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Michael Jackson’s “Slave to the Rhythm” remixed as a duet with Justin Bieber

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A newly remixed version of Michael Jackson’s unreleased track “Slave To The Rhythm” has appeared online, first via Soundcloud and then all over YouTube, featuring new vocals recorded by Justin Bieber.

The track, for which Max Methods is given production credit, has been re-imagined as a duet between Justin Bieber and his idol, the King of Pop.

Reaction among Jackson fans hasn’t exactly been positive, with many of them suggesting a protest to an official release.

“I think we the MJ fan community need to rally together and protest against this disaster of a song before it gets officially released. Why don’t we all contact the estate and show our disapproval? This is disgraceful!” said one fan on a Michael Jackson discussion board.

“I’m gonna be sick,” added another.

At this stage there has been no official word from The Michael Jackson Estate or Sony Music as to whether a) the duet is official or not, or b) it is being considered for release or not.

However, Jackson fans were quick to note that Michael’s vocals on this new version seem to be clearer than on the solo version that leaked in December 2010 (see below), and that the a cappella has been used to create this new mix.

ABOVE: TRICKY STEWART’s 2010 REMIX of “SLAVE TO THE RHYTHM”

The acapella of “Slave To The Rhythm” is not publicly available, so the person who compiled this duet version with Bieber likely had direct access to the original Jackson vocal track. That seemingly eliminates the possibility that this could merely be a fan-made remix.

Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, a producer who collaborated with the King of Pop for two years straight, between 1999 and 2001, has recently been working with Justin Bieber.

Jerkins, who produced Jackson’s “You Rock My World” and Bieber’s “As Long As You Love Me,” stated that he felt a Jackson / Bieber duet is something he could have arranged had Michael not passed away.

“I think if Michael [Jackson] was alive I would have been able to make a meeting happen and actually get them to do something together,” said the producer.

Could Jerkins have helped arrange this posthumous duet? If so, it wouldn’t have been the first time Jerkins has teed up a feature from the grave.

In fact, Michael Jackson’s 2001 Invincible album includes a song called “Unbreakable” – produced and co-written by Jerkins. “Unbreakable” features a verse by Notorious B.I.G – four years after the legendary rapper’s death!

Furthermore, back in late 2010, around the time that the first posthumous Michael Jackson album was released by Sony Music, there was talk that the next MJ project would be a complete album of newly crafted duets.

Teddy Riley, who produced music for Jackson on a number of occasions during his life (including tracks for 1991’s Dangerous album and 2001’s Invincible) stated that because much of Jackson’s unreleased work was incomplete, duets would be built using what was available.

“He would do is go in and do the first verse, and the chorus, and he would not do a second verse,” said Riley of Jackson’s habits when writing or recording demos. “It’s just to get the idea down. So the next album that’s coming, and I don’t want to say too much, but the next album that’s coming is a duet album with a lot of great artists, because he only did first verses.”

This is the way Jackson worked in order to decipher which tracks he felt good about, and which he didn’t.

“What I do when I write is that I’ll do a raggedy, rough version just to hear the chorus, just to see how much I like the chorus,” explained Jackson. “If it works for me that way when it’s raggedy, then I’ll know it will just work … I do that same process with every song. It’s the melody. It’s the melody that’s most important. If the melody can sell me then I’ll go to the next step.”

One of the main sticking points for Michael Jackson fans is that “Slave To The Rhythm” is a track Jackson completed during his life – recording all the lead and backing vocals himself.

“Michael finished it on his own when he was alive. There’s no reason for Justin to be singing on it,” said one fan.

“No future Michael Jackson songs should be released as duets unless the duet was actually recorded with Michael when he was still alive. Slapping modern singers on these unreleased songs is just really disrespectful,” agreed another.

Despite the resistance from the more hardcore Jackson-enthusiasts, if the track were to be released it would almost certainly be a global hit. Justin Bieber’s fans around the world will undoubtedly support anything he puts out, as will many of the King of Pop’s fans.

UPDATE: Shortly following the publication of this article Justin Bieber tweeted the following…

Is Justin’s acknowledgement of the situation a confirmation that the track is official and coming soon?

UPDATE: Rodney Jerkins has confirmed that he had no involvement in the recording, production or leak of this track.

Jerkins was kind enough to offer me the following insights about the track, which was recorded way back in 1990:

“‘Slave To The Rhythm’ was produced by LA Reid and Babyface. I remember MJ played me that song along time ago. It was originally recorded for the Dangerous LP.”

Although Jackson brought the song to Jerkin’s attention during the Invincible recording sessions, the pair did not re-work the track and it was not considered for the album.

“He played it for me one day just to see what I thought. I like the song, but what Michael song don’t I like? I love all his music!”

It also appears the producer of the track, Max Methods, has addressed the issue via Twitter. IF the account is legit, the DJ stated the following:

It should be noted that until today, the @MaxMethods Twitter account had not posted in more than two years, since February 20, 2011. The account is not verified and only has 268 followers.

To clear things up The Michael Jackson Estate, via their mouthpiece, The MJ Online Team, issued the following statement:

For those who have been asking about the recently posted recording of “Slave 2 The Rhythm” by Michael and Justin Bieber, this recording was not authorized and has been taken down.

To give further clarity they later added the following:

It is unauthorized and therefore there is no intention to release it.

Sony Music Entertainment is continuing to work around the clock to remove dozens of video uploads of the track from YouTube.

EXCLUSIVE UPDATE: Max Methods, the producer who remixed Michael Jackson’s “Slave To The Rhythm” as a duet with Justin Bieber, has revealed exclusively to DamienShields.com how the track came to be.

“I work with Tricky Stewart. He signed me to his label Red Zone Ent, and had me re-produce the record,” the DJ told me.

“He also had Justin [Bieber] record new vocals. I do not know how it leaked.” – August 20, 2013

Listen to the Michael Jackson & Justin Bieber duet version of “Slave To The Rhythm” below:

How would YOU feel if this song was officially released? Discuss below…


Damien Shields is the author of the book Michael Jackson: Songs & Stories From The Vault examining the King of Pop’s creative process, and the producer of the podcast The Genesis of Thriller which takes you inside the recording studio as Jackson and his team create the biggest selling album in music history.
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100 Comments

100 Comments

  1. abbie

    August 16, 2013 at 3:46 pm

    personally, i don’t think the duet should be released- but the original. The original song is an amazing masterpiece with meaning and emotion. Michael’s vocals showcase how passionate he was about women’s rights and how much heart he gave in to this song. I hope to God that people do not just dismiss the original song because as a person who lives and breathes the song Slave To The Rhythm, i believe that Justin Bieber did not do it justice whatsoever. The song was recorded in 1998, but when i heard it i thought it had been recorded shortly before he died. He was so ahead of his time, and it’s so very unfortunate that the world may not get to see that in this context. I guarantee if the song was released, it would be a very very strong contender with all the material in the industry today- and Michael isn’t even alive. Bieber probably doesn’t even understand the meaning of the song, and yet continued to meddle. I just hope that the estate releases the song before Justin has a chance to make a further mockery of Michael’s legacy.
    -@Jacksinspired

  2. daphne

    August 16, 2013 at 3:51 pm

    Somebody just kill me, this is disgraceful.

    • jm

      August 24, 2013 at 1:58 pm

      All through MJ life he had poor management and now his executors are making poor decisions too. Michael’s fans want authenticity! I want a copy of the original…it is perfect as is!!!!

  3. Walter

    August 16, 2013 at 4:08 pm

    This remix is a disgrace.

  4. Sattapaal

    August 16, 2013 at 4:10 pm

    Lets face it, most people would be upset because its Mr Bieber. No one from the MJ era’s would understand or even comprehend how this lad is actually talented. Screaming young ladies would love it. Its actually a good club track for the common british chav. If it was Lauren Hill, Stevie Wonder or Janet Jackson, even the most critical of MJ’s songs would probably like it because it matches the era (and vocal quality) in which MJ was alive.

    People ask on youtube why it wasnt released, but seriously? SERIOUSLY? A good vocal doesnt make a good song. Overall its not a good song. Techno-house-euro-pop in the ilk of Vengaboys and 2Unlimited.

    • jason rodgers

      August 16, 2013 at 4:23 pm

      omg what are you talking about its overall not a good song….a good vocal doesn’t make a good song? its infectious pop…..get over yourself…..and yes it should have been released when it was written just like Hollywood tonight another missed opportunity…….and not forgetting Hold my hand which so should have been released when it was written that its criminal looking back…….

    • Suzy

      August 17, 2013 at 1:27 pm

      Do you realize that the techno production was added by Tricky Stewart? It’s not how the song was originally intended to be.

    • Arjun Sanyal

      October 20, 2013 at 1:03 pm

      That’s the thing though – Stevie Wonder and Janet Jackson have worked with Michael numerous times – they know what Michael may have liked. Justin Bieber though, and other contemporary artists who have only worked with Michael for remixes (e.g. Kanye West, Fergie and Jay-Z), are just fans – they don’t necessarily know what Michael may have liked.

      Plus, and you cannot deny this, the original ‘Slave To The Rhythm’ is much better than the newly-remixed ‘Slave 2 The Rhythm’. The remix is good, but it’s not as good as the original.

  5. jason rodgers

    August 16, 2013 at 4:12 pm

    I actually freakin love it…..its better than the original even with bieber…..and im not even a bieber fan.

    • I'mCrazy&ILikethat (@zeromarcy)

      August 20, 2013 at 1:08 pm

      OH PLSSSSSSSSSS!

    • jm

      August 24, 2013 at 1:25 pm

      You need to go re-listen to to original.

  6. mksmurf

    August 16, 2013 at 4:36 pm

    link removed…

  7. Damien Shields

    August 16, 2013 at 4:51 pm

    My thoughts:

    Why can’t they just let Michael’s talent shine above all else? Why pimp out his art with all these unnecessary embellishments, features, remakes, edits etc.? Why? Michael didn’t aim to achieve immortality by binding his soul to his work for it to be given the bubblegum treatment by people he never knew.

    It’s like sending a modern-day artist to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to embellish Michelanglo’s work with Copic Markers…

    • Catherine M Gross

      September 9, 2013 at 1:26 pm

      Thank you Damien. These people think it only a matter of talent on the line, but they are actually setting a ‘below the belt’ precedence. Ethics are really at hand. If it is okay for Bieber to do that to Michael, then it is okay for someone to do that to Bieber, or anyone else for that matter. If this is acceptable, does that mean Bieber can do this again? Many have said that Michael would have liked Bieber. Bieber was not on his list at all, Lady GaGa was, however. I am sure that Michael had seen Bieber perform, he did not ask him to work with him on any occasion. I think Bieber violated the sanctity of Michael’s art. I say sanctity because Michael always said his art was given to him by God.

  8. Jenna

    August 16, 2013 at 5:06 pm

    First of all why in TEH Hell was this song not on the Michael album!?!? Really the Cascio songs that MUCH better that they couldn’t take ONE song of theirs off and replace it with Slave To The Rhythm LAME!!! Anyway got that off my chest, NOW this Justin Bieber version of the song I must admit I like it and I feel this will bring MORE people to Michael’s music. I definitely can hear this music on today’s radio station like NOW lol. I kinda see the Estate’s business side to this ask to get alot people into Michael music as well…

  9. Silvia

    August 16, 2013 at 5:19 pm

    The song as Michael recorded it is perfect for release. JB ruins it. His “vocals” are no match for Michael’s. I will boycott this if it is officially released with everything I have. I will not sleep, not eat, but campaign against it. It is a disgrace how JB tries to rub off some of Michael’s fame on himself.

  10. Tina

    August 16, 2013 at 5:20 pm

    I hope this absolutely does not happen. Justin Bieber claims MJ is his idol, he’s a huge fan. He is not and never will be the artist that Michael was. Michael would never disrepect himself or his fans by doing the idiotic, disgusting things that twerpy Bieber has done publicly. I certainly won’t buy anything with Bieber’s name attached to it. I agree with people who say releasing something like this would be disrepectful to MJ and his music. Obviously, I’m not a Bieber fan.

    • Britt Solomon

      August 16, 2013 at 8:50 pm

      What do you mean Justin “claims’ he is MJ’s fan.

      He is a fan, always has been.

      I think you’ll find Michael is allowed more than one.

      With respect, you comment is why MJ fans have a terrible reputation. Reason eludes them. Everything’s a competition, who’s bigger, badder.

      Michael is gone but his music lives on. Let others who also loved him bring him to life so the new ones can hear him. Of course it won’t be like the original, how can it be. The original was taken from us by a murderer.

      But Justin Bieber loves Michael, and frankly, the media are treating him precisely as they treated Michael from 1993 onward. Don’t you remember people saying, ‘well, all these accusations, can’t be smoke without fire.’

      Lets show JB some love, the same way Michael would have.

      • june

        August 16, 2013 at 9:37 pm

        we need to show Michael`s music to the younger generation…this is good

      • Tina

        August 16, 2013 at 10:08 pm

        Difference of opinion…everyone’s entitled to have one.

        • Britt Solomon

          August 17, 2013 at 12:42 am

          Yup. That they are!

      • I'mCrazy&ILikethat (@zeromarcy)

        August 20, 2013 at 1:12 pm

        The fact is this: justin added his voice, even on verses where there was already MJ’s voice. No one ever did that before.
        To me this is not respectful.

    • I'mCrazy&ILikethat (@zeromarcy)

      August 20, 2013 at 1:13 pm

      and it should be MJ feat JB not viceversa.

  11. MJ 101

    August 16, 2013 at 5:22 pm

    Just to clarify the Biggie inclusion on “Unbreakable”.

    “Unbreakable” contains influence and interpolation of Biggie’s “Unbelievable” and the verse was lifted from a previously released rap he did on a Shaq track called “Can’t Stop The Reign”.

  12. Daphne

    August 16, 2013 at 5:23 pm

    “Michael didn’t aim to achieve immortality by binding his soul to his work for it to be given the bubblegum treatment by people he never knew.”

    THIS!

  13. Serious Effect

    August 16, 2013 at 5:30 pm

    This is completely disgusting. The radio stations in the UK are calling the new version of “Slave To The Rhythm” Justin Bieber’s like Michael doesn’t exist and like it was never his song in the first place. If Bieber wins any awards for this piece of crap thing they call a “song”/”remake”, then I will never support the Estate ever again. Bunch of pricks.

  14. NoNameForMe23

    August 16, 2013 at 5:47 pm

    I really don’t get why they’re doing this…..
    They should release the original pre-2010 version instead of this stupid shit….

  15. gg

    August 16, 2013 at 6:01 pm

    the song win nothing to have bieber on it… not even to be remixed.
    It was perfect in its original state.
    I have nothing against bieber.;-)

  16. Cpteo

    August 16, 2013 at 6:05 pm

    Make this kind of duo is touching directly to the work of Michael Jackson and is not as well as it transmits his artistic legacy.

    This title is finalized, as we listened to him long ago, and although it was perhaps not what Michael wanted it to become, it was a mark in the stage of development of a song. As such, perhaps, had it the legitimacy to be presented as a work under construction and therefore marketable in this sense. Bad 25 titles have been felt like this. And we thank Sony’s not there touching.

    Suggest this title in duo is remove the presence of Michael on her song so remove a part of his art. In itself this is regrettable, and therefore harmful to the transmission of his art. What is an incomplete table of an artist will be completed by another artist or worse, is part of an array of a painter is erased and repainted by another artist?

    There is only one and unique way to preserve the artistic legacy of Michael, is to publish its gross work. Then, be on a same album, offers an additional version to the original and presented as a virtual Duet is something that I could understand, in the same way as a remix which in fact distorts the original but with a laudable intention or not, you want to do well.

    All, is proposed to the listener, the original song.

    Sorry for my english, i’m from France.

  17. Ebony Bonsai

    August 16, 2013 at 6:08 pm

    I AM OK WITH THE ESTATE RELEASING THIS VERSION TO EXPOSE THE YOUNGER GENERATION TO MJ’S MUSIC, AS LONG AS THEY RELEASE THE ORIGINAL MJ SOLO VERSION AS WELL 🙂

    • Speedemon

      August 16, 2013 at 6:54 pm

      Is not this the right way to expose the younger generation to MJ’s music. This song was finished by MJ and the original version should be released. Respect for MJ’s work!

    • TheresaB

      August 16, 2013 at 11:05 pm

      I could get behind your suggestion but never as a duet on its own without the original. When I heard it this morning I felt a little sorry for Justin because Michael sounded so much better. But, the duet would sell hugely because Justin, a diehard MJ fan himself, has a lot of fans who spend money to buy his releases. They are as passionate about Justin as we are about Michael. Justin Bieber has always publicly declared his love of all things MJ.

      • Britt Solomon

        August 17, 2013 at 12:42 am

        Exactly. I will certainly buy it if it’s released.

        Love Bieber and I love MJ.

    • I'mCrazy&ILikethat (@zeromarcy)

      August 20, 2013 at 1:14 pm

      if u knew Michael..u would know that he did not like remixes and so on…he said so himself.

    • jm

      August 24, 2013 at 1:40 pm

      The original sounded complete to me and should be released as is.

  18. gg

    August 16, 2013 at 6:17 pm

    ok, but they won’t release the original version, they will destroy the michael jackson work like usual.
    listen what they did to hollywood tonight !!!!!
    the tv version wasn’t good, the album was perfect.

  19. Rachel Garnier

    August 16, 2013 at 6:43 pm

    C’est du saccage !!!!! J’espère que l’Estate va arrêter ce massacre!!!! pourquoi ne pas nous sortir cette chanson en single et version originale qui est parfaite!!!! Bieber la veut la place du King of Pop! mais il peut s’accrocher, sa voix est bof bof. Perso, elle m’apporte aucune émotion!!!!! LOVE KING OF POP MICHAEL JACKSON

  20. lotus

    August 16, 2013 at 6:50 pm

    so, tell us, Damien, where’s your exclusive article on this? you did not know about this?
    you didn’t want to shock fans?
    or you simply have no exclusive info as usual? man, we all know, you aren’t an insider

    • Damien

      August 16, 2013 at 7:10 pm

      Hi Lotus 🙂 Thanks for stopping by.

    • Sometime, Sometime not

      August 16, 2013 at 8:20 pm

      Lotus, with sincere love, you are an ignorant fool. Damien, I appreciate this article and all your articles. I, for one, did not know about this and I sure as hell didn’t hear about it from Lotus.

      • Fernanda

        August 16, 2013 at 9:16 pm

        I wonder why people who doesnt have interest on the articles come to spit their poison! Ag…

    • Peter Pan

      September 9, 2013 at 2:33 am

      just skimming comments and saw this arrogant one……i guess u missed the last month worth of storys?

  21. gg

    August 16, 2013 at 6:53 pm

    the remix is good, but this song doesn’t need justin bieber.
    overall, i prefer the new version, but, it could have been perfect WITHOUT Bieber.
    But i’m sure they just want to make the buzz, and it’s done.
    I feel it will be a future n° 1 but i felt it before they touch it.

  22. Shamone

    August 16, 2013 at 7:01 pm

    LA Reid and Babyface wrote this song, MJ recorded this in 1989 when Bieber was not yet on this planet to terrorize us.

    • Fernanda

      August 16, 2013 at 9:15 pm

      Lol

  23. MorningGlow

    August 16, 2013 at 7:57 pm

    This version is SHIT. Sorry.
    It was perfect in its original state.
    LONG LIVE THE KING

  24. sandi

    August 16, 2013 at 8:23 pm

    Michael recorded duets, but they were of HIS choosing. This is a duet he never had a chance to approve of. Unfair, immoral, and insulting. Think of a famous singer, any singer, and how they would feel if they were mashed up with another voice with no say in the matter? The original is much better.

    • Fernanda

      August 16, 2013 at 9:15 pm

      Duets that Michael never finished!

  25. Britt Solomon

    August 16, 2013 at 8:37 pm

    I think it sounds great. I am a Michael Jackson fan and so is Justin Bieber. He adores MJ, has for years and has consistently said he is the greatest artist of all time throughout his career.

    I am really quite sick and tired of certain fans second-guessing what Michael would have wanted. It’s pretty obvious he and Bieber would have been friends if they had met and if Rodney Jerkins is cool with it so am I.

    I hope M,J fans can put aside their belligerence and support an artist who has always loved Michael and wants to do nothing more than honor him and sing with him, even if it is posthumously.

    • Suzy

      August 19, 2013 at 9:54 am

      “It’s pretty obvious he and Bieber would have been friends if they had met”

      Wow at your prophetic and psychic powers…

  26. Fernanda

    August 16, 2013 at 9:14 pm

    What disgrace! First, Michael never liked remixes! He told it in an interview and from his point of view, young people didnt like them neither. He told it: the way he made his art, that is the way he wanted them to be released!
    Second, BIEBER!? Michael doesnt need him or other to reach teenagers hearts… Michael was always refresing and his REAL music always kept a young spirit all time! He was a visionary… My nieces are really young (older is 12 years old) and love HIS REAL style!
    $ony and the fake executors of that fake last will spat on Michael honorable name and REAL LEGACY before and now again? Fake songs, songs Michael NEVER released, shortfilms he never finished while $ony gave him the back… Whats the next!? MICHAEL WANTED THOSE PEOPLE ($ony and those in MJ Estate executor position) OUT FROM HIS LIFE, when will they understand it? It seems some fans never realized Michael FIRED that people for some dirty reason and established HE DIDNT WANT ANYTHING WITH $ony mafia!

    • TheresaB

      August 16, 2013 at 11:10 pm

      I think you are wrong about MJ and remixes. He has tons of officially released remixes approved under Mijac and Sony. Bad, Dangerous, History and BOTDF albums have officially released singles with 4-6 remixes per single. In The Closet remixes are awesome with one even on the Ultimate Collection. There is a lot more to the remix story than most people know.

      • LovelyOne

        August 18, 2013 at 12:28 am

        Michael never wanted to release remixes but Sony made him. Black & White magazine interviewed MJ in LA in April 1998. He said he had wanted to put out new music but Sony told him the kids wanted remixes, not original material.

        • sc341

          August 26, 2013 at 11:20 pm

          Sony twisted his arm to make remixes…….yeah, sure they did…..!

      • I'mCrazy&ILikethat (@zeromarcy)

        August 20, 2013 at 1:15 pm

        he said so himself.

  27. Kay

    August 16, 2013 at 9:18 pm

    Honestly, I think the re-mix is fine. I’m pretty if MJ was alive, he would have done a duet with JB. JB has always stated his love and admiration for MJ. I think people need to back off of JB vocals. JB can sing, but we all know he’ll never be MJ. There will never ever be another MJ. MJ set the bar and no one has been able to touch it and never will. Atleast he’s trying to keep MJ’s legacy alive.

    • Suzy

      August 19, 2013 at 9:49 am

      I don’t like it when people make declarations in Michael’s name like “I’m sure he would have worked with JB”. What makes you sure? JB is nowhere near to his level as an artist.

      • sc341

        August 26, 2013 at 11:23 pm

        What about the duet he did with Eddie Murphy, that was truly horrible. Yet he did it. He also did a duet with Rockwell and it did very well on the charts. The duets he did with Mick Jagger and with Paul McCartney also did very well. It also helped MJ to become more of a crossover artist, etc…… I don’t remember Paul McCartney’s fans complaining when Paul did his duets with MJ…..

  28. Nick

    August 16, 2013 at 9:45 pm

    The track sounds horrible with Justin bieber!!!!
    The Original was Awesome!!!!
    I will boycott the release!!!!!!!

  29. Sina

    August 16, 2013 at 10:29 pm

    This is wrong on so many levels. Whoever did it knows it too.
    To be a fan of MJ is no excuse to be featured on his song, half of the planet is. Its wrong because of the song itself, historically and artistically . I have nothing against JB , I think its great what he has accomplished for his age, but as an artist he is not in Michaels league. I hope they will see their mistake before the release. If not I hope an alternative quality solo mix will be made without JB.

  30. Cathy

    August 16, 2013 at 10:35 pm

    This is a disgrace. I love the original track. I have no idea why it hasn’t been released yet. As for JB I don’t like his music so I would not like the song with him singing on it. Everyone has their preferences. I don’t hate JB but he tries to hard to act like Michael in certain ways. Other ways he is completely different from him. I don’t hate him. I don’t believe that Michael would have wanted that. Michael fans should show their love for Michael by not be haters of JB. Remember what Michael went through with the haters and unfortunately his kids are inheriting.

  31. Tristan

    August 16, 2013 at 11:23 pm

    You don’t “Modernize” Citizen Kane by getting some popular, modern film director to slap in a few new scenes and CGI. Citizen Kane is a product of it’s time, and it’s how it’s creator (Orson Welles) intended it.

    Exactly the same situation here.
    Slave To The Rhythm was an excellent, catchy pop song with a great hook, and fantastic vocals with depth and emotion. Bumping up the BPM, and polluting it with Bieber’s pubescent voice is not only completely unnecessary, but disrespectful.

    Having said that, With Branca in charge, i’m not even slightly surprised.

  32. Lisa

    August 17, 2013 at 12:54 am

    I’m truly and utterly disgusted over this and I do hope it’s not what’s being reported. The MJfan community needs to come together and protest loud and clear to Rodney Jenkins, the Estate over our utter disgrace of MJ work being used in this manner and to the likes of a obnoxious twit Beiber. MJ unreleased work needs to be heard to benefit HIS legacy and that of his children, not used as another opportunity from others to gain noteriety for themselves because their work is poor and mediocre. I’m sick and tired of the divison in the community over MJ products while it allows others to capitlize on his name, image and artistry. Enough is truly enough and we need to stand behind any attempts to use MJ work in this manner.

  33. Heaven Leigh

    August 17, 2013 at 12:54 am

  34. Jamon Bull

    August 17, 2013 at 1:34 am

    I am disgusted at the thought of a possible release of this posthumous duet. Michael NEVER collaborated with Justin. The two simply should NOT be on the same track. It’s insulting. If the Michael Jackson Estate executors, Sony and/or Justin Bieber’s camp are planning on authorising this song release, it will be an insult to MJ as an artist and his fans. Adding new production to an unreleased Michael Jackson song and REMOVING completed MJ vox to add some popstar of the moments vocals as a duet is unthinkable! MJ’s art is so culturally significant that it should be treated with the utmost care and respect. I’m sick of posthumous Michael Jackson releases being all about money. Why not respectfully release products/material whilst valuing authenticity?

    Ever since the insane nightmare that was the ‘Michael’ album and the Cascio Tracks, I’ve put a lot of thought into this. I think the Michael Jackson Estate executors should adopt a similar policy once and for all. Unreleased MJ songs should ONLY ever be ‘completed’ or ‘reworked’ by the original production team who worked on the song with Michael. In the case that these individuals will not or are unable to work on the tracks, they should be released in their latest and fullest state before Michael died. Also, should a song be ‘completed’ and released, then the demo should also be released with it as an additional track. This is all for the purpose of respectfully valuing authenticity, Michael’s vision and the fans. The problem here is that no value or care is being placed on Michael’s art, something that he spent nearly half a century cultivating and producing. Michael does not NEED Bieber to add value to his art. The song was basically already complete and needs nothing more than the Michael magic that is already there to be appreciated by fans.

    Even the leaked non-Bieber ‘Tricky Stewart’ version insults me. Michael never worked with him. To me the production of that version sounds NOTHING like what Michael would have wanted for the track and when I hear it, it just doesn’t feel right.

    • Sina

      August 17, 2013 at 1:27 pm

      “MJ’s art is so culturally significant that it should be treated with the utmost care and respect. I’m sick of posthumous Michael Jackson releases being all about money. Why not respectfully release products/material whilst valuing authenticity?’

      Exactly!
      The MJE executors are in damage control mode but its too late.
      The only thing they can do now is release Michaels version asap and forever try to get JBs version down.
      Now I see why JB was invited at the handfootprint ceremony at the Graumann theatre last year , which at the time seemed kind of random to me. It was all to establish a connection between MJ and JB. Big fail.

    • Suzy

      August 19, 2013 at 9:45 am

      I agree. This song was made in 1989. It was not meant to be techno, but probably R&B/New Jack Swing, so I’m not particularly fond of the Tricky Stewart version either. But the Bieber version is the lowest of low in terms of disrespect – replacing Michael’s vocals with a teen bopper’s…

    • sc341

      August 26, 2013 at 11:25 pm

      I think that Justin Bieber is a little more talented than Eddie Cascio and Jason Malachi or whatever that guy’s name was….the one who sings like a goat.

  35. Lisa

    August 17, 2013 at 1:41 am

    Atleast he’s trying to keep MJ’s legacy alive.” What? Huh? Stop!

    Great music and artistry lives on regardless, Bieber is no more interested in Michael legacy than the man on the moon. He jumps at every opportunity to snatch and steal every little thing about Michael that he can. I don’t see him nor anyone else besides MJ fans and TMEZ speaking out about Michael. What I do see is his fan base making excuses about his bad and obnoxious behavior . I see them lying about how he is greater than MJ while spouting off fake stats while being in this constant state of delusion about him being the King Of Pop. I dare him or his fans to try this with Prince, his music or his fans. We need to stand behind not allowing or supporting this type of mess. There’s too much silly division in this community and we will all regret it sooner or later. The Estate is not the enemy, you need to look at those who are trying to once again undermine MJ work for quick cash.

    As far as Michael legacy is concerned ,it’s kept alive by his fans loyalty and dedication to him. Let’s not be gullible into thinking those who love to copy & pinch off of MJ isn’t using his artistry to win over MJ “fans “and to help their weak, sagging and fleeting careers. As soon as these celebrities arrive to where they think they need to be, loving MJ is nowhere to be seen. I’ve seen it too often, when it comes to Michael.

    “This version is SHIT. Sorry.
    It was perfect in its original state.
    LONG LIVE THE KING” – MorningGlow

    Yes, Long Live The King!

  36. Stephanie Anne Christy

    August 17, 2013 at 3:57 am

    I just wonder if Prince,Paris and Blanket had any say in this, if he was my dad, I wouldn’t want some young punk wannabe kid, on my fathers material. FULL STOP. After all when Elvis passed over ,did any one see any of his material in a duet with any young teeny bopper upstarts back then. NO. The Elvis Estate wouldn’t allow it.

  37. June Astford

    August 17, 2013 at 8:47 am

    I think MJ’s draw is being underestimated. I would happily purchase a cd of demos just to get a glimpse into his process and I think the power’s that be might be very surprised at how many others would do the same. MJ is loved internationally. I think a cd of this nature would sell like hot cakes.

    • sc341

      August 26, 2013 at 11:30 pm

      You would but would the general public???

  38. ela

    August 17, 2013 at 8:47 am

    Damien, thank you for this article. So the Slave to the rhythm was for sure recorded is 1989? right? So why the heck we all thought it was recorded during Invincible era?!

    • Jenna

      August 17, 2013 at 8:52 pm

      Same here I want to know why alot of people including myself thought that it was a RJ work??

  39. Jeannette Morgan

    August 17, 2013 at 8:49 am

    I love, love, love this song! Justin has tried to make it his own….but its MJs! I say the original should be released!! It is a great dance beat and MJ just gave me goosebumps with his beautiful passion of song! Bless you Justin….but this song belongs to Michael amen!

    • sc341

      August 26, 2013 at 11:27 pm

      I think the new song is fine, Justin’s fans are going to snap this baby up……the song needs a little more work, but overall it sounds really good imo….. I can hear it playing in clubs……and on the radio.

      The original should be put on a future album for the MJ fans……

  40. Paula

    August 17, 2013 at 12:02 pm

    Just one sentence. Never meant as a duet Justin!

  41. ela

    August 17, 2013 at 12:12 pm

    I wish JB die I want to die I want to kill him and then shoot myself

    • Cooke

      August 19, 2013 at 3:58 pm

      Get some help…

    • sc341

      August 26, 2013 at 11:27 pm

      Seriously?

  42. Bryanna Branch

    August 17, 2013 at 4:24 pm

    As one of these “hardcore fans,” my view is that people have attacked Michael’s career, his character, his family, and his fans. Messing with his music is bringing it to an all time new low. Don’t touch his music. Especially since he is no longer here to even give permission.

    I love you, Mikey. You are always in my heart. <3

  43. Marco B. (@B__Marco)

    August 17, 2013 at 4:51 pm

    Do ppl understand the TRUE meaning of DUET ?

    Duet , means sharing an audio recording studio room and decide to sing together in a song.

    Duet , does NOT mean assembling a song, erasing already recorded verses, sang originally by an artist and putting over them the voice of a modern era artist !!

    A Michael Jackson demo is like an unfinished priceless work of art , you leave it untouched.
    No-one can add his touch to a priceless artwork to complete it…..you admire it in its incomplete form.

    The most “interesting” conversation of my life has been when chatting with a “Sony/Michael Jackson Estate” Representative on MJStar forum about the need to leave Michael Jackson demos untouched, the way Michael Jackson left them for us, instead of adding to them NON MJ music, voice, choruses:


    @Marco,
    wake up… I mean for real what planet you on? Sony are releasing a Michael Jackson album that can be played over and over again on the radio in a …car or bar/club. The album will also hopefully get the attention of a younger generation.
    Sony haven’t paid $200m to create an album full of unfinished demos for hardcore fans to listen to before shelving.
    Because lets face it… its only the hardcore fans who would be willing to purchase an album with incomplete/demos only…

    • Suzy

      August 19, 2013 at 9:12 am

      Unfortunately that’s a reality we have to face no matter how unfair or unethical it is. Had they found an unfinished painting by Da Vinci, no one would say some modern painter should finish it. That would be considered blasphemy, and totally disrespectful to Da Vinci as an artist. Apparently the same standards do not apply in popular music, though they should in my opinion.

      Sony is only interested in making money. I think the best posthumus project so far (apart from the Cirque shows) was Bad 25. That was done in a respectful way, but unfortunately it did not sell outside of the hard core fan community, so for Sony it was a failure. So they probably say now “f*ck hard core fans, we are going to appeal to the general public now” and then come despicable projects like this Bieber crap and the butchering of MJ’s music and associating him with cheap, “hot for the moment” current artists. A really sad situation. Money talks, unfortunately.

      I wish they’d at least release the original demos. I’m only interested in how Michael meant a song, not someone else’s interpretation of it. If they release the originals they can release modern remixes for the general public, but please, please by NO means “duet” with “artists” below a certain level – like Justin Bieber. That’s disrespectful to MJ!

  44. Marndizz

    August 18, 2013 at 4:04 am

    Absolutely awful. The production is terrible and Justin Bieber, who sounds like a child, does not suit the maturity of these lyrics. I do think Justin is talented and have always, but he should not be singing with Michael Jackson on a song which already has a song with such passionate lyrics and vocals. I would love to hear the song in its original form without the dance music.

    • M3k

      August 19, 2013 at 4:56 am

      Agreed!

  45. Em D

    August 19, 2013 at 12:13 pm

    I have no words to express how I feel about this. The beat is ok, the part thats dreadful is Biebers vocals, his voice sounds strained tryna hit those notes. In my opinion he ruined it and the original has more soul.
    #ForeverMichael

  46. onedharma

    August 19, 2013 at 2:41 pm

    Why oh why dont people understand. Michael Jacksons career is HIS OWN, and noone can take that away from him, even is someone dresses up, dances and speaks like MJ they wont be him. Mike died before his comeback tour, his comeback album, there are many many unfinished tracks, with two or three verses a chorus, a beat, a melody, so rather than leave them to rot away, its a good tactic to use these unifinished tracks using modern day singers that are still alive, to create a comeback album, that will be played in the mainstream of radio and broadcast, once again playing Michael Jackson tracks, feat whoever they want!. Mike is an artist and with revivals, remixes, etc, is legacy is maintained if not strengthened by current artists who are willing to work with unreleased tracks for the public to hear.

    Without such efforts, we might not be able hear hundreds of incomplete music, whereas in this manner we are able to hear the track in its demo form by michael jackson, and still be able to enjoy the demo in the remixed duet form.

    Whats the problem?….

    Mjs legacy is set in stone, no one can change that.

    • Cooke

      August 19, 2013 at 3:56 pm

      THIS! THIS THIS THIS! Exactly! Couldn’t have said it better!

  47. Cooke

    August 19, 2013 at 3:55 pm

    I like the new version of the song. No, Justin’s vocals aren’t nearly as strong as Michael’s are, but Michael recorded this track when he was in his thirties, having been in the industry longer than Justin’s even been alive. Justin is only 19 years old but I think has the potential to become a powerful artist. I don’t see anything wrong with releasing a remixed track. It’s just like adding your own flavor to an already amazing recipe. Both pies taste amazing. And so ends my corny metaphor…

    Michael said in 1998 that he wasn’t fond of remixes… That was FIFTEEN YEARS AGO! He was an ever evolving artists who created trends as well as followed a few. I think that it is unfair to state that he would have absolutely hated this concept without knowing exactly what kind of artist he would have been like today. Further, I think it’s safe to say that Michael would have embraced Justin as a young artist. He did it to everyone that modeled their careers after him, Justin Timberlake, Usher, to name a few. I won’t speak on whether or not Michael would have been in favor of this “duet/remix” because I really have no idea. The face of the music industry has changed so much since 1998. But if anything is disgraceful, it’s the way you all are bashing another young fan who wants to walk in the shoes of someone great that came before him. Michael would have never advocated the bashing of Bieber. Any Michael fan knows that. He was loving and supportive of people in general, but especially of fans of his music and of young artists who aspired to be like him. And all of you making rude and disrespectful comments about Bieber who claim to be MJ fans should be ashamed of yourselves. This type of behavior surely would have hurt him.

    • sc341

      August 26, 2013 at 11:29 pm

      I love the song, both versions!

  48. Logistic

    August 19, 2013 at 7:50 pm

    You all do realize that the youtube video was pitched up/sped up? people do that to youtube videos so that they can bypass the copyright and keep a video uploaded.

  49. Logistic

    August 19, 2013 at 7:55 pm

    thats why vocals and music sound so “chipmunk-sih”…. you should find another source of the song, one that is not sped up or pitched up, and then make your comments….the song sounds really good

  50. DJ Blur

    September 20, 2013 at 12:40 pm

    I heard the song last year and thought WOW this is great.. why wasnt it on Michael…are they saving his best stuff for last so people keep buying it? He probably has 100 unfinished songs in the vault…you’re telling me MJ recorded this shit in 1989 WHAATT? I really dont like the Bieber remix so much, the song is great enough without him he don’t have the pain in his voice or crescendo..if you’re going to hop on a song with a legend at least make the remix better.. yea go make duetts with all the unfinished material

  51. George martinez

    October 20, 2013 at 5:20 am

    Whats your cardsapp brand number?

  52. Jerrod

    November 9, 2013 at 4:52 pm

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  53. Purchase Vermox

    November 19, 2013 at 12:32 am

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  54. mj live

    January 23, 2014 at 4:34 am

    fuck u bieber

  55. MCGAHEE

    July 10, 2014 at 5:32 pm

    MJ is truly the king. Anytime i listen his records i feel as he is still alive. Definitely one of the best music superstars ever!

  56. Gill Hills

    March 26, 2016 at 6:43 am

    MJ was perfectionist. If he wanted another person to join him in a song, he’d have asked them. Too many hangers on even after he has gone. Let him rest in peace and let’s enjoy his authentic music. Love lives forever. Miss you Michaelxxxooo

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Cascio Tracks

Supreme Court Judge Grills Sony Lawyer Over ‘Contradictory’ Arguments in Alleged Michael Jackson Fraud

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A lawyer defending Sony Music and the Estate of Michael Jackson in a consumer fraud lawsuit has today argued that the billion-dollar corporations should be able to sell forgeries to unwitting consumers – without being held liable for doing so.

During the California Supreme Court hearing, which was streamed live around the world, Sony attorney Zia Modabber was pulled up for presenting contradictory arguments when attempting to justify the record company’s false attribution of three songs to Jackson on the 2010 Michael album.

The hearing centred around a class action lawsuit filed by Californian consumer Vera Serova – a Michael Jackson fan who purchased the Michael album under the premise that it was a collection of unreleased songs performed by the King of Pop.

In her lawsuit, Serova contends that three of the songs on Michael – “Breaking News,” “Monster” and “Keep Your Head Up” – are forgeries, and that Jackson’s estate and Sony misled her and millions of consumers around the world by falsely representing those forgeries as authentic Jackson material.

Today’s Supreme Court hearing focused specifically on Sony and the Estate’s culpability in the matter.

The corporations argue that the First Amendment (free speech) gives them the constitutional right to lie to consumers without remedy, and that they should be removed from the lawsuit because of this.

In fact, Sony and the Estate have been petitioning to be removed from this case for 6 years, alleging that plaintiff Serova strategically filed her lawsuit to prevent the record company from exercising their First Amendment right to participate in the public dialogue regarding the authenticity of the songs.

The dialogue in question is the wording on the reverse side of the album cover, which stipulates that the vocals on the album were “performed by Michael Jackson” (see below).

ABOVE: REVERSE SIDE OF MICHAEL ALBUM COVER

In a 2016 hearing regarding this matter, attorney Zia Modabber argued on behalf of Sony and the Estate that if anyone were to be held liable for the fraud it should be the original producers of the songs – Eddie Cascio and James Porte – because they provided them under the false pretence that they were authentic.

Today, in front of seven Supreme Court Justices, Mr. Modabber made the same argument on behalf of Sony and the Estate.

In what was a rollercoaster hearing, Modabber told the court that Sony and the Estate were “100%” certain that the vocals on the songs in question were authentic based on an investigation conducted by former Estate attorney Howard Weitzman in November 2010.

A few minutes later, in a complete about-face, Modabber claimed that neither Sony nor the Estate were in a position to know who sang the vocals – a backflip which Justice Groban took issue with:

“How can it be both? Why is Sony saying with 100% certainty that Michael is the singer if you weren’t certain? Which is essentially what I hear you saying now.”

Mr. Modabber also made a number of arguments throughout his 30-minute presentation which seemed only to benefit plaintiff Serova’s side.

At one point, Modabber explained the identity of the artist is what gives art its meaning and value. In other words, if Michael Jackson wasn’t singing on the songs in question, they’d be irrelevant and worthless:

“The identity of the artist is part and parcel of the art. It imparts meaning to the art.”

The attorney, on behalf of Sony and the Estate, went on to give an example:

“There’s a song that Michael wrote called Leave Me Alone, and it’s about being persecuted by the press. When Michael Jackson sings that song – because it’s Michael Jackson singing it – it gives a certain meaning to that song. If I sang that song – nobody cares about me – it doesn’t have the same meaning as if Michael Jackson sings that song. And that’s why authors and the source of the art are part of – and intimately connected to – the art itself… It undeniably adds to the meaning of the art.”

Without Michael Jackson’s name on the songs in question, they couldn’t commercially exploit them.

Therefore, according to Sony’s logic, the company had no choice other than to falsely attribute the authorship to Jackson in order to give them meaning and value in the eyes of consumers.

In what can only be described and an own goal, Modabber continued by asserting that the consumers of art want to know who the artist is, and that he cannot think of a scenario in which the identity of the artist doesn’t matter:

“Imagine art, out in the world, with no attribution of authorship. Imagine you just didn’t know who it came from or what the source was. It’s not the same. There is a character and a quality and an impact and a curiosity by those who consume the art about where it came from and what the source was. It adds meaning to it. We want to know who it is. We want to know where it came from. We want to know what inspired it. And part of that is the identity of the artist. And so I can’t think of a situation where the identity of the artist doesn’t matter.”

More to come when the California Supreme Court hands down their ruling on this matter.

For those of you who are interested, a podcast series detailing my investigation of this case, called Faking Michael, is currently in production. Subscribe to Faking Michael on Apple PodcastsSpotify or YouTube to be notified when episodes are released.


Damien Shields is the author of the book Michael Jackson: Songs & Stories From The Vault examining the King of Pop’s creative process, and the producer of the podcast The Genesis of Thriller which takes you inside the recording studio as Jackson and his team create the biggest selling album in music history.
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Creative Process

Invincible, ‘Xscape’ and Michael Jackson’s Quest for Greatness

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Below is a chapter from my book Michael Jackson: Songs & Stories From The Vault, revised for this article. The full book is available via Amazon and iBooks.
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In order to fully appreciate the origins and evolution of “Xscape” – an outtake recorded for Michael Jackson’s Invincible album – it’s important to first understand Jackson’s relationship with its co-writers.

The journey begins in early 1999, when in-demand producer Rodney ‘Darkchild’ Jerkins received a phone call from renowned songwriter Carole Bayer Sager.

Bayer Sager’s working relationship with Michael Jackson dates back to the late 1970s, when she and producer David Foster co-wrote “It’s The Falling In Love” – a duet recorded by Jackson and R&B star Patti Austin, which was released on Jackson’s Off The Wall album in 1979.

Two decades later, Jackson and Bayer Sager were again working together.

During her 1999 phone call with Jerkins, Bayer Sager explained that she and Jackson were writing songs for Jackson’s next studio album at her home in Los Angeles, and that they wanted Jerkins to join them.

“He was this guy who went around Hollywood, and around the industry, saying his dream was to work with me,” explains Jackson.

“I was at Carol Bayer Sager’s house, who is this great songwriter who has won several Academy Awards for her songwriting, and she said: ‘There’s a guy you should work with… His name is Rodney Jerkins. He’s been crying to me, begging to meet you. Why don’t you pick up the phone and say hi to him?’”

Jerkins recalls that in the end, Bayer Sager made the call:

“Carole called me and said that she was gonna have a writing session at her house with Michael Jackson and she wanted me to do a track. I was like, are you serious?”

And so the producer immediately booked a flight from New Jersey to Los Angeles and headed straight to Bayer Sager’s home.

“I went over there and it was just an amazing experience. I was in awe,” recalls Jerkins.

“I’ve always heard people that worked with him say, ‘When you meet Michael, it’s crazy!’ But I’m the type of guy who’s like nah, I’ma be okay, I’ma be cool. It’s just another artist. And then once I got there, and was in his presence, I was like whoa, this is crazy!”

Jerkins explains that not seeing Jackson at the industry events or private parties added to his untouchable mystique, but that once the pair got in the studio together a friendship was born:

“Once I got in the studio, and once he felt comfortable with me, and I felt comfortable with him, it was like the best thing ever. And we just built a really solid friendship throughout the years. And we stayed working and stayed in contact and he was just a great guy.”

But the collaborative relationship between Jackson and Jerkins almost didn’t come to fruition.

Jackson recalls that when he met Jerkins at Carole Bayer Sager’s home in early 1999, Jerkins asked Jackson if he could have two weeks to work on a collection of ideas to present to him:

“He came over that day and he said, ‘Please, my dream is to work with you. Will you give me two weeks and I’ll see what I can come up with.”

Two weeks later, Jackson met with Jerkins for a second time, and Jerkins played him the collection of tracks he’d come up with.

“The day that Rodney met with Michael, he played him all these records,” recalls Cory Rooney – a songwriter and producer who was working as the Senior Vice President of Sony Music at the time.

“Michael was like, ‘It’s not that the guy’s not talented, but everything he plays me sounds typical. Like Brandy and Monica,’ whom Rodney had worked with previously.”

According to Rooney, the pop star didn’t want to fit in with the current industry sound of the time. Jackson wanted to pioneer his own new sound.

“And Michael just said, ‘I don’t wanna sound like Brandy and Monica. I need a new Michael sound. Big energy.’ And this is after Rodney played him twenty records.”

At this point, Jackson wasn’t sure whether Jerkins was the right man for the job.

“So Michael came back to me and said, ‘I don’t know if he’s the guy.’ And I was so sure that Rodney Jerkins was the most rhythmic, hard-hitting sound out there in terms of producers – other than Teddy Riley who was that at one point for Michael – I just said this is the guy. Rodney’s the guy.”

Rooney’s belief that Jerkins could essentially be Jackson’s ‘new Teddy Riley’ was no coincidence given that Jerkins grew up idolising Riley’s production style.

“Teddy Riley was the producer that changed my life,” recalls Jerkins.

“I remember being eleven years old and trying to emulate Teddy Riley. He was everything. He was everything to my career. Then having the opportunity to meet him at fourteen years old, and to play my music for him, and him telling me that I was good enough to make it was the inspiration and extra encouragement that I needed to know that this was real; that I wasn’t just some kid in a basement trying to make beats, but actually someone who could have a career.”

Riley went on to mentor Jerkins for years, and was reportedly responsible for Jerkins’ first encounter with the King of Pop at age sixteen, five years before he got the chance to work with Jackson.

And so despite his reservations, based on Rooney’s strong recommendation that Jerkins could deliver, Jackson remained open-minded about working with the producer.

“So Michael said, ‘I’ll tell you what, Cory. Do you think Rodney would mind me telling him that he kind of needs to reinvent himself for me?’” recalls Rooney.

“I said of course Rodney wouldn’t mind. I said I’ll have the conversation with Rodney, then you can have the conversation with Rodney. So I went, on my own, and talked to Rodney and told him what Michael felt.”

Following Rooney’s heart-to-heart conversation with Jerkins, the producer met again with Jackson. Rooney recalls:

“At that point, Michael set up the meeting and said to Rodney, ‘I want you to go to your studio and I want you to take every instrument, and every sound that you use, and throw it away. And I want you to come up with some new sounds. Even if it means you’ve gotta bang on tables and hit bottles together and make new sounds. Do whatever you’ve gotta do to come up with new sounds and use those new sounds to create rhythmic big energy for me.’ Michael put the challenge to Rodney, and Rodney accepted.”

“I remember having the guys go back in and create more innovative sounds,” recalls Jackson.

“A lot of the sounds aren’t sounds from keyboards. We go out and make our own sounds. We hit on things, we beat on things. They are pretty much programmed into the machines. So nobody can duplicate what we do. We make them with our own hands, we find things and we create things. And that’s the most important thing, to be a pioneer. To be an innovator.”

“He changed my whole perception of what creativity in a song was about,” explains Jerkins.

“I used to think making a song was about just sitting at the piano and writing progressions and melodies. I’ll never forget this crazy story. Michael called me and says, ‘Why can’t we create new sounds?’ I said, what do you mean? He was like, ‘Someone created the drum, right? Someone created a piano. Why can’t we create the next instrument?’ Now you gotta think about this. This is a guy – forty years old – who has literally done everything that you can think of, but is still hungry enough to say ‘I wanna create an instrument.’ It’s crazy.”

Jerkins recalls that following Jackson’s orders, he went out and began sampling sounds to use in their records:

“I went to a local junkyard and I started gathering trash cans and different things, and I began to hit on them to try to find sounds. Michael told me to. Michael said, ‘Go out in the field.’ That was his term. He used to say, ‘Go out in the field and get sounds. Don’t do it like everybody else and go to a store and buy equipment. Go out in the field and get sounds.’ So I went out in the field and got sounds.”

After building a library of junkyard sounds to use in the tracks Jerkins, his brother Fred, and songwriter LaShawn Daniels – who form the Darkchild production team – started the writing process.

But they were unsure of exactly how to write for Jackson, especially since he hadn’t been thrilled with the first batch of songs.

Cory Rooney recalls:

“Rodney called me and said, ‘Cory, we’re still confused. We don’t know what to write about. We don’t know what to do.”

At the time, Rooney had just written a song for Jackson called “She Was Loving Me,” which Jackson had flown to New York to record with Rooney at the Hit Factory.

Above: Invincible outtake “She Was Loving Me” by Michael Jackson

Upon his return to LA, Rooney says that Jackson played the track for Jerkins and his team.

“Rodney said, ‘Cory… he loves your song. All he keeps playing for us is your song. What is it about your song that you think he loves? So I told him I got a little tip from Carole Bayer Sager. She told me that Michael is a storyteller. She said Michael loves to tell stories in his music. If you listen to Billie Jean, it’s a story. If you listen to Thriller, it’s a story. If you listen to Beat It, it’s a story. He loves to tell a tale.” 

The Darkchild production team began working on music for Jackson at an LA studio called Record One, where other Jackson collaborators including Brad Buxer, Michael Prince and Dr. Freeze were already working on their own ideas for the pop star.

“Rodney was running his sessions like twenty-four hours per day,” remembers Prince.

“They even brought beds in to sleep on. When Rodney would get tired, he would go and lay down and Fred would come in and work on lyrics. When Fred would get tired, he’d go and wake up LaShawn, who would come in and work on some things.”

“Michael would call the studio at two or three o’clock in the morning to just check in and see what we were doing,” recalls Rodney’s brother, Fred Jerkins III.

“He was constantly motivating us to think beyond the scope of our normal imagination with these songs. It was incredible.” 

“I used to sleep in the studio,” recalls Rodney.

“At every studio that I worked, I would make sure that they had a pull-out bed or something brought in for me because I would stay there for weeks at a time.”

Recording engineer Michael Prince recalls that the Darkchild production team worked so hard that the studio engineers couldn’t keep up:

“At some point, I remember the engineers coming to me and saying, ‘We can’t keep doing this. This is killing us!’ And I was like, just tell them. They’re people too! But they hung in there as long as they could.”

Producer Rodney Jerkins says that his work ethic was inspired by Jackson.

“He told me that if I was willing to really work hard, that we could make some magic together, and that’s what I did… I went in the studio and just really locked in and started creating nonstop every day.”

“We were in the studio for maybe a month before Mike came in, and we had all our ideas down. We had our melodies down, everything,” recalls Darkchild songwriter LaShawn Daniels.

“So when Mike finally came in, it was like the President coming in. The place was swept. Security came in, and it was going crazy.”

But it was Jackson’s knowledge of each member of the Darkchild production team that impressed Daniels the most:

“He came into the room and – surprisingly – he knew who each one of us was and what we did in respect to the project! Mike was so in tune with music as a whole that the stuff he told us still blows my mind.” 

In a further attempt to point the Darkchild production team in the right direction when working on songs for Jackson, Cory Rooney suggested that they start simple:

“I told Rodney, let’s start with the rhythm. I said if you’re confused on the rhythm, just start with that four on the floor beat, because that never goes wrong. And just create your rhythms to counter the four on the floor.

With that advice in mind, the Jerkins brothers and LaShawn Daniels wrote a song that they believed was a hit.

“And that became the track for You Rock My World. And the rest is history because LaShawn Daniels and everybody dug in and wrote a story to it.”

Rodney Jerkins explains how “You Rock My World” came to be:

Rock My World came about because I’m a fan of old Michael – like Off The Wall, Thriller, and The Jackson Five.”

Jerkins recalls that while Jackson was demanding new sounds, he felt it was also important to write songs that retained Jackson’s classic sound:

“Michael was like, ‘I want you to go outside and to take a bat and smash it against the side of a car and sample it.’ And I was doing it! He had me at junkyards with DAT recorders. And I was like, that’s all good, I’ll give you that, but you have to do this over here. And Rock My World was actually the first song that we wrote for Michael.”

By the time the demo to “You Rock My World” was ready for Jackson to hear, studio sessions had been shifted from Record One in Los Angeles to the Hit Factory and Sony Studios in New York City.

Rooney recalls that at that time, the Darkchild production team called him and invited him to come down to the studio to take a listen:

“They called me at the Hit Factory and said, ‘Cory, you’ve gotta come over. We think we’ve got it.’ When I walked in and they played me Rock My World, I almost passed out! I thought it was so amazing that I almost passed out. I was really, really blown away.”

Rooney recalls that he took the song to Jackson, so that he could hear the track:

“When I first played it for him he, asked me: ‘Do you love it?’ And I said yeah, yeah, I love it! And he said, ‘Well, I know you wouldn’t have come over here and played it for me if you didn’t like it, but do you love it?’ And I looked him right in his eyes and said Michael, I love it. I love this record. And he said, ‘Okay. I’ve got to be honest with you. I do like it. I don’t know if I love it yet, but I like it, and I’m going to just keep on living with it.’”

Rooney continues:

“If Michael is just a little bit interested in a song, you’re never gonna get him in the studio to record it. And so he lived with it, and showed up at the Sony studios in New York about a week later, with Rodney, and he kind of ran through the record.”

Darkchild songwriter LaShawn Daniels – who was an integral part of writing “You Rock My World” – remembers the moment Jackson came to the studio to work on the track.

“He had Rodney just play the track, and he said, ‘Who’s the guy doing the melodies?’ And it was me!”

Above: Snippet of the “You Rock My World” demo sung by LaShawn Daniels

Daniels continues:

“So I came into the room and Michael is standing there – freakin’ Michael Jackson! – and Mike comes up to me and says, ‘Rodney, play the track.’ And Rodney says, ‘Sure.’ Then Michael says to me, ‘Can you sing the melodies into my ear?’ And I’m like, are you serious? He’s like, ‘Just sing it in my ear.’ So I go right next to him, and I pull towards his ear, and I start singing.”

Daniels recalls that Jackson stopped him, and suggested they make minor change.

“He puts his hand on my shoulder and says, ‘No. Let’s change this part.’ And I’m like, oh, my god! When he asked me to do that, I was done. I couldn’t even continue, and I had to stop. I said, Mike, listen, I appreciate you being so cool, but you can’t be this cool with me. I don’t even know what to do right now. And I can’t concentrate on the melodies because I’m singing to Michael Jackson! And he burst out laughing and just made us comfortable.”

Former Sony executive Cory Rooney recalls that from there, Jackson had Jerkins repeat the track a few more times before recording a scratch vocal to see how he felt about it with his own voice on it.

“He played with it a little bit and sang the first few lines. And then he played it back, listened to it with his voice on it, and said, ‘Okay, now I love it! So let’s go to the top, and I’m gonna kill this record.’ And everybody was so relieved.”

Rooney recalls that Jackson loved the background vocals LaShawn Daniels had recorded, and he wanted to include them on the Darkchild tracks – something that Jackson had also done with songs he recorded with producer Dr. Freeze a year prior.

“Michael said: ‘Man, you’re killing it. I love it! Sounds great.’ He loved LaShawn Daniels’ background vocals so much that he left them on You Rock My World and other songs they worked on together. Michael did the main notes but he left LaShawn in the background.”

Once “You Rock My World” was completed, Jackson challenged his newfound collaborative team to create even greater material.

“Those times with Michael… he taught me to challenge myself,” recalls Daniels.

“When we came up with the Rock My World melodies and everything, it felt great. We knew that was the record. But he came back and he said, ‘Challenge yourself. I’m not saying that this is not it, but can you beat it? If you can beat it, you’ve only touched greatness even more!’”

To guarantee that their focus would be on his project – and his project only – Jackson reportedly paid Rodney Jerkins the Darkchild production team not to work with anyone but him.

“He told me he wanted me to camp out and work on his album,” recalls Jerkins.

“I was slated to do about seven or eight artists… and Michael said, ‘No, no, no. You have to really focus on my project. I need you to really focus on this.’ And I was like yeah, but I got bills to pay. And he said, ‘I’ll take care of those. Tell me what they’re gonna pay you and how many songs and I’ll take care of it.’ So I ended up not working with all those different artists and just focusing on Michael.”

As production on the album progressed, the Darkchild team returned to New Jersey to continue working on unique sounds for Jackson, crafting rhythmic tracks from their library of sampled sounds – including sounds from those initial junkyard recordings.

“The process of working with Michael Jackson was so intense because he pushed me to the limit creatively,” explains Jerkins. 

“He loves to create in the same kind of way that I like to create,” Jackson says of Jerkins.

“I pushed Rodney. And pushed, and pushed, and pushed, and pushed him to create. To innovate more. To pioneer more. He’s a real musician. He’s a real musician and he’s very dedicated and he’s really loyal. He has perseverance. I don’t think I’ve seen perseverance like his in anyone. Because you can push him and push him and he doesn’t get angry.”

“Michael would call me at four o’clock in the morning and say, ‘Play me what you got,’” remembers Jerkins.

“I’m like, um, I’m about to go to sleep. But that’s how he was. He was so into the creative zone. On most of the stuff I did with him, the snares were made out of junkyard materials.” 

One of the songs that sprouted from the 1999 Darkchild sessions in New Jersey sessions was “Xscape” – originally penned as “Escape” per an early ASCAP Repertory listing.

Xscape was a record that I actually wrote the hook for myself,” recalls Fred Jerkins III, adding that he even sang the very first demo of the track:

“I don’t do any singing on songs at all. But on that one I actually had to sing the demo first, before it went to LaShawn to do the final demo version. So I actually had to get in the booth and sing it, and then the rest of the song was built around the hook idea.” 

An early demo of “Xscape” was first shown to Jackson during a phone call with Rodney Jerkins.

When Jackson heard what they’d come up with, according to Jerkins, he went crazy:

“He was like, ‘That’s what I’m talking about! That’s what I’m talking about!’ It made him want to dance… Michael, he just loved to dance and would always tell me, ‘Make it funky.’ So musically I kept the promise and he kept the promise melodically, and we made up-tempo songs that made you wanna dance.”

As with Cory Rooney’s “She Was Loving Me” a few months earlier, Jackson was so in love with “Xscape” that he wanted to recording it immediately.

Instead of travelling to New Jersey – where the Darkchild production team was working – Rodney Jerkins had Jackson use a new recording technique designed by EDnet that allows engineers to capture high-quality audio through a phone line.

And so Jackson sang the background vocals – usually the first part of a song Jackson would record – down the phone while Rodney recorded them.

“From that point we would go in and do the complete demo version,” recalls Rodney’s brother, Fred Jerkins III.

“LaShawn was the one who would demo on all of the songs for Michael, and he did a good job of trying to imitate him. We would try and provide the best feel for Michael about how the song should be.”

When the demo was ready, producer Rodney Jerkins collaborated with Jackson on the lyrics before recording the lead vocals. Co-writer of the track, LaShawn Daniels, explains:

“What we did with Michael – because he was a great songwriter – is we had the tracks and we put the rhythm of the melodies down so when he came in he could hear the basic idea of what we wanted to do, but allow him to be a part of the creative process of lyrics and all that type of stuff.”

Allowing the hook to lead the way, the track’s lyrics became a defensive musical exposé in line with previously-released tracks like “Leave Me Alone” and “Scream” – about how the pop star’s privacy is rarely respected, and how details of his private life are often twisted or fabricated when reported on in the media.

Above: Invincible outtake “Xscape” by Michael Jackson

As with all of his music, Jackson was intimately involved with every nuance of “Xscape”.

Over the course of two years, Jackson and Jerkins continued to tinker with the track, adding new sounds and samples while bringing it closer and closer to completion.

“I tell them to develop it, because I’ve got to go on to the next song, or the next thing,” explains Jackson of his collaborative relationship with producers and songwriters.

“They’ll come up with something, working with my] ideas, and they’ll get back to me, and I’ll tell them whether I like it or not. I have done that with pretty much everything that I have done. I am usually there for the concept. I usually cowrite all the pieces that I do.”

“That was our process,” explains Rodney Jerkins.

“That’s the way we worked. We just kept at it until it was ready. We just worked on ideas, added this and that to the mix. Michael was like, ‘Dig deeper! Where’s the sound that’s gonna make you want to listen to it over and over again?’”

Engineer Brian Vibberts recalls working with Jerkins on “Xscape” at Sony Music Studio in New York City during the summer of 1999.

Vibberts, who also worked on Jackson’s HIStory album in 1995 and music for his Ghosts film in 1996, claims that Jackson was physically present at the studio far less during the Invincible sessions when compared to previous projects.

“Rodney would send the song to Michael, then talk to him on the phone. Michael would give him input on the song and request the changes that he wanted made. Then we would do those changes.”

One of the changes that was made to the original Darkchild demo was the addition of a cinematic spoken intro.

“He called them vignettes,” says Rodney Jerkins. “I call them interludes.”

“It was a really fun process, working on that project,” adds Rodney’s brother, Fred.

“We would actually sit in the studio in LA and act out the whole Xscape concept, the intro, just acting crazy and making video footage and all that kind of stuff. Almost like our video concept of the song.”

Another interesting addition to “Xscape,” which Jackson brought to the table, is the Edward G. Robinson line from the 1931 film Little Caesar: “You want me? You’re going to have to come and get me!”

Fifteen years prior, the same line was lifted from the film and sampled in an unreleased version of Jackson’s demo for a song called “Al Capone,” as outlined in the Blue Gangsta chapter of my book Michael Jackson: Songs & Stories From The Vault.

In “Xscape,” however, Jackson himself speaks the famous line, shortening it to: “Want me? Come and get me!” ‘

Of the decision to include the Little Caesar line, producer Rodney Jerkins says: “It was MJ’s idea.”

By the middle of the year 2000, the Jackson’s new album seemed to be nearing completion.

Since he started working on it in 1998, Jackson had recorded more than a dozen tracks including “She Was Loving Me,” “You Rock My World,” “Xscape” and “We’ve Had Enough” – the latter of which spawned from the early 1999 writing session Jerkins attended at Carole Bayer Sager’s home in LA.

Above: Invincible outtake “We’ve Had Enough” by Michael Jackson

With enough tracks in the bag to finish the album, the mixing process began.

To assist Jackson’s team with mixing the album, producer Rodney Jerkins brought an engineer named Stuart Brawley on board.

“Michael’s longtime engineer of many years, Bruce Swedien, was looking for someone to come on board to help mix what we all thought at that time was a complete record,” recalls Brawley.

“It was supposed to be a month-long mixing process in Los Angeles and I just jumped at the opportunity to be able to work with both Michael and Bruce.”

But what was supposed to be just one month of mixing ended up being much more.

“It turned into a thirteen-month project because as we were mixing the record that we thought was going to become Invincible, Michael decided, in the mixing process, that he wanted to start writing all new songs,” recalls Brawley.

“He was like, ‘Let’s start from scratch… I think we can beat everything we did,’” recalls Rodney Jerkins of Jackson’s decision to start afresh by writing new songs.

“That was his perfectionist side. I was like man, we have been working for a year, are we going to scrap everything? But it showed how hard he goes.”

“It just turned into an amazing year of watching him create music,” recalls engineer Stuart Brawley. “We ended up with a completely different record at the end of it.”

While some of the early material – including “You Rock My World” – would ultimately make the cut, the majority of what became the Invincible album was recorded between 2000 and 2001.

During this period, the Jerkins brothers and LaShawn Daniels continued working on new songs, while Jackson’s longtime producer Teddy Riley also joined the team.

At the time, Riley was working out of a studio that was built inside a bus.

Upon joining the project, Riley would park his bus outside whichever studio Jackson was working in, and and the pop star would bounce back and forth between Riley and Rodney Jerkins.

Meanwhile, arranger Brad Buxer and engineer Michael Prince worked out of makeshift studios set up in local hotel rooms.

Towards the end of the project, Riley moved his sessions to Virginia – where he had a recording studio – to finish the tracks he was working on.

Recording engineer Stuart Brawley – who was instrumental in recording and editing some of the newer songs, like “Threatened” – recalls what it was like to work with Jackson:

“It was amazing just to have him on the other side of the glass when we were recording his vocals. It literally was that ‘pinch me’ moment, and I don’t get those. He was just one of a kind. There was no one else like him.”

“Being in the studio and just having the a cappella of Michael’s vocals and listening to them, you start to really understand how great he really was,” explains Rodney Jerkins of Jackson’s performance on “Xscape.”

“The way he crafted his backgrounds, the approach of his lead vocals, and how passionate he was. You can hear it. You can hear his foot [stomping] in the booth when he’s singing, and his fingers snapping.”

During the second phase of the Invincible album’s production – between 2000 and 2001 – Jackson and Jerkins continued to work on “Xscape.”

“Wait until the world hears Xscape,” Jerkins recalls Jackson saying to him.

“MJ loved everything about it. The energy, the lyrics. It’s kind of a prophetic song. Listen to the bridge. MJ says, ‘When I go, this problem world won’t bother me no more.’ It’s powerful.”

“The thing about Michael is he will work on a song for years,” adds Jerkins.

“We never stopped working on the song Xscape.”

“A perfectionist has to take his time,” explains Jackson.

“He shapes and he molds and he sculpts that thing until it’s perfect. He can’t let it go before he’s satisfied; he can’t… If it’s not right, you throw it away and you do it over. You work that thing till it’s just right. When it’s as perfect as you can make it, you put it out there. Really, you’ve got to get it to where it’s just right; that’s the secret. That’s the difference between a number thirty record and a number one record that stays at number one for weeks. It’s got to be good. If it is, it stays up there and the whole world wonders when it’s going to come down.”

Jackson continues:

“I’ve had musicians who really get angry with me because I’ll make them do something literally several hundred to a thousand times till it’s what I want it to be,” says Jackson. “But then afterwards, they call me back on the phone and they’ll apologise and say, ‘You were absolutely right. I’ve never played better. I’ve [never] done better work. I outdid myself.’ And I say, ‘That’s the way it should be, because you’ve immortalised yourself. This is here forever. It’s a time capsule.’ It’s like Michelangelo’s work. It’s like the Sistine Chapel. It’s here forever. Everything we do should be that way.”

After three years of work, the Invincible album was released on October 30, 2001.

Above: Television commercial for the Invincible album

The album contained 16 songs. But to the surprise of some who worked on the project, “Xscape” was not one of them.

“There’s stuff we didn’t put on the album that I wish was on the album,” explains Jerkins, whose unreleased material includes “Get Your Weight Off Me” and “We’ve Had Enough” – the latter of which was later released by Sony on a box set called The Ultimate Collection in 2004.

A number of tracks Jackson recorded with Brad Buxer and Michael Prince also missed the cut, including “The Way You Love Me,” which was also released on The Ultimate Collection box set.

Several tracks Jackson worked on with producer Teddy Riley did make the cut. But one, called “Shout,” did not.

Above: Invincible album outtake “Shout” by Michael Jackson

“Shout” was slated to be on the album, but was replaced at the last minute by a track Jacksons’s manager, John McClain, brought brought to the table called “You Are My Life” – co-written by McClain with Kenneth ‘Babyface’ Edmonds and Carole Bayer Sager.

“I really want people to hear some of the stuff we did together which never made the cut,” laments producer Rodney Jerkins.

“There’s a whole lot of stuff just as good – maybe better [than what made the album]. People have got to hear it.”

Despite it not being included, Jackson continued working on “Xscape” with Jerkins.

The producer explains that selecting the tracks for an album isn’t always about which tracks are best in isolation, but which tracks fit together to create a cohesive and organic flow:

“Michael is like no other. He records hundreds… really, hundreds of songs for an album. So what we did [was] we cut it down to 35 of the best tracks and picked from there. [It’s] not always about picking the hottest tracks. It’s got to have flow. So there’s a good album’s worth of [unreleased] material that could blow your mind. I really hope this stuff comes out because it’s some of his best.”

Engineer Michael Prince recalls a conversation he had with fellow engineer Stuart Brawley about the unreleased track “Xscape” after the Invincible album had been released.

“I was talking to Stuart Brawley on the phone… And I said to Stuart, this song is awesome! And he goes, ‘I know. It’s an amazing song. I really, really wish they would have put that on the album and took something else off. I told Rodney, I told Michael, but they’re not putting it on the album.’ And after I heard it I felt the same way. I really like the song Xscape.”

“I had a conversation with MJ in 2008, and I asked him if he was a fan of the British act Scritti Politti,” adds Prince.

“He said he was. I asked him that because the original version of Xscape has some of the same type of short staccato sounds and sampled percussive sounds that Scritti Politti use in their music. They also used very inventive sequencing, as Michael and Rodney Jerkins did on Xscape.”

“When we originally did Xscape, Mike felt it was some of his best new music,” recalls Rodney Jerkins.

“So I asked him, Michael, how come Xscape is not going on Invincible? And Michael was like, ‘Nah… I don’t want it on this project. I want it on the next project.’ Michael was very clear in telling me that one day that song has to come out… It was one of his favourite songs… It was one of those songs where he specifically said to me, ‘It has to see the light of day one day’… He felt compelled to let the fans hear it. What does it do for a song that Michael really loved to just sit in the vault somewhere?”

And eventually Jackson’s fans did hear it – but not in the way he or Jerkins had hoped.

In late 2002, “Xscape” leaked online.

“The reality is that you get upset when something gets out there that’s not supposed to be out there,” explains Fred Jerkins of his feelings about the leak.

“You want it to come out the way it should, and to give it the best possible chance of doing what it needs to do. But at the same time, as a fan – if you step aside from the songwriter side – you’re excited that you have something out there. And you watch other people get excited.”

Reflecting on their work with Jackson on “Xscape” – and the Invincible project as a whole – the thing that sticks with Darkchild teammates Rodney Jerkins and LaShawn Daniels more than anything is his desire to be great.

“Michael embodied greatness in everything that he did,” says Jerkins.

“Not just as an artist, but as a humanitarian and as a person. That was his life. He was all about being great and he preached it all the time.” 

Since he was a teenager, Jackson’s artistic philosophy has been to ‘study the greats and become greater,’ and for the duration of his four-decade career, that pursuit of greatness never faded.

“Michael would be in the lounge watching footage on Jackie Wilson, James Brown and Charlie Chaplin,” recalls Jerkins.

“And I walk in and I say, what are you doing? And he said, ‘I’m studying.’ Now mind you, he had all of the Grammys, millions and millions of albums sold, and I said why are you studying? And he said, ‘You never stop studying the greats.’ And he was about 40 years old when we were working together. That was a serious, serious lesson for me as an up-and-coming person to hear him say that, and to witness that.”

“Even if you’re sweeping floors or painting ceilings,” explains Jackson, “do it better than anybody in the world. No matter what it is that you do, be the best at it.”

In 2013, President of Epic Records at the time, L.A. Reid, recruited several of A-list producers to reimagine 8 unreleased songs from Jackson’s vault.

Rodney Jerkins was one of those producers.

Initially Jerkins was hesitant to be involved, and resisted producing his remix until he had heard the material other producers were contributing.

“I care,” explains Jerkins.

“Michael was a friend of mine. I had a good relationship with him. He knew my family and I knew his family. So I would tell L.A. I’m not doing a song until I hear the rest of the album… I wanted to make sure that everything stood up to what Michael would have wanted. That was important to me.”

Eventually, when he felt the project was worthy of Jackson’s dedication to greatness, Jerkins agreed to participate.

The song he produced was “Xscape”.

Above: Rodney Jerkins’ remix of “Xscape” from the Xscape album

On May 9, 2014, five years after Jackson’s death, “Xscape” was officially released by Epic Records on an album of the same name.

“It’s about being great. It’s about being groundbreaking. If it can’t be great, we shouldn’t be doing it,” explains Epic boss L.A. Reid of his philosophy when putting the album together, adding:

“Michael Jackson tapped us on the shoulder and said would you just do me one small favour and remind people that I’m the greatest.”


Damien Shields is the author of the book Michael Jackson: Songs & Stories From The Vault examining the King of Pop’s creative process, and the producer of the podcast The Genesis of Thriller which takes you inside the recording studio as Jackson and his team create the biggest selling album in music history.
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Creative Process

‘Blue Gangsta’ and Michael Jackson’s Fascination with America’s 20th Century Underbelly

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Below is a chapter from my book Michael Jackson: Songs & Stories From The Vault, revised for this article. The full book is available via Amazon and iBooks.
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Released in 1987 as part of the Bad album, “Smooth Criminal” is the culmination of years of Michael Jackson toying with the idea of doing a song based on early 20th-century organised crime in America.

The King of Pop’s ongoing fascination with the mobsters and gangsters of the criminal underworld is well-documented, and extends beyond his songs to his film projects.

For example, the “Smooth Criminal” short film borrows from the narrative of the life of Jack ‘Legs’ Diamond, an Irish-American gangster based out of Philadelphia and New York City during the prohibition era.

During the final years of his life, Jackson had reportedly wanted to direct a full-length feature film based on the concept, even inviting longtime collaborative partner Kenny Ortega to join him as co-director on the project. 

The song “Smooth Criminal” itself evolved from Jackson demo of the same era called “Al Capone,” named after the infamous Chicago-based gangster figure.

Above: “Al Capone” by Michael Jackson

An unreleased version of Jackson’s “Al Capone” demo took inspiration from yet another gangster tale of the same era – the William R. Burnett-written book and subsequent 1931 film adaptation Little Caesar, which tells the story of a hoodlum who ascends the ranks of organised crime in Chicago until he reaches its upper echelons.

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, and starring Edward G. Robinson in his breakout role as Caesar Enrico “Rico” Bandello (a.k.a. ‘Little Caesar’), the film includes the famous scene in which a defiant Rico shouts: “You want me? You’re going to have to come and get me!”

Producer and musician John Barnes, who helped Jackson bring “Al Capone” to fruition, sampled Rico’s words in the unreleased version of the track.

Together with producer and engineer Bill Bottrell, Barnes also sampled a series of gunshot sounds, as well as vocals from various James Brown songs.

The samples were pieced together and edited to create a virtual gangster-inspired duet between the King of Pop and the Godfather of Soul – something that Barnes says Jackson absolutely loved.

An even earlier song called “Chicago 1945” – which Jackson worked on during the Victory era with Toto band member Steve Porcaro – also makes reference to Al Capone in its lyrics.

And so when songwriter and producer Dr. Freeze came to Jackson with a demo called “Blue Gangsta,” the pop star was excited about the idea of resurrecting his fascination with gangster themes in his music.

Written by Freeze and recorded by Jackson during the very early Invincible sessions, “Blue Gangsta” originates from the same era as “Break of Dawn” and “A Place With No Name.”

All three songs were recorded by Jackson during his time collaborating with Freeze and engineer CJ deVillar at the Record Plant in 1998.

“I introduced him to many songs,” explains Freeze, who also worked with Jackson on a number of tracks that were never completed, including one called “Jungle.”

For “Blue Gangsta,” Freeze says:

“I wanted to make a new ‘Smooth Criminal.’ Something more modern and rooted in the 2000s. That was the idea.”

Above: Michael Jackson’s short film for “Smooth Criminal”

Freeze composed the original “Blue Gangsta” demo on his own – including the background vocals, synthesisers and horns – before presenting it to Jackson.

Then, once Jackson had given the demo his tick of approval, the pop star brought in some of the industry’s best session musicians to play on the track. 

Brad Buxer – who did everything from digital edits to arrangements on all of Jackson’s albums from Dangerous in 1991 to The Ultimate Collection in 2004 – plays keyboards on the song.

Greg Phillinganes – who contributed his talents to each major studio album Jackson participated in between 1978 and 1997 (with the exception of Victory in 1984) – plays the Minimoog.

And legendary orchestrator Jerry Hey – who did the horn arrangements on everything Jackson did from 1978 to 1997 – fittingly leads the horn section on “Blue Gangsta.”

“The song was just awesome,” recalls engineer Michael Prince of “Blue Gangsta.”

Prince, along with arranger Brad Buxer, spent several years working on music with Jackson and Freeze.

“Michael obviously loved ‘Blue Gangsta’ because to bring in some of those musicians is very expensive,” says Prince.

“I mean, you’ve got Jerry Hey doing the horn arrangement – it’s no wonder the brass on ‘Blue Gangsta’ was so incredible.”

“Michael was the world’s biggest perfectionist,” says Buxer.

“Not only with music, but with sound. How loud it is. How it affects you. Where it hits your ear. What frequencies. A million things. So you’re not just talking about songs or mixing – you’re talking about arrangement, amplitude, and the instruments selected for the production.”

Talented percussionist Eric Anest – who played on a number of Jackson’s demos in the mid-to-late 90s, including “Beautiful Girl,” “The Way You Love Me” and “In The Back,” – was also given a copy of “Blue Gangsta” to see what he could bring to the table.

“Eric did wonderful percussion work,” recalls Buxer.

“Industrial types of percussion,” adds Prince, explaining that Jackson would never settle on an idea, sound or musician until he’d explored all the available options.

“Eric, Paulinho Da Costa or even Steve Porcaro might get the track for a day or two, and then send it back to us with forty tracks of what they’d added. Then we’d have to figure out what we were keeping, and what we weren’t. Sometimes we scratched it all.”

As previously noted by engineer Michael Prince, the caliber of session musicians used by Jackson on “Blue Gangsta” was a reflection of his love for the song. They weren’t just tinkering about the studio.

The same applies to the team of engineers who worked on it.

“Sonically, we always try to make sure we have pristine, detailed sounds,” explains Jackson, adding that he uses, “the best engineers and the best technicians available.”

And he wasn’t kidding.

Jackson recorded his lead vocals on the track were recorded by an all-star cast of engineers including CJ deVillar, Jeff Burns and Humberto Gatica.

Gatica in particular is one of the most acclaimed engineers in the history of modern music, having not only worked on Jackson’s Thriller, Bad, HIStory, and Invincible albums, but also on tracks with Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Andrea Bocelli, Barbra Streisand and many others.

An early version of Jackson’s 1998 recording of “Blue Gangsta”

Engineer and musician, CJ deVillar, believes that it’s possible that Jackson was at the peak of his vocal powers during the “Blue Gangsta” recording sessions.

“He may have been in his prime at that time,” says deVillar.

“Michael was forty years old when he recorded ‘Blue Gangsta.’ His mental attitude combined with his physicality was at its height, in my opinion. The calisthenics he was pulling off and the way he worked the microphone… it was ridiculous!”

DeVillar continues:

“When I was in that chair recording him I felt totally educated. And usually I’m running it. I’m producing it. But I felt totally educated when recording him. The responsibility was enormous to me.”

“Working with Michael Jackson was amazing,” recalls engineer Jeff Burns of the recording sessions.

“He really is an American treasure and a once-in-a-lifetime talent. The first day I met him, we were recording his vocals. I was running the recorder for him that day and was a little bit nervous to do punch-ins on his vocals. I had worked with a few singers where I did lots of ‘punches’ on their vocal tracks to correct timing or pitch problems. Anyway, I was amazed when Michael started singing that his voice was in perfect pitch and was just pure and magical. I didn’t have to do any punches on his vocal – he sang it perfect all the way down.”

“His tone is insane,” adds deVillar.

“Insane! It would be impossible to not be able to mix his vocal correctly. And Michael was even good with his plosives; when you breathe and blow air on the microphone. Those sizzles, you know, they f*ck up a microphone. But Michael was in complete control of those things. Most singers are nowhere near his vicinity. Michael understood the process so well that when he would hear himself in playback in the studio over the years, he found a way to get rid of those problems. Because when you go from the vocal booth back to the control room and listen, it’s a different dynamic. The microphone sensitivity is different depending on how you hit it, and of course Michael knew that. So I never heard a plosive or sizzles that were over the top.”

DeVillar continues:

“By the time he recorded ‘Blue Gangsta’ you’re seeing thirty years of a genius molding his vocal sound to fit the records. There’s the youth and power in the voice, but then there’s the smarts. Michael had them both going on and I think they really peaked at that point when we were recording him. The smarts, the experience, and the power just married and it was incredible. I was just beside myself.”

While Jackson recorded his leads, Freeze completed his own vocals for the choruses and background harmonies. 

Singing background vocals on the songs he writes and produces is Freeze’s signature, and he did it on all of the songs he recorded with Jackson, including “Break of Dawn” and “A Place With No Name.”

“Freeze would stack all his own backgrounds first,” explains engineer Michael Prince.

“And then Michael would come in and go: ‘That sounds perfect.’ Then he would sing one note of each of the harmonies so that there was a little bit of him on there too.”

From there, Jackson took a copy of “Blue Gangsta” home to study – to find areas that, in his artistic opinion, required improvement.

“It was incremental work,” recalls Freeze.

“He listened to the different mixes and changed some details around here or there. He was in full creative control.”

Jackson explains that when he listens to a work-in-progress copy of a song, his ears instantly identify everything that is missing.

“When you hear the playback, you think of everything that should be there that’s not there,” explains Jackson. “You’re hearing everything [in your head]. You wanna scream because you’re not hearing it [on the playback].”

Freeze recalls that when Jackson identified the missing pieces, they were added:

“When he returned [to the studio], changes were made and ideas were proposed. He listened attentively… Ultimately, all decisions were his. He was the boss. He was open to any criticism or suggestions beneficial to the song.”

Over time, several embellishments were made to the original recording.

For example, on March 6, 1999, Jackson wanted some very specific percussion sounds added to the track.

His instructions were so specific that Jackson had to phone Brad Buxer and Michael Prince at the Record One recording studio and have the call patched into Pro Tools in order to get down exactly what he was hearing in his head. 

“We set it up so that Michael could just call and record straight into Pro Tools,” explains Prince, “so he wouldn’t have to carry a tape recorder around with him all the time to capture his ideas.”

With Jackson on the line, Buxer and Prince opened up the “Blue Gangsta” Pro Tools session and played the track.

Then Jackson, over the phone, proceeded to orally dictate the precise percussion sounds he was hearing in his head by beatboxing them over the track.

“That’s how we would get it in the actual session, in the exact spot MJ wanted it, with the exact timing he wanted,” explains Prince, who recorded the call while Buxer communicated back and forth with Jackson amidst his private beatbox master class.

Buxer: “Killer! Killer!” (to Jackson as he orally dictates the percussion)

Jackson: “You know what I mean, Brad?” 

Buxer: “Yes, Michael.”

Jackson: “Are you hearing how I’m doing it?” 

Buxer: “Yeah. It’s killer! Killer. We got it!”

The very next day, Jackson had a fleeting Spanish guitar sound in “Blue Gangsta” replaced with the country-and-western whistle sound made famous in the theme from the 1966 Sergio Leone film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which was composed by Ennio Morricone.

Above: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly theme song.

Jackson had previously used the sample in live renditions of “Dangerous” – a performance which also includes gunshot sounds as well as the “You’ve been hit by, you’ve be struck by” line from 1987’s  studio version of “Smooth Criminal.”

“As I said, I wanted to make a new Smooth Criminal,” reiterates Freeze of “Blue Gangsta.”

“It was our objective – the new Smooth Criminal.”

Gunshots, whistles and beatbox percussion weren’t the most obscure sounds that Jackson experimented with in his music.

“Michael used to create sounds and put it in a record,” remembers Freeze.

“He’d thrown an egg on the floor and we’d record that… He would let me hear music from Africa, Japan, and Korea, and he would study this kind of stuff. He would really school me with that.”

Jackson explains that he’s inspired by music from every corner of the globe.

“I’ve been influenced by cultural music from all over the world. I’ve studied all types of music, from Africa to India to China to Japan. Music is music and it’s all beautiful. I’ve been influenced by all of those different cultures.”

After adding the whistle, Jackson also had the second half of the bridge extended so that it crescendoed with greater effect, allowing Freeze’s chorus vocals to slowly creep back in from underneath Jackson’s post-bridge vocal arrangement.

And after that, the song was shelved, remaining unreleased in Jackson’s vault for many years.

Then, in December 2006, two songs produced by American rap artist Tempamental emerged online – one called “Gangsta” and another called “No Friend Of Mine” – both of which were built around Jackson’s then-unreleased track “Blue Gangsta”.

The songs included rap verses from Tempamental, with “No Friend Of Mine” also featuring a verse by Pras of The Fugees.

This was the public’s first time hearing “Blue Gangsta,” albeit in a slightly abstract, reimagined way.

Tempamental’s “Gangsta” remix stays relatively true to Jackson’s arrangement, while “No Friend Of Mine” – the more popular of the two thanks to the highly publicised Pras feature and the song’s high-quality release via Myspace – rearranges the original track, repurposing Jackson’s first verse as the bridge.

Above: Tempamental’s “No Friend Of Mine” remake of “Blue Gangsta” featuring Pras

Shortly after they appeared online, Jackson’s then manager, Raymone Bain, commented that Jackson had not released any new music, indicating that the pop star was not directly involved with either of the Tempamental tracks.

“When I heard this remix, I could not believe it,” Dr. Freeze recalls.

“Many people called me because of it. I don’t understand what happened. The concerning thing is that I don’t even know who released the song… Why did they do that? Where did this rap originate? In fact, we knew nothing about it – neither me nor Michael. We really don’t understand where this leak came from.”

“‘No Friend Of Mine’ is not the name of the song,” adds Freeze. “It’s just the chorus that contains these few words. ‘What you gonna do? You ain’t no friend of mine,’ was just the chorus. The real title is ‘Blue Gangsta.’ This highlights the ignorance of people who are causing the leaks on the Internet. They take the song and put it online without knowing its origin. The song was not presented to the public [the way it should have been]. A guy has just stolen the song, added a rap, and swung it on the internet. I was not even credited. It just landed here without any logical explanation.”

Four years later, in late 2010 – 18 months after Jackson’s death – the latest version of “Blue Gangsta” leaked online.

Four years later, on May 9, 2014, an earlier version of the original track was posthumously released by Epic Records as part of the Xscape album, along with a remix produced by Timbaland.

Above: Timbaland’s remix of “Blue Gangsta”

Engineer Michael Prince insists that the record label’s decision to release the more primitive ‘original’ version – lacking all the changes Jackson went on to make – doesn’t align with the pop star’s artistic vision for the song.

“Michael was involved in every nuance of every sound on the record,” explains Michael Prince, “from the hi-hat to the snare to the sticks. If those sounds are removed from the track, it immediately takes a step away from his vision.”

“He’s totally consistent,” adds arranger Brad Buxer.

“He’ll never say one day, ‘Take this part out,’ and then the next day [ask], ‘Where is that part?’ He’ll never do that. He’s totally consistent. So all you’ve got to do is be on your toes and you’ll have a blast working with him. I’ve worked with him for a long time and it’s been the most wonderful experience.”

Producer Dr. Freeze reflects on working with Jackson:

“He was simply the most wonderful person with whom you could ever dream of working… From dusk till dawn, he created sounds, melodies, and harmonies… He could do everything himself. Michael was truly a living instrument.”

“His artistry and inspiration was something you could feel in the air when he walked in the room,” recalls engineer Jeff Burns. “He really demanded the best work out of everyone around him, and that has impacted me to this day.”

“He not only taught me how to create songs correctly, but also gave me advice on the music industry as a whole,” adds Freeze.

“He was an absolute genius. I was fortunate to have learned from one of the greatest entertainers of all time. I try to apply his advice to the projects I undertake today. I try to keep the artistic spirit of Michael Jackson alive. It’s like I graduated from the university of Michael Jackson. There are not enough words to describe what I learned from the King of Pop.”


Damien Shields is the author of the book Michael Jackson: Songs & Stories From The Vault examining the King of Pop’s creative process, and the producer of the podcast The Genesis of Thriller which takes you inside the recording studio as Jackson and his team create the biggest selling album in music history.
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