KEEP MOVING
The Michael Jackson Chronicals
By Armond White




4.
Sibling Song


  As the Jackson clan continues to air its dirty laundry in public, Jermaine Jackson's new single Word to the Badd!! is the latest thing to flap in the airwaves. If it seems like a white flag of surrender to bad taste, look closely; it's Jermaine's droopy drawers. And “look” is the appropriate thing to do since Jermaine criticizes his younger brother's plastic surgery. But has Jermaine forgotten that he, too, has been nipped and tucked? This record amounts to sour grapes. In the Jackson family, Jermaine's pitiful enviousness must be surpassed only by LaToya's. Jermaine sets a bad example of brotherly love, especially with the chorus:

  If you don't care
  I don't care
  If you keep...
  Well I ain't thinkin' 'bout you.


  That line proves that this is only about jealousy. And the L.A.-Babyface music track and production give Jermaine that same smug Pebbles bounce.

  Some people prefer this to the more rock-styled “Black or White”, but that's dead end, too, because it implies that Michael must choose between skin color and musical style. Jermaine always has purveyed second-rate R&B, just as he'll always be inferior to the brother he chides (and to Janet, whose “You Need Me” is still the best Jackson family insider song).

  Word to the Badd!! is proof that Eugene O'Neill and Lorraine Hansberry were right when they showed that flesh and blood do not guarantee understanding.

  The City Sun
  November 27- December 3, 1991