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Back to Prodigy Reveals His Five Favorite Artists

Michael Jackson

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"I grew up on Michael Jackson. I used to think I was Michael Jackson. My grandmother is real famous in the dance world. My grandmother had a famous dance business [The Bernice Johnson Dance School]. Her business and Alvin Ailey were the two top black dance companies out of New York. Bernice Johnson and Alvin Ailey. So I grew up around that type of shit. Michael Jackson... the people that my grandmother taught, her students, created the dances for the videos for "Thriller," "Beat It"... all the dances you see Mike doing and all those moves? Those choreographers came from my grandmother's school. Michael Peters made the "Beat It" dances and the "Thriller" dances. My grandmother taught Michael Peters how to dance. So I grew up around all of that.

So when Michael Jackson came out, that's when I was just moving around and starting to think on my own and I was like 7 years old or something like that. So that's what I gravitated towards because that's what I was always around... I had [a] jacket [like Michael Jackson's], I did the moonwalk, all that shit. I thought I was Mike. Word. And Mike was the biggest thing out ever at that time in the '80s. Man, listen! Michael Jackson was the king of music. It's crazy how he passed away but yeah, when I was young I wanted to be Michael Jackson. Everything Michael Jackson! You can't even pick one song! All of them shits!"