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Some of the internet’s most beloved figures aren’t people we follow, but people we’ve been forced to recognize through their non-stop appearances on our feeds.
Rico MJ, the internet’s favorite Michael Jackson impersonator, is one of them.
I found out Rico MJ could talk last week.
Up until that point, my FYP has exclusively shown me Rico through other people’s camera rolls — the Michael Jackson lip-syncer who slid on his knees across event floors, with “Dirty Diana,” toward usually unsuspecting grandmas.
Then, last Tuesday, he popped up onto my FYP with content surprisingly directly from himself, not an onlooker. Rico was specifically sitting in a stance we know all too well when YouTubers are making public statements, he was clearing up political rumors. Which made me wonder: how did Rico MJ get big enough to have rumors about him in the first place?
The surprise wasn't his clarification that he isn't a Trump supporter.
The shock was realizing that I’ve unintentionally catalogued this 50-something man as a meme before an actual human being.
The shock was realizing that I’ve unintentionally catalogued this 50-something man as a meme before an actual human being.
I knew of Rico without knowing Rico. I knew the slide, the facial expression, and the infamous performance routine.
His videos have garnered millions of views. He’s become a living breathing meme, been pitted against other TikTok Michael Jackson impersonators, inspired people to mimic him and even made tier lists of favorite Rico moments.
He has slowly become a treasured part of internet lore
Although the internet has just stumbled upon him, he’s been Ashburn’s, a southwest Chicago neighborhood, beloved King of Pop for more than 20 years.
Rico Hampton has studied Michael’s footwork since the Bad tour in 1988. He’s been pounding the pavement across Chicagoland: performing 15-minute sets at block parties, church basement birthdays, quinceañeras, and even dancing at a Chicago Bulls halftime show, and for Joe Jackson.
Before his performances were getting clipped to ten-second TikToks, he was someone Chicago-ans knew by name. Now strangers know him too and make up the rest of the story.
“Sometimes I’ll walk into a place, and people run up to me like, ‘Rico, I love your videos, It almost makes me feel like a star.”
He told the Chicago Defender.
Most of us met Rico through footage he didn’t take. Strangers filmed the knee slides, continuously posted the clips, and it repeated until we knew exactly what was coming when Rico appeared on-screen.
For Rico, it was Michael Jackson. For us, it was Rico MJ.
The internet took these bits and pieces of his performance like the knee slide, “Dirty Diana,” the grandmas, and decided to make it a character.
There’s a collective joy in finding something ourselves and adopting it together. And I believe that's what makes Rico MJ so notable — he unintentionally became his own pocket of the internet because we kind of decided that for him.
Rico MJ is a reminder that the best parts of the internet aren’t always served up by the creators we follow. Sometimes it’s more fun when we get to decide what matters.
For Rico, it’s Michael Jackson. For us, it’s Rico MJ.
You can make the content, but everyone else decides if it’s deserving of building a world around it.
