Music producer Timbaland, in an exclusive interview with Revolt TV, has confirmed what many Michael Jackson fans already knew – he is working on a new album of the King of Pop’s unreleased music.
DJ Freestyle Steve, Timbaland’s official DJ, was the first to let slip that the producer was working on the project after tweeting that he had shown him some of the tracks.
“So last night I heard some of the new tracks Timbaland is doing for the King of Pop… WOW!” said the DJ on August 19, 2013.
“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.
Then, in a video posted on the Revolt TV YouTube channel today, Timbaland himself confirmed the collaboration, explaining that LA Reid, chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment’s Epic Records, visited him at his home before inviting him on board the project.
“LA Reid came to me like, to my house, like, ‘I got something big I wanna do … How would you feel about doing Michael Jackson?'”
Timbaland, who never had the chance to work with Jackson during his life, said “of course I’ll do it,” while acknowledging that re-producing and releasing the music of deceased artists is not an easy thing to do.
“It’s hard to bring anything out because now you’re just going to hear my music with his voice over it.”
The producer also announced the title of his preference for the project’s lead single.
“I can tell you the first single is gonna be the song ‘Chicago’ … I think it should be, because ‘Chicago’ sounds like today.”
Fans were quick to suggest that “Chicago” may actually be the mysterious unreleased track called “Chicago 1945”.
In an interview with fan site MJ Databank, Jackson’s longtime collaborative partner Matt Forger revealed that “Chicago 1945” was first written and recorded by Jackson early on in the “Bad” album sessions.
The track eventually evolved into “Al Capone”, which then became “Smooth Criminal”.
“’Chicago 1945′ was done prior to ‘Al Capone’. It spoke about an era in time, about what was happening at that time in Chicago that year. It was almost as if you were reading the newspapers at that time.”
“[Chicago 1945] was a song that Michael used as the idea for ‘Al Capone’, and ‘Al Capone’ was the idea for ‘Smooth Criminal’. So maybe there were some similarities, but this is a different song. ‘Al Capone’ was a definite new approach and ‘Smooth Criminal’ was much more refined … he wrote a story and made it unique. It was not about a historical figure like ‘Al Capone’. He made his own story and this was something new and fresh in his vision.”
As previously reported, Fred Jerkins III, who works alongside brother Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, recently stated that unreleased material from their sessions with the King of Pop was coming soon.
“We have a number of unreleased songs and all sorts of video footage,” stated [Fred] 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.”
It just so happens that a number of years ago “Chicago 1945” was listed in the discography section of the Jerkins brothers’ darkchild.com website as an unreleased track they had worked on with Jackson.
Is it possible that Jackson resurrected the track from the mid-80s and re-worked it with Fred and Rodney Jerkins nearly fifteen years later? The answer is; yes. It’s possible.
Oftentimes if Jackson felt strongly about a track he could sit on it for years, waiting for the right time to put it out – like “Blood On The Dance Floor”. In other instances Jackson might continue to tinker with a track, re-working it until he felt it was good enough for release – like “Earth Song”. And sometimes, despite continued tinkering, the song would never see the light of day.
One example of a track that was worked on for at least three successive albums, but was never released during Jackson’s life, is “Don’t Be Messin’ Round”. The track originates from the ‘Thriller’ sessions and was re-worked for both ‘Bad’ and ‘Dangerous’. Ultimately it was released posthumously, in 2012, on the 25th anniversary edition of ‘Bad’.
In fact, just last week Rodney Jerkins revealed that during the ‘Invincible’ sessions Jackson had played him a track from 1989 called “Slave To The Rhythm” – just to get his opinion.
“I remember MJ played me that song along time ago. It was originally recorded for the ‘Dangerous’ LP. He played it for me one day just to see what I thought,” said the producer.
“I like the song,” he added. “But what Michael song don’t I like? I love all his music!”
Although Jackson and Jerkins opted against working on “Slave To The Rhythm” for ‘Invincible’, it’s entirely possible that “Chicago 1945” made it to the mixing desk. And it’s entirely possible that the “Chicago” track Timbaland mentioned in his Revolt TV YouTube interview is a newly embellished version of that very track.
It’s only a matter of time before fans will know for sure one way or the other.
For anyone who isn’t aware; Revolt TV is a soon-to-be-launched cable TV channel founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs. Combs personally confirmed the authenticity of the Revolt TV interview with Timbaland, supporting his statements about the Michael Jackson project by tweeting the following:
“My bro Timbaland got something incredible coming with the KING!!! #RIPMJ“
The extracts of Timbaland speaking about the Michael Jackson project are drawn from a much longer interview in which the producer also discusses working on Jay Z’s new album. That portion of the interview was posted online back on July 3, 2013, so it’s safe to assume that the new Michael Jackson project has been in the works since June at the very least.
Click here to see Timbaland discussing the new Michael Jackson project with Revolt TV.
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.
