aren’t too many people “important enough” to be seriously schemed against and taken down. However, there is one person who did get powerful enough to become a target: MJ.
“And I really mean this when I say this, and I know that this is a crazy conspiracy theory. There’s only one person I believe in Hollywood who people conspired to actually take down. I’m talking about a mass conspiracy. Anytime they take you down, it’s people conspiring, ’cause it’s usually because you did some sh*t,” Charlamagne said. “I think that there’s one person who they really took down because he had too much power and I believe that person was Michael Jackson.”
CTG then recalled recently having actor Deon Cole on The Breakfast Club, where he shared a story about Paul McCartney. Cole spoke of McCartney sharing how he was the one who gave MJ game on how publishing rights work in music. Before Paul knew, Michael had gotten so big that he wound up buying The Beatles’ catalog.
Charlamagne speculated that MJ gaining too much power in the music industry led people “to target him.” For reference, Jackson’s 50% stake in Sony ATV gave him ownership of some of Bob Dylan‘s, Eminem‘s, Elvis Presley‘s, The Beatles’ catalogs, and many more artists.
“I truly believe that… We had Deon Cole on The Breakfast Club the other day. Deon Cole told us how he got high with Paul McCartney, and Paul told him,” he added. “Paul McCartney and Michael used to be real cool. Paul was telling Michael, like, ‘Yo, you got to get your business together, you got to get your business right.’ He told him about the publishing game. Michael ended up getting so big that he bought The Beatles’ publishing. The Beatles’ publishing was worth so much that Sony gave Michael Jackson half of their publishing company to own The Beatles’ catalog.”
“Imagine how powerful a Black man is when he owns a majority of the music industry’s publishing. And, in some cases, was even giving publishing back to some of the artists. He gave Little Richard his publishing back. I don’t know how many people he did that to, but he gave Little Richard his publishing back… I believe—this is all conspiracy theory. This is Brilliant Idiots, by the way, we just talking, it’s a podcast.”
“I believe that Michael Jackson had too much power in the music industry, had too much control over the most valuable asset in music, which is people’s publishing, and I believe they had to take him out because of it,” the talking head said. “Smear his name, you know, eventually get him up out of here. And 2016, they got their bag for way cheaper than they probably would’ve paid if he was still alive. He’s the one person. Motherf**kers talk about how Bill Cosby tried to buy NBC—nah. [MJ] the one person I believe in entertainment—entertainment, mind you, I said the entertainment industry. Conspiracies happen all the time in other industries that actually really matter. But in the entertainment industry, he’s the one person I believe that they killed his reputation and, ultimately, killed him.”
Watch the video above.