Michael Jackson Really Liked Kanye’s ‘808s & Heartbreak’

Carl Williott | August 16, 2016 11:30 am

Kanye West has always made it clear that Michael Jackson is one of his musical heroes. So when he recently passed MJ on the all-time list of career Top 40 singles, landing his 40th with a feature on Schoolboy Q‘s “That Part,” it carried more meaning than the usual industry statistic. But this being Kanye, plenty of people were unhappy about it. Angry fans were even leaving comments on the social media accounts of MJ’s daughter, Paris Jackson, so she posted a graceful response to set the record straight, pointing out that her father was a Kanye fan and that he didn’t buy into the competitive aspect of the industry.

“the first time i ever heard kanyes heartbreak album was from my dad,” she wrote in a comment. “he played it for me all the time. he liked him. he never saw music as a competition or a game, never had a motive to talk shit about other artists…so if someone breaks a new record, be happy for them.”

Michael Jackson was a fan of 808s & Heartbreak, an album that he influenced…Kanye’s gotta tweet about this, right? I mean, he tweeted about Werner Herzog watching the “Famous” video the other day so surely this will land on his radar.