Jermaine Dupri believes that the American Music Awards’ reported decision to pull a planned Chris Brown tribute to Michael Jackson signals something grave for Black music.
In a video posted to Instagram on Saturday night (November 19), JD offered some added context to the cancelation of a performance which would have seen Chris Brown dancing to some of the biggest songs from Michael Jackson’s seminal 1982 album Thriller at the 2022 AMAs.
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“If the American Music Awards canceled the Chris Brown performance,” Jermaine Dupri said in the clip, “then that means they canceled the 40th anniversary of Thriller. Which means they canceled the Michael Jackson tribute. Black Music, we in trouble.”
He added the caption: “Remember I told you.”
Dupri was one of several celebrities to publicly share their reaction after Chris Brown shared a video of his team’s rehearsal for the AMA performance, which he said was scheduled to happen during the show’s taping in Los Angeles on Sunday (November 20).
The clip starts with Brown and two women performing to his latest single, “Under The Influence,” before the music transitions to the intro gongs of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.”From there, Chris Brown is joined by a group of male dancers as they recreate Michael’s choreography from the video, adding a few modern touches.
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They proceed to do the same with “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” and “Billie Jean” before closing their rehearsal with “Thriller.”
An hour after sharing the seven minute video, however, Breezy returned to the comments to give his fans some bad news. “WOULDVE been the ama performance,” he wrote, “but they cancelled me for reasons unknown. [shrug emoji]”
The American Music Awards announced this year’s list of performers on October 31, but made no mention of a tribute to Michael Jackson or Thriller, which was released 40 years ago on November 30. The organization has yet to respond to Chris Brown’s claim.
Their silence prompted R&B singer Tank to cautiously question the decision, sharing a video on IG captioned, “Dear @amas before we jump to conclusions we’d like an answer on why you canceled our brother.”
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“We wanna know why,” he said in the video. “We need a reason. You hire our brother Chris Brown. You send him through rehearsals. He’s creating one of the most epic performances ever. And then you cancel it. You pull the rug out from under him and all the hard working people around him. You hired him.”
As fans and celebs alike tried to imagine what could have led to the cancellation, many like Boosie Badazz offered their encouragement to Chris Brown instead.
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“Dont trip @chrisbrown u a real one n one of the best to ever do it!!,” the Baton Rouge rapper tweeted on Saturday. “Its sad how they do you when u r alive but if you pass they glorify u as the best smh bro they want you to dye your face n talk soft like [Michael] for acceptance [crying laughing emoji] it ain’t happening!!”
