Jay-Z: ‘We Are The World’ shouldn’t have been updated

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From MTV:

DALLAS — “We Are the World: 25 for Haiti,” the all-star remake of the classic 1985 charity single, premiered on Friday night during the Winter Olympics opening ceremony. The song features dozens of today’s biggest musical artists, ranging from Kanye West and Pink to Barbra Streisand and Tony Bennett, and unlike the original, it also features a large number of rappers. However, the genre’s biggest star said that to him, musically speaking, nothing could ever come close to the original.

“I have a interesting take on that,” Jay-Z said Saturday at the annual “2 Kings” dinner, which was sponsored by Sprite and Bing and took place during NBA All-Star weekend. “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. But I think ‘We Are the World’ is like [Michael Jackson’s] ‘Thriller’ to me. I don’t ever wanna see it touched. I’m a fan of music. I know the plight and everything that’s going on in Haiti. I applaud the efforts: [Millions have been raised] through text [donations] to Haiti. So I appreciate the efforts and everything, but ‘We are the World’ is [musically] untouchable like ‘Thriller’ is untouchable. Some things are just untouchable. It was a valiant effort, but for me, it’s gonna be untouchable.”

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