A comment about the King of Pop has Sam Smith in hot water.
Over the weekend, Adam Lambert posted a video of himself and the British crooner listening to Michael Jackson while aboard a boat, in which Smith can be heard saying, “I don’t like Michael Jackson, but this is a good song.”
While Smith, 26, may not have thought twice about what he said, the internet certainly did, with hundreds quickly taking to social media to slam the singer and point out that his song “Writing’s on the Wall,” from the 2015 James Bond movie “Spectre,” sounded like Jackson’s “Earth Song.” One of the many people angered by Smith’s comments was R&B legend, and former Jackson girlfriend, Stephanie Mills who tore into him on Instagram.
Don’t come for MICHAEL JACKSON when you wish you have sold as many records and you wish you were the King of Pop like he was,” Mills, 61, wrote. “I’m so tired of you people studying our music, and studying our artist and claiming that you don’t like our music.” “Go sit your 1 HIT WONDER ass down and learn how to finish a tour,” she continued. “When you can sell as many records as the king of Pop, Michael Jackson then maybe you can say something. So I say to you Mr. Smith have several seats and come for me if you want to.” Jackson’s nephew TJ also weighed in on the matter, tweeting, “Sam Smith made a career on singing R&B/soul music. So to look into a camera and disregard one of its pillars is ignorant, disrespectful and arrogant. Everyone has opinions but @samsmithworld don’t disparage a soul pioneer when they helped paved the way for you and your music,”
He added that it was fine if Smith didn’t like Jackson’s music, the issue was that he made the comments on video, whether or not he expected that video to go public. “Anyone can like ANYONE they want,” he tweeted. “What bothers me is SS is a popular SOUL artist. So when he looks into ANY camera there is a good chanсе what is said will become public 1day. And for HIM to disrespect ANY classic soul Motown/Stax/etc artist publicly is arrogant. Period. Smith has yet to respond to the backlash to his comments.
