MSNBC's resident expert on race and "pop culture critic" Toure (one word) joined the network for the first time in a while to give his opinion on Whitney Houston's death.
Toure, who is known for attaching race to nearly every issue didn't disappoint during his appearance on MSNBC's "The Last Word" with host Lawrence O'Donnell. Sitting next to Al Sharpton, Toure told viewers that untimely deaths such as Michael Jackson's or Whitney Houston's can be attributed to "a fear of going back to poverty."
Admitting this would "seem strange to people," Toure diagnosed Whitney Houston because she "got to the top" fast. Transcript of Toure's explanation below.
"I had a talk with Questlove from The Roots who talked about the soul-searching he's doing and he talked about an epidemic of death that's tragic among prematurely dying massive black singers. Michael Jackson was just 50. Now, Whitney at 48. Heavy D was 44, Nate Dogg was 41. Why are so many of these people dying early? And he talked about that there's an extraordinary pressure and stress on them to continue to succeed year after year because it is embarrassing to fall. But they also have a fear of going back to poverty," Toure told Lawrence O'Donnell.
"There's an irrational fear of poverty in a lot of people who even have reached this level of fame and success that they will fall back to that. So you wonder why is a Michael Jackson and some other people dealing with sedatives because they're dealing with an extraordinary amount of stress and anxiety. Questlove said something to me that was really deep and he was a little nervous to say but he said it anyway. For Whitney Houston, would you rather be what she is or Melba Moore? And that's not to slight Melba in anyway, but Melba Moore was a singer, very popular and successful, and then ended up back in the projects through several mistakes, some no fault of her own. And for an artist who chases success and achieves success, the level of desire is so high that to fall back to that, where you came from, and to be embarrassed by other people taking your spot is massively painful. I mean, you think about the level that Michael Jordan gets to. You don't think about that same thing with these artists. Whitney Houston definitely had it because she got to the top. Because she had to be at the top. She started at the top. And there's a significant emotional pain that goes through with a lot of this," Toure explained.
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