REMEMBERING MICHAEL| VIDEO FLASHBACK: “THEY DON’T REALLY CARE ABOUT US”

Posted by Justin | Filed under Michael Jackson, Music Video

“They Don’t Really Care About Us” was released as a single in 1995 from Jackson’s HIStory: Past, Present and Future Book 1. The single didn’t make the biggest impact on the charts, as it peaked at #30 on the Billboard Hot 100. In September 2009, I attended the Remembering Michael Jackson panel discussion which was organized by The Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music. NYU professor and director Spike Lee spoke about the making of the first TDRCAU video.

Michael Jackson actually traveled to Brooklyn, New York to meet with Spike Lee in the director’s home in the Fort Greene neighborhood, and according to Spike “That was when Fort Greene was Fort Greene“, a nod to the areas formerly gritty nature (it is now on the path gentrification: layman’s terms — White folk moved in and fixed shit up). They sat down in Spike’s living room and talked. Spike really wanted to direct the video for “Stranger In Moscow”, but Michael said no, I want you to do “They Don’t Really Care About Us.” The first video filmed was the prison version, which rarely gets played on T.V. The label wasn’t in love and so they fleshed out another concept for a video to be filmed in Brazil in a shanty town known as Dona Marta . The biggest drug dealer in the land effectively ruled the town even though law enforcement was present. Spike had to ask for permission to film the video there and the dealer (being a big Michael Jackson fan) said of course. Worried about the safety of his equipment, Spike inquired about security. The dealer said you could leave a million dollars on the ground and you have my word that no one would touch it. Spike brought thousands of dollars of film equipment into the poor shanty town and not one piece of it went missing amongst the poorest of the poor.