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The entertainment world is mourning the loss of Tito Jackson, a founding member of the iconic Jackson 5.
Entertainment Tonight reported on Sunday (Sept. 15) that Tito, 70, died following a suspected heart attack while driving from New Mexico to Oklahoma, according to Steve Manning, a longtime Jackson family friend and former manager.
People later reported that Tito’s son Siggy Jackson confirmed the news of his passing, though there is currently no official cause of death.
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Tito was an integral part of the Jackson family’s musical dynasty. He, along with his brothers Michael, Jermaine, Marlon, and Jackie, formed The Jackson 5 in the 1960s. Their debut single, “I Want You Back,” became an instant sensation, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, as did their subsequent hits “ABC” and “I’ll Be There.”
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They were later inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
Beyond his work with The Jackson 5, Tito pursued a solo career, releasing his debut album Tito Time in 2016. His single “Get It Baby” reached No. 19 on the Billboard Adult R&B Airplay chart.
Amid the news, Tito’s sons TJ, Taj, and Taryll have taken to Instagram to share their grief and confirm the devastating news with a heartfelt message:
“It’s with heavy hearts that we announce that our beloved father, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Tito Jackson is no longer with us. We are shocked, saddened, and heartbroken. Our father was an incredible man who cared about everyone and their well-being.
“Some of you may know him as Tito Jackson from the legendary Jackson 5, some may know him as ‘Coach Tito’ or some know him as ‘Poppa T.’ Nevertheless, he will be missed tremendously. It will forever be ‘Tito Time’ for us. Please remember to do what our father always preached and that is ‘Love One Another.’ We love you Pops.”
They concluded with, “Your boys, Taj, Taryll, and TJ.”
Jonathan ‘Sugarfoot’ Moffett, a former drummer for the Jackson 5, also expressed his profound sadness on Facebook:
“There is great, great sadness in my heart, spirit, and soul tonight… I’m stunned and devastated to receive and hear this disheartening news. I love Tito like my brothers of blood relation… My thoughts are with my nephews in heart and spirit, 3T, and all his grandchildren. I love you all VERY much. You are my second family.”
Moffett continued, sharing his love and support for the Jackson family, including Tito’s mother Katherine Jackson: “Dear mother, I love you dearly. I love you, Tito Jackson, my brother… forever, still.”
The Jackson family is no stranger to tragedy, having previously lost Tito’s younger brother Michael Jackson in 2009, and their father, Joe Jackson, who passed in 2018 at age 89.
Just days before his death, Tito posted a message on social media from Munich, Germany, where he visited a memorial to Michael with his brothers. He wrote: “Before our show in Munich, my brothers Jackie, Marlon, and I, visited the beautiful memorial dedicated to our beloved brother, Michael Jackson.
“We’re deeply grateful for this special place that honours not only his memory but also our shared legacy. Thank you for keeping his spirit alive.”
As the world continues to process this loss, more tributes from fans and peers in the music industry are expected to come in, celebrating Tito’s life and legacy as both a musical icon and beloved family man.
Billboard has reached out to Tito Jackson’s representatives for comment.
This story is developing.
Lil Tecca is entering his Plan A era on Sept. 20, and to help launch it, he dropped “Taste” and “Bad Time.” The rapper talks to Billboard‘s Mike Saponara about how he gathered inspiration for his album, how he handled reaching success at a young age, linking with Don Toliver and Juice WRLD, and listening to his fans when they speak about his music. Keep watching to see all the gems Lil Tecca drops and to see him play a game!
What’s going on, guys? This is Beat by Beat. I’m Mike Saponara here with Billboard. We have the great Lil Tecca. Tecc, talk to the people — how are we feeling?
Feeling good. I’m about to drop Plan A with my guy, Mike.
Hey, yeah, we’re looking forward to that. Take us back. When did that world start to take form for you?
I honestly got the name Plan A when I was about to finish Tec, my last album.
OK.
I didn’t really know what I wanted to call the next one. So when it was kind of time to decide the name for this album, I had a couple mines, couple names in my head, but I just remembered, like I was thinking about Plan A.
Plan A. There’s no Plan B.
Going Plan A.
Word. Where do you do most of your recording, I guess. How was the creative process for that?
For this album, we recorded most of it in Miami. I was just in the studio everyday with, like, money and ties and all of them. There was a couple songs that I did in New York and also in my crib, too.
Did you produce a lot of this album?
I didn’t produce a lot of it, but definitely my beat selection is what drives a lot of the production,
Right, right.
Keep watching for more!
With the announcement of Charli XCX’s Brat remix album, Troye Sivan leads the way with his remix with her on “Talk Talk.” Watch what he had to say about making the remixed single, out now!
Stay tuned for the full Troye Sivan interview, coming soon!
Troye Sivan: We’ve come out with something that I really, really love, like, it slaps I think.
Why was “Talk Talk” the song that you guys felt like was right for your remix?
She did the whole remix album, so there’s, like, a remix for every song, and she chose me for “Talk talk.” When she was first working on Brat, she sent me “Talk Talk” and I loved it, obviously. And it was really cool, though, because what she’s done with this remix album is, like, it can be … Some of the remixes are kind of a more maybe traditional feature, where the person has come on and just, you know, is on the second verse, kind of like doing the same melody, but maybe changing some lyrics, but, you know, kind of like that vibe.
What she said as well, though, was that she wanted some of the songs to … She’s just like, “I don’t care if you use one word from the original, it can be a completely new song. But use, use ‘Talk Talk’ as, like, you know, a seed for a song.” Essentially, we sampled “Talk Talk” and created an entirely new pop song out of it. Because I said to her, “If it’s a remix, is this like a, like a six-minute long, like, club song? Or is this like a pop song?” And she was like, “No, it’s a pop song.” I’m like, “OK, cool.”
I had so much fun, kind of, like, taking the scissors to the song that I really, really love, and getting to, kind of, like, chop it and change it and whatever. And we brought in kind of, like, the rush team, and worked on it, and then sent it back to Charli, and Charli did her thing, sent it back to me. It was just kind of like this really fun collaborative process, and we’ve come out with something that I really, really love, it, like, slaps I think, yeah.
Back in October 2019, Bad Bunny, already a huge star, posted a video of himself on Instagram, drinking tequila and singing along to a song in Spanish set to strumming guitars. It was “Soy el Diablo” by Natanael Cano, the then-18-year-old making waves in regional Mexican music with his corridos tumbados, a subgenre blending hip-hop swagger with traditional música mexicana instrumentation.
That Bad Bunny would gravitate toward the sound at first seemed counterintuitive: Reggaetón, built on beats, tracks and loops, ostensibly has little to do with regional Mexican music, which is created mostly with live instruments.
But upon further consideration, it made complete sense. Corridos tumbados, like Bad Bunny’s blend of trap and reggaetón, are as much about attitude and lifestyle as they are about music. Within weeks, a remix of “Soy el Diablo,” featuring Bad Bunny, hit No. 16 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart.
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The unlikely pairing at the time was revolutionary, and it set off a wave of collaborations between reggaetón and Mexican music acts that’s still going. Since “Soy el Diablo,” at least 14 songs that blend both genres have entered Hot Latin Songs — including Karol G and Peso Pluma’s “Qlona,” which shot to No. 1 in September 2023. And now, this year’s Rumbazo festival — taking place Sept. 13-14 in Las Vegas in partnership with Billboard — will reflect the kinship between the two genres; headliners Nicky Jam and Luis R Conriquez released a single together, “Como el Viento,” in 2023.
For Jimmy Humilde, the founder and CEO of powerhouse indie label Rancho Humilde (home to Cano and Fuerza Regida, among other Mexican music artists), Mexican and urban music are like brothers from another mother, and the new wave of Mexican music, much of it spawned on the West Coast, is inextricably linked to hip-hop and, by extension, to reggaetón.
“Hip-hop was my heart,” Humilde told Billboard last year of his upbringing, like that of many of his artists, in Los Angeles. “I was a huge fan of old-school hip-hop.” But Humilde was also a huge fan of bad boy Mexican corridos sung by the likes of Chalino Sánchez. Early in his career, when he started working with corridos singer Jessie Morales (also raised in L.A.), he had a simple yet brilliant idea: Instead of donning the traditional garb of boots and cowboy hat, “I told him, ‘Bro, why don’t you dress hip-hop, how you really dress? You don’t have to come out with a hat or a suit.’ ”
The notion of inserting hip-hop style into Mexican music slowly but surely became the norm for a new generation of artists that now includes Cano, Fuerza Regida, Junior H, Peso Pluma, Eslabon Armado and Yahritza y Su Esencia, who all dress more like rappers than singers of traditional Mexican music.
Actual cross-genre collaborations, however, only began in earnest after the Bad Bunny-Cano remix. In 2020, they went even further when Snoop Dogg (another Angeleno and a longtime fan of banda music) recorded “Que Maldición” with Banda MS (which went to No. 4 on Hot Latin Songs) and later joined the group onstage in L.A.
Then, in 2021, Colombian superstar Karol G released “200 Copas,” a veritable ranchera ballad. Colombians in general (and Medellín natives like Karol, in particular) have long been die-hard fans of ranchera and mariachi music — and later that year, Karol’s fellow paisa and reggaetón star Maluma also recorded a ranchera: “Cada Quien,” with Grupo Firme, which became his first No. 1 on the Regional Mexican Airplay chart.
“Being on a Mexican chart in the U.S., well, that’s a big deal,” Maluma told Billboard at the time. “I always dreamt of that. When I travel to Mexico, it’s like being at home. I feel part of it, and I am very grateful to Grupo Firme for making this possible.”
The growing list of urban/Mexican collaborations also includes the cover stars of this issue of Billboard. And while Nicky Jam and Conriquez’s “Como el Viento” didn’t chart, for Conriquez, it’s a sign of the future.
“If we’re intelligent about it, there will be more songs like this, because it’s an opportunity to bring the two genres together and for one to get into the other’s world,” says Conriquez, who has also already recorded with reggaetonero Ryan Castro. “I always thought reggaetón was global. But now, regional Mexican is global too.”
Billboard Latin Music Week is returning to Miami Beach on Oct. 14-18, with confirmed superstars including Gloria Estefan, Alejandro Sanz and Peso Pluma, among many others. For tickets and more details, visit Billboardlatinmusicweek.com.
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