LA Reid memoir, MJ bit

Bubs

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Michael Jackson loved to watch videos of Prince screwing up

Michael Jackson was known for being happy and child-like, but he had a cold side, reveals legendary record producer L.A. Reid in his new memoir.

He was especially mean to competitor Prince and dismissive of his older brother Jermaine, Reid writes in his new memoir, “Sing To Me.”

In the early 1990s, Reid was co-producing an album for Jermaine when Michael Jackson’s manager called asking if Reid and his partner, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, would like to discuss writing songs with the star.

Reid told Jermaine only that they were slipping away to Los Angeles for a quick project. They didn’t mention what it was.

A helicopter picked up the two at Burbank Airport and flew them to Neverland Ranch, where they were met by an assistant with a nondisclosure agreement — “Nobody got to see Michael without signing one” — and were taken to Jackson’s library.

They discussed music, and Jackson took them on a tour of Neverland. Finally, he brought them to a screening room and showed them footage of a 1983 James Brown concert where Jackson, called on stage as a guest, “danced a few steps,” then told Brown that Prince, Jackson’s longtime rival, was in the crowd as well. Brown called him up too, but to Jackson’s delight, his appearance didn’t go nearly as well.

“Prince [couldn’t] make his guitar work, frantically stripping off his shirt and trying tricks with the microphone stand and making all these poses. After Michael’s dazzling star turn, Prince fell as flat as he could, and Michael enjoyed laughing at the video.”

But Michael wasn’t done humiliating him.

[Michael] was especially mean to competitor Prince and dismissive of his older brother Jermaine.
“After that, he put on a scene from Prince’s movie ‘Under The Cherry Moon,’ the artsy black-and-white bomb he made after ‘Purple Rain,’ and he laughed some more at Prince.”

Following a lunch where “Michael’s pasta was all cut in the shapes of Disney characters,” it was arranged that the duo would fly to LA to write songs with Jackson for three weeks. When Jermaine found out, he went ballistic, demanding to be released from Reid and Edmonds’ label, LaFace Records.

When Reid told Michael what happened, the superstar replied, “He’ll get over it.”

“ ‘That’s not really the problem,’ I said. ‘The problem was that he wants off the label now.’

“ ‘Did he sign a contract?’ asked Michael.

“ ‘Yes,’ I said.

“ ‘Then he’ll have to live with it because those are the rules,’ Michael said and walked out.

“That Michael Jackson was one shrewd man,” Reid writes. “He was not wrong, but you didn’t expect that from Peter Pan. You expect a little compassion or something. No. Cold as ice.”

Reid and Edmonds smoothed things over with Jermaine in Atlanta, but when they went back to work on his record, Jermaine complicated matters further by telling them, “I want to make a song about my brother. I want to talk about how he’s treated me through the years, like how every time I find producers like you guys, he takes my producers. He doesn’t care about his family or anybody but himself.”


As Jermaine’s producers, they had to serve their artist. Much as they didn’t want to produce a song slamming Michael, they had no choice. Radio stations nationwide picked up Jermaine’s “Word to the Badd!” and Reid was in his apartment in LA when he received a call from an angry Michael Jackson.

“ ‘You have to stop this,’ he said. ‘You’re the head of the label. You have to kill this. This isn’t good.’ ”

The brothers convened at their mother’s house to discuss the issue, after which Jermaine called Reid to say that the record would stay on the air, followed by Michael calling to again tell Reid to put a stop to it.

Two days later, Reid writes, “The record disappeared off the air, as if it had never been there in the first place. I don’t know what Michael did. I don’t know if Michael did anything, but it went away in a flash.”

Source NY Post
 
My 2 cents about this.
Got to love how LA Reid makes himself innocent bystander caught between a rock and a hard place. What a total loser:D
 
My 2 cents about this.
Got to love how LA Reid makes himself innocent bystander caught between a rock and a hard place. What a total loser:D

I agree. If Reid had moral problems with it he should have refused to fly to MJ and work for him.

like how every time I find producers like you guys, he takes my producers

For example?

Even in this case Michael eventually did not take Jermaine's producers. He did not record any of their songs and they went back to work on Jermaine's album which they released as planned and which flopped big time.

The Prince shade is kind of funny. :p
 
Most people probably agreed to work with Jermaine on the hope he'd mention them to Michael & then get to work with him themselves.
 
barbee0715;4131860 said:
That video of Prince at the James Brown show is hilarious, period.

LOL, yes.

[video=youtube;Yy9L4ft7EGk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy9L4ft7EGk[/video]

ALAN LEEDS: Prince went to a James Brown gig [in 1983] with Bobby Z, his drummer at the time, Big Chick, who was his security guard, and I think Jill Jones, who was one of his protégés. By now, everybody knows what happened at that gig. I don’t think Prince realized that Michael was going to be there. James looked a little puzzled in that video when Michael whispered in his ear, “Hey, bring Prince up.” And of course Prince didn’t really know what to do either. He went to the guitar first but he fumbles with that because it was left-handed. He played a few licks, did some dancing and knocked over a prop by accident. Now I always wondered if Michael intentionally brought Prince up to put him in that position just to say, “Hey, you think you’re on my ass? Well follow this, mother****er [laughs].” Bobby Z called me and said, “Oh boy…he made an ass of himself tonight.” He said Prince didn’t say a word the whole way to the hotel.

http://www.vibe.com/2010/06/michael-jackson-vs-prince-oral-history-pg-2/
 
The NY Post may give the excerpt a different tone than the one Reid gives in the, similar to how Roger Friedman exaggerated in his article about the Word To The Badd part in Clive Davis autobiography

I'd wait until the book comes out to read the actual story
 
This is my opinion, If the Prince part is true indeed I am bit dissapointed in MJ. He was above that and imo that was childish behaviour.

But I also think the excerpt is a bit ambigious and to me that's a red herring.

“After that, he put on a scene from Prince’s movie ‘Under The Cherry Moon,’ the artsy black-and-white bomb he made after ‘Purple Rain,’ and he laughed some more at Prince.”

Uhm, maybe it was a scene that MJ genuinely thought was funny and that's why he laughed? From my point of view that's projecting on LA Reid's side.
 
The NY Post may give the excerpt a different tone than the one Reid gives in the, similar to how Roger Friedman exaggerated in his article about the Word To The Badd part in Clive Davis autobiography

I'd wait until the book comes out to read the actual story
Really? That's interesting. I read Friedman's report on it, but didn't read Davis's autobiography-interesting that they're different.
 
Themidwestcowboy;4131927 said:
This is my opinion, If the Prince part is true indeed I am bit dissapointed in MJ. He was above that and imo that was childish behaviour.

But I also think the excerpt is a bit ambigious and to me that's a red herring.

“After that, he put on a scene from Prince’s movie ‘Under The Cherry Moon,’ the artsy black-and-white bomb he made after ‘Purple Rain,’ and he laughed some more at Prince.”

Uhm, maybe it was a scene that MJ genuinely thought was funny and that's why he laughed? From my point of view that's projecting on LA Reid's side.
Under The Cherry Moon is supposed to a romantic comedy. :D Anyway, if Mike didn't like the movie, why would he have bought it to show people? Then he put on a certain scene, so he must have been familiar with it
 
To be perfectly honest, if this series of events played out like LA Reid tells it, I think it makes him and his partner look bad. They are supposed to be the heads of a label and grown men and yet, they don't stand up for an artist they signed and just do as they're told?
 
Jeez, does it look appropriate for a record label CEO to release a tell-all with his artists' family dirty laundry? At least retire first, like Yetnikoff did.
 
To be perfectly honest, if this series of events played out like LA Reid tells it, I think it makes him and his partner look bad. They are supposed to be the heads of a label and grown men and yet, they don't stand up for an artist they signed and just do as they're told?

I had to throw a flag on the play when I read that, lol! That makes them shady by ditching their artist, not Mike for wanting to interview them for a possible collaboration. Reid had an obligation to Jermaine professionally, not Mike.

Flag_zpsc4a64b1e.jpg
 
Reid and Edmonds smoothed things over with Jermaine in Atlanta, but when they went back to work on his record, Jermaine complicated matters further by telling them, “I want to make a song about my brother. I want to talk about how he’s treated me through the years, like how every time I find producers like you guys, he takes my producers. He doesn’t care about his family or anybody but himself.”

As Jermaine’s producers, they had to serve their artist. Much as they didn’t want to produce a song slamming Michael, they had no choice.

LA comes across like real wussy. He probably happily participated because Michael didn't work with them after all and doing that song was their payback to MJ.
Is Jermaine still in denial of writing that song or did he finally admit it?

Q&A with MJJC, he denied it:
MJJC: In your book you wrote that you did NOT write "Word to the Badd" but in 1991, you DID interviews--both live and print--where you in no uncertain terms stated that you wrote the song. For example in a Times interview you said “I wrote this song--and it came from the bottom of my heart--was to help my little brother get a grip on reality. “. Which version is the truth? And regardless do you accept any responsibility for the song Word to the Badd? Even if you didn't write it, wouldn't you agree that singing/recording it is just as bad?

Jermaine Jackson: I have heard how some folk are keen to pin me to this kind of reported word or the odd sentence on video. The bottom line is that I didn't write it and everyone involved knows I didn't write it, regardless of what I said or didn't say in this interview or that interview. No one mentions the interviews where I said I didn't write it do they??!
 
So now everyone distanced himself from that song, Reid and Jermaine too. So no one wrote that song. It just wrote itself.
 
Pissed off with you reed you are a back stabbing ****
Just like the rest of them
No I'm not spelling your name right on this post you don't deserve the right recognition. If m was alive you'd be right up his arse you ****
 
Themidwestcowboy;4131927 said:
This is my opinion, If the Prince part is true indeed I am bit dissapointed in MJ. He was above that and imo that was childish behaviour.

But I also think the excerpt is a bit ambigious and to me that's a red herring.

“After that, he put on a scene from Prince’s movie ‘Under The Cherry Moon,’ the artsy black-and-white bomb he made after ‘Purple Rain,’ and he laughed some more at Prince.”

Uhm, maybe it was a scene that MJ genuinely thought was funny and that's why he laughed? From my point of view that's projecting on LA Reid's side.

Why would you be disappointed in MJ? Don't we all say some more or less nice things behind someones back?
He was flesh and blood like any other person and was no stranger to say some things his fellows musician:cheeky:
First thing came to my mind was Rabbi B book where MJ talked about Madonna and he wasn't all nice about her. I was thinking that MJ spoke freely about Madonna because he thought everything he says stays between him and rabbi. Same thing here, he got LA Reid to sign confidentiality agreement and it was never meant to go public. Unfortunately, there are people who needs these little tidbits to promote their own stuff.

It wasn't like Michael went out his way in public to humiliate Prince. Whatever went on between MJ and Price, last time they were in the same room, Prince shoveled his bass on MJ's face, so we'll call it even:D
 
Why would you be disappointed in MJ? Don't we all say some more or less nice things behind someones back?
He was flesh and blood like any other person and was no stranger to say some things his fellows musician:cheeky:
First thing came to my mind was Rabbi B book where MJ talked about Madonna and he wasn't all nice about her. I was thinking that MJ spoke freely about Madonna because he thought everything he says stays between him and rabbi. Same thing here, he got LA Reid to sign confidentiality agreement and it was never meant to go public. Unfortunately, there are people who needs these little tidbits to promote their own stuff.

It wasn't like Michael went out his way in public to humiliate Prince. Whatever went on between MJ and Price, last time they were in the same room, Prince shoveled his bass on MJ's face, so we'll call it even:D

And let's be honest. Under The Cherry Moon IS ridiculous. :D


One of the comments from YT:

It's just prince running around a mansion awkwardly sucking face with strange white women who are all way less feminine than him.?

LOL.

But one thing I have to admit. It gave us some of the most hilarious gifs ever!

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tumblr_m821tmXiWy1qdtavio1_500.gif
 
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Bubs;4131982 said:
Q&A with MJJC, he denied it:
MJJC: In your book you wrote that you did NOT write "Word to the Badd" but in 1991, you DID interviews--both live and print--where you in no uncertain terms stated that you wrote the song. For example in a Times interview you said “I wrote this song--and it came from the bottom of my heart--was to help my little brother get a grip on reality. “. Which version is the truth? And regardless do you accept any responsibility for the song Word to the Badd? Even if you didn't write it, wouldn't you agree that singing/recording it is just as bad?

Jermaine Jackson: I have heard how some folk are keen to pin me to this kind of reported word or the odd sentence on video. The bottom line is that I didn't write it and everyone involved knows I didn't write it, regardless of what I said or didn't say in this interview or that interview. No one mentions the interviews where I said I didn't write it do they??!
Sorry Jermaine, but I don't believe that LA Reid, Babyface or Daryl Simmons sat in a room together, brainstorming to come up with material for Jermaine's record, and one of them went: "Hey, I got it! Let's write an MJ diss track!" At the very least, Jermaine must have given them the go-ahead, and he probably was involved much more.

As for L.A. Reid, pretty cheap to air the Jacksons' dirty laundry. But we all knew how much he respects Michael and his work already from the Xscape documentary.
 
Lol, Reid is being pretty hypocritical here. He's the one who goes behind everyone's back & writes about their personal affairs in a book but somehow we're supposed to be shocked that Michael was shady sometimes too.. maybe even.. human!? :smilerolleyes:

These stories of Michael laughing at Prince are pretty funny to me. Apparently he also went around the studio several times to make sure everyone had seen that James Brown footage - I guess it really was his favorite :p
 
Why would you be disappointed in MJ? Don't we all say some more or less nice things behind someones back?
He was flesh and blood like any other person and was no stranger to say some things his fellows musician:cheeky:
First thing came to my mind was Rabbi B book where MJ talked about Madonna and he wasn't all nice about her. I was thinking that MJ spoke freely about Madonna because he thought everything he says stays between him and rabbi. Same thing here, he got LA Reid to sign confidentiality agreement and it was never meant to go public. Unfortunately, there are people who needs these little tidbits to promote their own stuff.

It wasn't like Michael went out his way in public to humiliate Prince. Whatever went on between MJ and Price, last time they were in the same room, Prince shoveled his bass on MJ's face, so we'll call it even:D

Now i'm only going by what was written by LA Reid, this is excatly why some people think he was afraid and obssesed of/with prince and that he felt inferior. This is just perpetuating that myth. showing two old pieces just to elicit some laughters from record execs and to ridicule another artist is not cool in my books. If this was the other way around I would have reacted the same way. Prince showing a clips where Michael messed up to other people to laugh about it. And best believe that would not be appreciated in the fan community. In my book that is not cheeky at all, just unecessary.

And to your first question yes, some of us says more or less nice things behind someones back and to me that's disrespectful, especially if they don't have the courage to say it straight to someones face. But i digress, that's pretty irrelevant in this case since MJ, allegedy, didn't say anything about prince at all. I'm talking about the act as described in his book. Oh well, at the end of the day it's not the end of the world lol.
 
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Well, I don't think Michael was scared or obsessed about Prince or he wouldn't have had "jokes" in Moonwalker" about Bubbles wearing a "Prince" t-shirt. That was funny (it also made me pay a little more attention to Prince).

Also, if he did do this, why? What is LA Reid's connection to Prince-he and Edmunds must have had something because that would be rather random. He could have showed some of Jermaine's awkward interviews on Soul Train.

And speaking of Jermaine, he said he didn't write the song-what was his answer about SINGING it?
 
Themidwestcowboy;4132170 said:
Now i'm only going by what was written by LA Reid, this is excatly why some people think he was afraid and obssesed of/with prince and that he felt inferior. This is just perpetuating that myth. showing two old pieces just to elicit some laughters from record execs and to ridicule another artist is not cool in my books. If this was the other way around I would have reacted the same way. Prince showing a clips where Michael messed up to other people to laugh about it. And best believe that would not be appreciated in the fan community. In my book that is not cheeky at all, just unecessary.

And to your first question yes, some of us says more or less nice things behind someones back and to me that's disrespectful, especially if they don't have the courage to say it straight to someones face. But i digress, that's pretty irrelevant in this case since MJ, allegedy, didn't say anything about prince at all. I'm talking about the act as described in his book. Oh well, at the end of the day it's not the end of the world lol.

I don't know, to me it's not that serious. I am pretty sure Prince laughed with his friends in private at MJ's expense as well, or he made critical remarks of him or something. Only no one writes a book about that, I guess.

Actually, Prince did not too nice MJ references in public, in his songs. Such as:

My voice is getting higher
And I ain 't never had my nose done
That's the other guy

(From his song Life O The Party)

Also some believe My Name is Prince contains MJ references. Eg.:

So with a flow and a spray, I say hey
U must become a prince before u're king anyway

The second is debatable, the first quote is pretty clearly a reference to MJ. Or what about how the childish ways he behaved with MJ when they personally met?

"While working at the Samuel Goldwyn Soundstage, Prince received a visit from Michael Jackson, whom he promptly challenged to a game of table tennis, using a table that had been set up in the middle of the sound stage room. “Michael said, ‘I don’t know how to play ping-pong!’” Rogers remembers. “But Prince took one pad and gave Michael the other, and they started very politely volleying the ball back and forth. Suddenly, Prince said, ‘C’mon, Michael, get into it,’ and he slammed the ball into Michael’s crotch. I was rolling my eyes!’ ‘Oh God, he’s embarrassing himself.’ But Michael knows how to handle himself and he didn’t seem to care. Then Michael started flirting with Sherilyn Fenn who was visiting Prince in the studio. Prince was pacing, but he wasn’t going to get into the game of flirting back. They said their hasty goodbyes.’”"

(From the book Per Nilsen Dance Music Sex Romance: Prince: The First Decade)

Another account of the same story has Prince tell his friends in the studio after MJ left that "he played like Helen Keller". So it's not like these light hearted remarks and mockings did not go the other way around as well. But to me it's not that serious.

What "others" think about this so called "obsession" of MJ with Prince is nothing but ignorance. If you call these things by MJ an "obsession" with Prince then let's call that (Prince's behaviour around MJ, remarks, his song lyrics about MJ etc.) the other way around as well, alright? To me it was just playful rivalry that they BOTH played on.

Oh and if anything, that James Brown concert shows that MJ was not afraid of or threatened by Prince. If he was he would not have made James call him up on stage right after him. It's not like Prince necessarily had to embarrass himself while up there. That was entirely his own doing.
 
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Also, if he did do this, why? What is LA Reid's connection to Prince-he and Edmunds must have had something because that would be rather random. He could have showed some of Jermaine's awkward interviews on Soul Train.

And speaking of Jermaine, he said he didn't write the song-what was his answer about SINGING it?

Its not that random, he has to sell his book, thus little tidbits of famous people. He also included stuff about Whitney.

Jermaine has and will continue deny that he didn't write to song but he did.
If you don't want to watch the whole video, start from 4 minutes mark and confirmation at 5 minutes mark

Another article with Jerms interview, no denying.
"The bottom line here is that this song was written as a private message to help get my brother to heal our relationship."
http://articles.latimes.com/1991-11-07/entertainment/ca-1387_1_jermaine-jackson
 
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Ok, so Michael laughed at Prince... Well, Reid didn't mention his own reaction while watching it all with Michael. Didn't he laught too? And more importantly, did he tell Michael Jackson how wrong he was? My guess is that he laughted too and said no single word to put at least a little shame on Michael for it, right there, into his face... Something tells me he just played along.
At least, Michael was honest.
 
Prince

What is LA Reid's connection to Prince-he and Edmunds must have had something because that would be rather random.
Prince was signed to Arista briefly in the late 1990s for one album. Prince went back to his name around this time after being "Symbol" or "The Artist" for several years. Clive Davis oversaw a Santana Supernatural type album with guest artists called Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic. Not long after this Clive was fired, and was replaced with L.A. Reid. It was rumored that Reid stopped promotion on Prince's album after Clive had spent a lot of money on Prince. On another note, L.A. & Babyface's label LaFace was under Arista. Remember that story about TLC (who were on LaFace) bringing some girls up to Clive's office and pulling out a gun on him. It's in their biopic too that was on VH1. I don't know if it counts, but Reid and Babyface were in a band called The Deele which had a synth funk sound kind of like The Time, at least on the earlier albums. The Deele is mainly known today for the ballad Two Occasions.

Speaking of TLC, Left Eye is a co-writer of Word To The Badd, and she and T-Boz sing background on it and another song on Jermaine's album. This was before their own album came out. TLC also has a song called Somethin' Wicked This Way Comes where Andre 3000 from OutKast has a rap with a line that says Mike was a sellout. Mike's name isn't mentioned, but you can tell who he's talking about from clues like "tippy tippy toes" and "who's bad?". The song itself isn't about Mike though.
 
Re: Prince

Prince was signed to Arista briefly in the late 1990s for one album. Prince went back to his name around this time after being "Symbol" or "The Artist" for several years. Clive Davis oversaw a Santana Supernatural type album with guest artists called Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic. Not long after this Clive was fired, and was replaced with L.A. Reid. It was rumored that Reid stopped promotion on Prince's album after Clive had spent a lot of money on Prince. On another note, L.A. & Babyface's label LaFace was under Arista. Remember that story about TLC (who were on LaFace) bringing some girls up to Clive's office and pulling out a gun on him. It's in their biopic too that was on VH1. I don't know if it counts, but Reid and Babyface were in a band called The Deele which had a synth funk sound kind of like The Time, at least on the earlier albums. The Deele is mainly known today for the ballad Two Occasions.

Speaking of TLC, Left Eye is a co-writer of Word To The Badd, and she and T-Boz sing background on it and another song on Jermaine's album. This was before their own album came out. TLC also has a song called Somethin' Wicked This Way Comes where Andre 3000 from OutKast has a rap with a line that says Mike was a sellout. Mike's name isn't mentioned, but you can tell who he's talking about from clues like "tippy tippy toes" and "who's bad?". The song itself isn't about Mike though.
Say it ain't so left eye....noooooo!
 
Re: Prince

TLC also has a song called Somethin' Wicked This Way Comes where Andre 3000 from OutKast has a rap with a line that says Mike was a sellout. Mike's name isn't mentioned, but you can tell who he's talking about from clues like "tippy tippy toes" and "who's bad?". The song itself isn't about Mike though.


Which is a bit weird considering:

 
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