American rapper, Kanye West, while defending music icon, Michael Jackson, stated documentaries should not be allowed to tear down our heroes. The rapper spoke out about the late King of Pop in an interview with Pharrell Williams for the i-d magazine.
In the chat, Kanye West expressed his admiration for Jackson and the way he lived his life and changed music, saying:
“Michael Jackson was doing covert, super gangsta stuff like he’d just pop the needles off. He kissed Elvis Presley’s daughter on MTV. Black culture used to be, we used to be fronting all night, but Michael was doing stuff that was different from what we were programmed to understand as being what we should do. He bought The Beatles’ back catalogue. That was Mike Jackson, right there.”
Reacting to the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, in which Jackson was accused of child sex abuse, Kanye West said:
“We should have something that says we can’t allow any company to tear down our heroes. Not on The Shade Room [website], not on social media, and especially not in documentaries.”
He then went ahead to compare himself with Michael Jackson. He said:
I’m like every time the media isn’t happy with me it’s like; Here they go. They’re gonna come and Wacko Jacko me.’ Which in some ways, they’ve tried to do.
In Leaving Neverland, Wade Robson and James Safechuck alleged Jackson had abused them from the ages of 10 and seven respectively after they were befriended by the King of Pop.The film featured allegations from Safechuck and Robson that they were both sexually abused by Jackson as youngsters.The superstar, who was tried on child molestation charges and acquitted, died in 2009 at the age of 50. However,Michael Jackson’s family denied all allegations and compared the allegations to a public lashing since the star is not alive to defend himself.