Astro Remixes Michael Jackson’s ‘Black or White’ on ‘X Factor’

Wearing a military jacket, adolescent but wise-beyond-his-years rapper and 'X Factor' contestant Brian Bradley aka Astro piped an original rap over Michael Jackson's 1991 hit 'Black or White.' It was essentially a remix of the song and it was freakin' awesome.

While Astro wasn't really performing Jackson's song, other than rapping the hook "It don't matter if you're black or white," the teen still had to come up with an original rap and weave it into the song's melody. That ain't easy to do. But Astro didn't struggle at all. He nailed it.

His version resonated even more, since a socially relevant message was encased within. So once again, Astro won us over, especially with his rapid-fire lyrical flow towards the end. He gave a hooky song a brand new hook. Again, not exactly easy to do. He also looked like he was having a good ass time, to borrow a phrase from Kanye West.

Astro had swagger as he swept across the stage, and had the moves, and most importantly, he got that crowd jumping. Yes, it was essentially the Astro remix of 'Black or White.'

Nicole Scherzinger said it was not her favorite Astro perf, but she loved the lyrics he wrote. Simon Cowell completely disagreed, and said that is what someone his age should do: take a classic pop song and retrofit it to a new generation. He took a relevant 20-year-old song and updated it to be even more modern and relevant.

Astro certainly did that.

He turned in another performance that should set Jay-Z's Blackberry abuzz with texts or BBMs asking if he's offered Astro a record deal yet.

Watch Astro Perform 'Black or White' on 'X Factor'