Joe said it’s time to “move past” the assault and suggested Brown is “the king of R&B.”

Fat Joe is singing into a microphone; Chris Brown is smiling, wearing a baseball cap and chain necklace; Michael Jackson is performing in a red and yellow jacket

Johnny Nunez/Prince Williams/George De Sota via Getty Images

Fat Joe believes that Chris Brown would be favorably compared to Michael Jackson were it not for his domestic violence incident with ex-girlfriend Rihanna.

“If Chris Brown never got into the controversy with Rihanna, we would be calling him Michael Jackson right now,” said Fat Joe during a recent Instagram Live stream, a clip of which can be seen below. “Not like Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson. He’s the most talented singer, artist, performer, hitmaker of our time. There’s nobody even close to Chris Brown. And it’s time we move past it, it’s been twenty-something years. That I know of, there’s no more incidents. Man, we gonna let this lifetime go by without saying the truth?”

Brown dated Rihanna from 2007 to 2009, breaking up after he left her hospitalized following an argument that turned physical. They later resumed their romantic relationship, as Rihanna confirmed in 2013. “He’s not the monster everybody thinks,” she said at the time. They split later that year.

“When the truth is an unpopular decision, everybody gets scared to say it, they get canceled… Especially famous people,” Fat Joe continued in his stream. “The streets, they know what it is. The streets always know to tell you the truth. The streets still bumping R. Kelly. He’s in jail, he did terrible things. They still bumping R. Kelly. So what I’m trying to say is, it’s a shame we’re lying and we’re giving up to the king of R&B. The king of music. … We thinking he could battle Michael Jackson, that’s all I’m trying to say. If you really look at his body of work, you look at all his hits, you see what he does… You remove from your mind that we don’t like it. We don’t like that he had a controversy… We don’t condone… He was a little kid, twenty-something years ago.”

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Earlier this month, Brown dismissed the notion he’s been blackballed in the music industry during a performance in front of a sold-out crowd. “For a n***a they say is blackballed, this don’t look blackballed to me!!!” he said.

Michael Jackson, meanwhile, also faced controversies in his career. The late popstar was accused of sexual abuse against children in 1993 and 2003, with further accusations surfacing following his death in 2009. He was not found guilty of the allegations but they have hung over his legacy ever since.