Following the premiere of the “We Are The World: 25 For Haiti” music video on February 12, the video received a tremendous amount of criticism from blogger’s, people on online communities such as Twitter, and more.
Despite the flurry of negative criticism as of today (February 15) the song is now the top downloaded song on iTunes.
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Although the 2010 re-make of Michael Jackson’s “We Are The World” included a number of well-known artists, there were a few major artist’s who chose not to take part in the song. Among them was rapper/entrepreneur Jay-Z.
In an interview with MTV at a NBA All-Star weekend event, Jay-Z revealed why he didn’t take part in “We Are The World: 25 For Haiti.”
“I know everybody is gonna take this wrong: ‘We Are the World,’ I love it, and I understand the point and think it’s great,” Jay-Z explained. “But I think ‘We Are the World’ is like [Michael Jackson’s] ‘Thriller’ to me. I don’t ever wanna see it touched…So I appreciate the efforts and everything, but ‘We are the World’ is [musically] untouchable like ‘Thriller’ is untouchable.”
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Jay-Z also told MTV that creating a new song would have been better than mimicking Michael Jackson’s 1985 “We Are The World.”
“I would have loved that idea better,” said Jay-Z. “As everyone knows, I have tremendous respect for Quincy Jones. Of course, I think he’s genius, as everyone else does. [But] I think it’s time for us to make a new [song].
