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Compliments don’t get much bigger than being compared to the late Michael Jackson. A singing and dancing extraordinaire who dominated much of the 20th century through his work as a solo artist and a member of The Jackson 5, the aptly-nicknamed ‘King of Pop’ boasts countless number-one singles and the best-selling album of all time in Thriller.

Fat Joe believes Chris Brown’s skills are enough to put him on the same level as Michael Jackson, between his vocal talent and performances when he hits the stage. The Terror Squad founder thinks he’d be held in a higher regard if it wasn’t for his domestic violence case involving Rihanna, in which he pleaded guilty to felony assault and was sentenced to five years probation and six months community service.

“If Chris Brown never got into the controversy with Rihanna, we would be calling him Michael Jackson right now,” he said on Instagram Live. “Not like Michael Jackson — Michael Jackson. He is the most talented singer, artist, performer, hitmaker of our time.”

He added, “There’s nobody even close to Chris Brown, and it’s time we move past it. It’s been 20-something years that I know of — there’s no more incidents. We gon’ let this lifetime go by without saying the truth?”

According to Fat Joe, people are afraid to say the words out loud, even if they agree with what he’s saying. He compared Breezy’s domestic violence situation to R. Kelly, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison on child sexual abuse convictions, claiming people still listen to his music despite his actions.

“What happens is, when the truth is an unpopular decision, everybody gets scared to say it. They get cancelled — especially famous people,” he said. “But you know, the streets — they know what it is. Streets always know, they tell you the truth. The streets still bumping R. Kelly. He’s in jail, he did terrible things.”

Fat Joe doubled down on his compliments towards Chris Brown, calling him “the king of R&B” and stating that he has the catalogue to back up his Michael Jackson comparisons. “So, what I’m tryna say is that it’s a shame that we lying and we not giving it up to the king of R&B,” he said. “We be thinking he could battle Michael Jackson, that’s all I’m tryna say. I’m not lying. If you really look at his body of work and you look at all his hits, you see what he does.”

Although Fat Joe didn’t condone Brown’s actions towards Rihanna, he did claim that he was just a “little kid” at the time the incident took place.

Chris Brown has released 11 solo albums in his career, with his last project 11:11 being released in November 2023. He has three Billboard 200 number one albums to his name in F.A.M.E., Fortune and Indigo, with singles ‘Run It!’ and ‘Kiss Kiss’ topping the Hot 100. Brown has been nominated for a total of 22 Grammys, winning just one for F.A.M.E. in the Best R&B Album category in 2012.