You’re probably aware of how the Diddy scandal has either created or revived a lot of conspiracy theories around celebrities, whether they’re responsible for abhorrent things or they were silenced by the industry. However, Charlamagne Tha God doesn’t take these theories very seriously… Except when talking about the King of Pop, that is. “I’ve been hearing that theory about, you know, the corporations,” he began. “Listen, I could be totally wrong. I don’t think that there’s too many people that are important enough for a corporation to want to do all this to. 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 s**t.
“But I think that there’s one person who they really took down because he had too much power,” Charlamagne continued. “And I believe that person was Michael Jackson. I truly believe that. The reason I believe that is because – you can look into the story. You know, we had Deon Cole on The Breakfast Club the other day. Deon Cole told us the story of how he got high with Paul McCartney, and Paul McCartney told him. 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, literally, Sony gave Michael Jackson half of their publishing company just to own The Beatles’ catalog.
“So whenever you used to see – look it up!” he added. “Whenever you used to see Sony ATV, that was Sony and ATV was Michael Jackson’s publishing company, right? 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. Look, in 2016, Sony paid $750 million to acquire Michael Jackson’s – what is that, 50% stake in Sony ATV Music Publishing. A joint venture that Jackson and Sony formed in 1995. This made Sony the sole owner of the world’s largest music publishing company. 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,” Charlamagne concluded. “Smear his name, you know, eventually get him up out of here. And 2016, *laughs* they got their bag for way cheaper than they probably would’ve paid if he was still alive. He’s the one person. Motherf***ers talk about how Bill Cosby tried to buy NBC… You know, nah. He’s 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, actually, they killed his reputation and ultimately killed him.”