Michael Jackson slams treatment of black artists
The self-ordained King of Pop Michael Jackson lashed out at the music industry's treatment of black artists - including himself - in an appearance on Saturday with New York civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton. "The record companies really do conspire against the artists," Jackson, 43, told an adoring crowd of around 350 people inside Sharpton's National Action Network headquarters in Harlem. "Especially the black artists."
The former boy wonder of the Jackson Five said generations of black musicians have been hurt and manipulated by profit-grabbing record companies, and called attention to his own dispute with label Sony Music. "When you fight for me, you're fighting for all black people, dead and alive," Jackson said. Jackson has called on Sony to release music recorded in a charity effort that followed the Sept. 11 attacks. There have also been charges that Sony Music, owned by Japanese media and electronics giant Sony Corp., failed to properly promote his latest album, "Invincible", which has had disappointing sales.
The dispute has won sympathy from Sharpton and lawyer Johnnie Cochran, who have started an initiative against what the two say is the exploitation of artists of all races and colors by record companies. Jackson also targeted Sony Music Entertainment chief Tommy Mottola, calling him a racist and "devilish". He accused Mottola of using the "n-word" - a highly derogatory racial slur - referring to an unidentified black Sony artist. A Sony spokesman said Jackson's comments were "ludicrous, spiteful and hurtful". "It seems particularly bizarre that he has chosen to launch an unwarranted and ugly attack on an executive who has championed his career, and the careers of so many other superstars, for many years," he said.
Later on Saturday, a group of around 150 fans - including a few Jackson look-alikes and one man who regaled the crowd with his Jackson-inspired "moonwalk" dance - gathered outside Sony's midtown Manhattan offices to call for a boycott of all Sony products and the ouster of Mottola. "We feel that they are sabotaging the album," said Chantal Obrist, who came to New York from Switzerland to join the protest. Charges that record companies have exploited minority artists are neither new nor limited to the King of Pop. Many have argued that African-American musicians have been withheld the riches generated by their creativity and performances for more than a century.
The industry has defended itself by emphasizing the financial risks taken on by record labels when they sign new artists, many of whom fail to make money. Although Jackson's groundbreaking music from his 1980s heyday influenced a generation of artists, his output has been spotty in recent years. "Invincible", which reportedly cost about $30 million to make, fell out of the U.S. top 200 charts in May after selling just 2 million copies in 28 weeks. By contrast, the new album by rapper Eminem sold as many copies in about two weeks. (Reuters)
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