Michael Jackson’s name has been tainted and there might be no looking back.
MJ, also known as the King of Pop has faced criticism after allegedly sexually abusing minors. The testimonies of two alleged victims, Wade Robson and James Safechuck became fodder in the public court of opinion after the HBO doc ‘Leaving Neverland’ aired in early March as reported by The Sauce.
The aftermath of the highly controversial documentary has seen the icon’s reputation suffer and consequently, various artists have pulled away from collaborations with him. Drake’s last studio album, ‘Scorpion’, featured the voice of Michael Jackson on the track, “Don’t Matter to Me.” After the release of HBO documentary ‘Leaving Neverland’, the Toronto rapper has cut the song from the U.K. leg of his current tour, Variety reports. According to Ebony, “Drizzy performed the mid-tempo groove featuring vocals from a 1983 song with Paul Anka during U.S. tour dates but dropped the track for his show in Northern England Sunday night. While Drake’s team gave no official reason for the setlist change, the U.S. and U.K. show had the same opening and closing numbers, with the omission of the Jackson-sampled song being the only difference.”
Drake is not the only public figure keeping his distance from the legacy of the King of Pop. The Los Angeles Lakers Basketball team is also reported to want nothing to do with the Grammy-winning star. Hollywood Unlocked reported ESPN’s Lakers correspondent Dave McMenamin made the announcement that the Lakers will be removing “Beat It” from their “Air Band Cam.”
The Lakers’ Air Band Cam getting fans to imitate Lance Stephenson’s air guitar featured Micheal Jackson’s “Beat It” as the musician accompaniment most of the season. Since “Leaving Neverland” aired, they’ve switched to Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” and Nirvana pic.twitter.com/AlLxXOoNtZ
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) March 10, 2019
The Sauce reported stations in Canada and New Zealand have also removed the superstar from their playlists. New Zealand broadcaster MediaWorks has removed his catalog from several of its stations, claiming they “only play music people want to listen to.”
Jackson has previously faced charges for sexual abuse of minors. In 1993, Evan Chandler, a dentist, accused American singer Michael Jackson of sexually abusing his 13-year-old son, Jordan “Jordy” Chandler. In 2003, Jackson was charged with molesting Gavin Arvizo, a 13-year-old boy. Jackson was indicted for four counts of molesting a minor, four counts of intoxicating a minor to molest him, one count of attempted child molestation, one count of conspiring to hold the boy and his family captive, and conspiring to commit extortion and child abduction.
