The late King of Pop, Michael Jackson, created an all-time classic with “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” but the song has also been a long topic of debate, because no one is really sure of what MJ is chanting at the end of the song. We might just have the answer that could settle this debate once and for all. After reading this, you’ll be able sing along in confidence.
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“Imma Say It One More Time. I’m Not Gonna’ Stop”
One common thought on Tiktok is that the chant at the end of the song is, “Imma say it one more time, I’m not gon’ stop” instead of “Mama Say, Mama Sa, Mama Coosa.”
TikTok creator, @luhdogg_, is bamboozled when he thinks he discovered that he has been getting the chant wrong all his life, and so are many of the commenters who state their childhood is now “ruined” after thinking they learned what the “real” lyrics are “
However, “Imma say it one more time, I’m not gon’ stop’,” is wrong; that’s not what Michael Jackson is singing.
“Mama Say, Mama Sa, Mama Coosa”
If, on the other hand, you have been singing, “Mama say, mama sa, mama coosa,” you have been singing the right lyrics all along. Cleared up by the Waters Family, a prominent family music group in Los Angeles, who sang backing vocals on the track, they confirm the lyrics once and for all. “Mama say, mama sa, mama coosa.”
Of the song-making process, Oren Waters says he asked Michael Jackson what the chant meant, and the icon replied, “It don’t mean nothing, just sing it!” The fact that people didn’t understand what it meant, and spent time trying to figure it out, was something that Michael Jackson found funny, according to the family.
Where Does “Mama Say, Mama Sa, Mama Coosa” Come From?
So, where does the chant come from? Though we can say that Michael Jackson was a musical genius, he allegedly didn’t just make the chant up from thin air. It comes from “Soul Makossa” by Cameroonian saxophonist and songwriter Manu Dibango, and the King of Pop was sued for using it.
The original song, “Soul Makossa,” was released in 1972 and interpolated by Jackson ten years later, but Dibango was unaware that his chant had been used until it was mentioned to him by a friend, according to Business Day, a Nigerian Business and Finance publication.
Dibangu filed a case against Michael Jackson, and Jackson ended up paying Dibangu 1 million French Francs in an out-of-court settlement. That is how Michael Jackson managed to have that famous and iconic chant that we all sing along to.
But What Does The Chant Mean?
Well, like the King of Pop told Oren Waters, the chant doesn’t mean anything. Michael Jackson rearranged the original chant to make it flow better with the rhythm of his song, and because he broke up the chant, it lost any real meaning.
The original chant goes, “Mama ko, mama sa, mama makossa,” and it comes from Dibangu breaking up the word “Mokosso” in order to create a rhythmic stutter. The word “Mokosso” comes from the Cameroonian language Duala, and it is a call to dance, according to PLANSPONSOR, an informational resource for U.S. retirement plans.
So really, the chant is instructing you to do what you probably already are when you listen to “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” which is to dance, and now you can do so while confidently singing the lyrics.
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