There’s no denying that Future’s 2017 Hndrxx album was both a critical and commercial success. But would the chart-topping project be good enough to hinder Michael Jackson’s rise in the ‘80s? At least one Future fan seems to think so.
Twitter user @TMACCBLUE made the bold claim in a Friday tweet, writing: “If HNDRXX woulda came out in 1982 MJ woulda never blew up.” The post has since received more than 15,000 likes and over 4,000 retweets.
Future caught wind of the post shortly after and seemingly co-signed the claim in an Instagram story: “That’s a deep and one helluva compliment,” he wrote alongside a screenshot of the tweet.
1982 was also the year the King of Pop released the diamond-certified Thriller album that gave us classics like “Billie Jean,” “Beat It,” “P.Y.T.,” “Humane Nature,” and “The Girl Is Mine.” It’s also worth noting that Thriller was Jackson’s sixth studio album and that he had already achieved mainstream success in the previous decade, dropping multiple No. 1 records as a solo artist as well as the lead vocalist of Jackson 5.
Though it’s unclear if the original claim was serious, other Twitter users were quick to dismiss and mock the statement by pointing out that Jackson had reached star-status years and years before Thriller.
