It’s been an intriguing week for Michael Jackson fans as speculation continues regarding the potential release of new music from their idol.
What started as a buzz has now become a rumble, with Timbaland being added to the list of producers and artists who’re working on the King of Pop’s unreleased music.
Timbaland, who never had the chance to work with Jackson during his life, is best-known for his collaborative efforts with Missy Elliott and Justin Timberlake.
DJ Freestyle Steve, Timbaland’s official DJ, revealed that Timbaland had shown him some of the Jackson tracks he has recently been working on.
“So last night I heard some of the new tracks @Timbaland is doing for the King of Pop… WOW!” said the DJ via Twitter.
“To all the Timbaland & Michael Jackson fans; just know Tim did an amazing job with Mike’s vocals. The world will love it,” he later added.
This comes merely days after a number of other prominent music identities had offered similar sentiments, including Fred Jerkins, Max Methods and Justin Bieber.
The hype began seven days ago, on August 11, 2013 when Fred Jerkins III, brother of Rodney Jerkins and part of the “Darkchild” team, announced that unreleased tracks from their 1999-2001 collaborative sessions with Jackson were being prepared for a mysterious new project.
“We have a number of unreleased songs and all sorts of video footage,” stated Jerkins.
“There’s a project in the making right now that will include all those songs. I worked with him for two years exclusively – it’s the biggest highlight of my career.”
Next came the leak of “Slave To The Rhythm” – an unreleased Michael Jackson track from 1990 – which was recently recorded by pop sensation Justin Bieber.
Bieber’s contribution was then compiled with Jackson’s original vocal and remixed as a duet.
“Excited for what is to come. MJ set the bar. Not only for music but for being an entertainer and how you treat the fans. Wish he was here… Big things ahead!” tweeted Bieber to his 43 million followers.
Max Methods, the DJ who produced the Jackson / Bieber duet, also weighed in via Twitter.
“I have so much respect for The [Michael] Jackson Estate and it was an honor to work on this record, but it’s unfortunate that the record leaked before it was ready.”
However, despite Max Methods’ shout out to them via Twitter, The Michael Jackson Estate quickly flexed their muscle on the issue, claiming that the Jackson / Bieber duet was not unauthorized and that no plans were in place to release the track.
It has also been well-documented for quite some time now that three Jackson duets with Queen legend Freddie Mercury, originally recorded thirty years ago at the King of Pop’s home studio in Encino, will be released later this year.
“There are a few items in progress. We will have something for folks to hear in a couple of months’ time, hopefully,” stated Queen guitarist, Brian May, in late July, 2013.
May, with the permission of The Michael Jackson Estate, has been collaborating on the tracks with band mate Roger Taylor and producer William Orbit; reportedly adding new guitar solos and vocal harmonies.
It is unclear in what capacity the Jackson / Mercury duets will be released. However, with the ever-growing talk of unreleased Jackson music being worked on, and the leak of “Slave To The Rhythm” featuring new vocals from Justin Bieber, the duets album that was once rumoured to be on Sony and The Estate’s agenda has again become a topic of discussion.
As covered in a previous article, around the time that the Estate’s first posthumous album, Michael, was released by Sony Music in late 2010, there was talk that the follow-up MJ project would be a complete album of virtual 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 in a radio interview 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 in a 2007 interview with Ebony Magazine.
“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.”
Are you excited to hear what Timbaland will do with Michael Jackson’s unreleased music? Would YOU like to see an album of posthumously-produced Michael Jackson duets 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.
