Jermaine Dupri Calls AMAs’ Chris Brown Cancellation Bad For Black Music

If the American Music Awards have shown Jermaine Dupri anything, he firmly believes that Black music is headed toward troubling times. On Sunday (Nov. 20), JD uploaded a reflective video of himself as he addressed the AMAs’ decision to cancel Chris Brown’s tribute performance to Michael Jackson.

Throughout the video, captioned “remember I told you,” JD is seen pacing in his home as he addresses his followers. He alerts them that if the AMAs can just cancel Chris’ performance, they’ve effectively canceled the anniversary celebration of the King of Pop’s most notable album.

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“If the American Music Awards canceled the Chris Brown performance,” Dupri expressed in the clip, “then that means they canceled the 40th anniversary of Thriller. Which means they canceled the Michael Jackson tribute. Black music, we in trouble.”

The So So Def founder’s ominous warning arrives on the heels of Chris Brown claiming his 2022 American Music Awards performance was canceled “for reasons unknown.”

On Saturday morning (Nov. 19), the entertainer shared footage of his alleged rehearsal for the award show. Brown’s clip showed the Virginia native and his background dancers preparing for the big show, tirelessly working through their routine which included choreography for songs like “Beat It” and “Thriller.”

The “Under the Influence” singer’s performance was allegedly scheduled to be a short rendition of his viral hit “Under the Influence” and a much longer tribute to the late Michael Jackson in honor of MJ’s album’s 40th anniversary.

As of today (Nov. 21), the American Music Awards has yet to issue a statement about Chris Brown’s claims.

Elsewhere at the AMAs, Kelly Rowland defended Brown, who appeared to received boos from the crowd after winning the award for Best Male R&B Artist.

“Now Chris Brown is not here tonight, so I’m accepting this award on his behalf,” the Atlanta native expressed before cautioning the crowd. “Excuse me, chyle—chill out.”

“But I wanted to tell Chris, thank you so much for making great R&B music,” she affectionately continued. “And I want to tell him thank you for being an incredible performer. I’ll take this award — bring it to you. I love you. Congratulations. And congratulations to all the nominees in this category.”

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