Did Michael rap in any other songs?

Ms. BlueGangsta

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Did Michael rap in any songs other then shout?
I really like shout (it's cool to hear Michael rap), so if there are any other songs where he raps I would like to know about them.:)
 
The Day Basketball Was Saved

I guess you can call this a proto-rap:


 
He raps for a bit in Can't Let Her Get Away during the bridge at 3:05
 
There's a rap part in Girl Don't Take Your Love From Me
 
Thanks for all the responses y'all.
I guess I was hoping that someone would come through with some really deep cut I haven't heard yet.
That didn't happen though, but I'm gonna still go listen to the songs that have been suggested.:)
 
Jam to a certain extent. Michael's way of signing was kinda similar to rapping even if he wasn't a rapper.
 
Jam to a certain extent. Michael's way of signing was kinda similar to rapping even if he wasn't a rapper.

The lyrics of TDCAU come to mind...

Skin head, dead head, everybody gone bad
Situation, aggravation, everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news, everybody dog food
Bang bang, shot dead, everybody's gone mad
...
Beat me, hate me, you can never break me
Will me, thrill me, you can never kill me
Jew me, sue me, everybody do me
Kick me, **** me, don't you black or white me
...
Skin head, dead head, everybody gone bad
Trepidation, speculation, everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news, everybody dog food
Black male, black mail, throw your brother in jail


I remember at one point the genre for it on Wikipedia was 'Rock Rap' and I was like ... that's a pretty good point haha.
 
Did Michael rap in any songs other then shout?
I really like shout (it's cool to hear Michael rap), so if there are any other songs where he raps I would like to know about them.:)

I don't know if this is true or not but some have said that there is a demo or early version of She Drives Me Wild where MJ raps. I would love to hear that version if it exists
 
HIStoric;4185284 said:
He raps for a bit in Can't Let Her Get Away during the bridge at 3:05

That bridge part where MJ raps (from ‘Can’t Let Her Get Away’) is also one of his very few examples that MJ also swears in his songs (towards the bridge’s end).

HIStoric;4185303 said:
The lyrics of TDCAU come to mind...

Skin head, dead head, everybody gone bad
Situation, aggravation, everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news, everybody dog food
Bang bang, shot dead, everybody's gone mad
...
Beat me, hate me, you can never break me
Will me, thrill me, you can never kill me
Jew me, sue me, everybody do me
Kick me, **** me, don't you black or white me
...
Skin head, dead head, everybody gone bad
Trepidation, speculation, everybody allegation
In the suite, on the news, everybody dog food
Black male, black mail, throw your brother in jail


I remember at one point the genre for it on Wikipedia was 'Rock Rap' and I was like ... that's a pretty good point haha.

MJ had great difficulty in recording those lines (due to their very unorthodox, vocal style that demanded).

It took him endless vocal takes to achieve the final, desired result, & as a result, that made this song one of the most difficult ones (if not the most difficult one) from a vocal point of view!
 
mj_frenzy;4185497 said:
That bridge part where MJ raps (from ‘Can’t Let Her Get Away’) is also one of his very few examples that MJ also swears in his songs (towards the bridge’s end).

Seems so! I always thought Scream was the first time we heard MJ swear but reading the lyrics for CLHGA the other night I learnt he says the f word!
 

https://genius.com/Michael-jackson-cant-let-her-get-away-lyrics User-submitted, but neither the Dangerous booklet nor the official Michael Jackson website lists what Michael's rapping there so there's no official word on it.

[Bridge]
I got the feeling, trouble's gotta stop
I got the feeling, she's never gonna try
I got the feeling, she's never gonna stop
I got the feeling but she's never gonna know
My friends thought she's gonna like it
I got the feeling but she's never gonna take it
I got the feeling, her head's all f*cked up
I got the feeling, she's out to play
Can't let go
Can't let go


It's hard to make out what Michael's saying... but it plays along.
 
https://genius.com/Michael-jackson-cant-let-her-get-away-lyrics User-submitted, but neither the Dangerous booklet nor the official Michael Jackson website lists what Michael's rapping there so there's no official word on it.

[Bridge]
I got the feeling, trouble's gotta stop
I got the feeling, she's never gonna try
I got the feeling, she's never gonna stop
I got the feeling but she's never gonna know
My friends thought she's gonna like it
I got the feeling but she's never gonna take it
I got the feeling, her head's all f*cked up
I got the feeling, she's out to play
Can't let go
Can't let go


It's hard to make out what Michael's saying... but it plays along.

To me it sounds like Michael says shut the f'ck up during the bridge.
 
HIStoric;4185516 said:
Seems so! I always thought Scream was the first time we heard MJ swear but reading the lyrics for CLHGA the other night I learnt he says the f word!

HIStoric;4185672 said:
https://genius.com/Michael-jackson-cant-let-her-get-away-lyrics User-submitted, but neither the Dangerous booklet nor the official Michael Jackson website lists what Michael's rapping there so there's no official word on it.

[Bridge]
I got the feeling, trouble's gotta stop
I got the feeling, she's never gonna try
I got the feeling, she's never gonna stop
I got the feeling but she's never gonna know
My friends thought she's gonna like it
I got the feeling but she's never gonna take it
I got the feeling, her head's all f*cked up
I got the feeling, she's out to play
Can't let go
Can't let go


It's hard to make out what Michael's saying... but it plays along.

HIStoric;4185788 said:
Like I said, there's no official word on it. The bridge's lyrics aren't printed in the Dangerous booklet or on MJ's website. Someone should totally ask Brad Sundberg :lol:

This is something that always struck me as really odd.

I mean, when it comes to booklets’ lyrics, you normally expect one of these two possibilities: to have the lyrics printed in their entirety, or not to have them printed at all (which I can also understand that).

But, I find it illogical why they decided to leave certain (bridge) lyrics parts out, which from an artistic perspective does not look good either (booklets look incomplete with missing songs’ lyrics).

Also, as far as I know, official artists’ websites are strictly based on what has already been printed on the official booklets (as it is the case also with Michael Jackson official website).

Remember that the same thing happened with his subsequent studio album releases (missing rap lyrics on the ‘Invincible’ album, which they should have been printed despite not being sung by MJ).

There must be a valid explanation for that!
 
I would of loved to hear Michael rap more. BAD was actually suppose to be an HipHop song. that would of been interesting.
 
On another part of me in the booklet of bad the lyrics end after the 1st verse. They never corrected that either
 
hahahaha when michael singed sometimes it was hard to understand what he was singing. lol. sometimes when he singed in his song he use to use his famous vocals heehee owww. lol. so the other stuff he use to put in his songs i don't know. probably make sound effects to the song? hahahaha i don't know.

half of the time it's hard to figure out what he meant in some of his songs. he use to say his songs was about telling a story. so i guess it up to the listener to guess or figure out what he is singing and what he means in his songs and the story he is telling us.
 
mj_frenzy;4185801 said:
This is something that always struck me as really odd.

I mean, when it comes to booklets’ lyrics, you normally expect one of these two possibilities: to have the lyrics printed in their entirety, or not to have them printed at all (which I can also understand that).

But, I find it illogical why they decided to leave certain (bridge) lyrics parts out, which from an artistic perspective does not look good either (booklets look incomplete with missing songs’ lyrics).

Also, as far as I know, official artists’ websites are strictly based on what has already been printed on the official booklets (as it is the case also with Michael Jackson official website).

Remember that the same thing happened with his subsequent studio album releases (missing rap lyrics on the ‘Invincible’ album, which they should have been printed despite not being sung by MJ).

There must be a valid explanation for that!

I think it's because Michael ad-libbed, improvised and changed the lyrics a lot, when working on songs, recording them and performing them, depending on how he was feeling at the time. Therefore, only the official, penned lyrics were printed in booklets, not the ones subject to change. Also, if he let a swear word or two slip in recording, it doesn't mean that needed to be printed in the booklet as an official lyric, cast in stone, you know? MJ wanted to appeal to an audience of all ages, including kids.
 
I would've loved to hear Michael rap more.

JAM was probably as close to rap as Michael got, in my opinion.
I don't care as much about him rapping, as I do about him beat-boxing.
LOVE to listen to him doing that, on songs!
 
From a more technical point of view, Michael Jackson’s rap is actually staccato, rather than rap.

A staccato style blends the rap vocal style with the singing style in a unique way, and it was popularized a lot by Michael Jackson to the point where the staccato style has become synonymous to him.

For this reason, ‘Shout’, ‘Jam’, ‘Tabloid Junkie’ and so on, although they come very close to rap, yet they cannot be called rap songs, but staccato songs.

Mikky Dee;4272940 said:
I think it's because Michael ad-libbed, improvised and changed the lyrics a lot, when working on songs, recording them and performing them, depending on how he was feeling at the time. Therefore, only the official, penned lyrics were printed in booklets, not the ones subject to change. Also, if he let a swear word or two slip in recording, it doesn't mean that needed to be printed in the booklet as an official lyric, cast in stone, you know? MJ wanted to appeal to an audience of all ages, including kids.

But this does not explain why official, rap lyrics (performed by guest rappers on his songs) were not printed on the official Michael Jackson’s booklets.

Like, the lyrics rapped by Fats (‘Heartbreaker’, ‘Invincible’), or by Aqil Davidson (‘She Drives Me Wild’) that were recorded and were not subject to further change long before the release of those albums.

Michael Jackson albums aimed at global markets, and were/are being bought also by non-English speakers, as a result they should have included those rap lyrics by guest rappers in the album booklets, as well.
 
mj_frenzy;4272982 said:
From a more technical point of view, Michael Jackson’s rap is actually staccato, rather than rap.

A staccato style blends the rap vocal style with the singing style in a unique way, and it was popularized a lot by Michael Jackson to the point where the staccato style has become synonymous to him.
There is not only one style of rapping. Acts like Nelly, MC Smooth, Bone Thugs N Harmony, & Drake all rap in what is sometimes called a sing-song cadence. It can even be heard in the early 1980s Wham! songs like Young Guns & Wham! Rap, Do I Do by Stevie Wonder, & Square Biz by Teena Marie. Force MDs were doing that around that time too, Itchin' For A Scratch is 1 example. Force MDs, The Sequence, & New Edition were also among the first to combine rapping & singing, years before The Fugees or Queen Latifah came about. Dancehall also uses rap in a singing style like Shaggy, Shabba Ranks, & Sean Paul. What became known as Rap was partially influenced by Jamaican toasting in the first place. Grandmaster Flash & Kool Herc had Jamaican backgrounds.
 
DuranDuran;4273008 said:
There is not only one style of rapping. Acts like Nelly, MC Smooth, Bone Thugs N Harmony, & Drake all rap in what is sometimes called a sing-song cadence. It can even be heard in the early 1980s Wham! songs like Young Guns & Wham! Rap, Do I Do by Stevie Wonder, & Square Biz by Teena Marie. Force MDs were doing that around that time too, Itchin' For A Scratch is 1 example. Force MDs, The Sequence, & New Edition were also among the first to combine rapping & singing, years before The Fugees or Queen Latifah came about. Dancehall also uses rap in a singing style like Shaggy, Shabba Ranks, & Sean Paul. What became known as Rap was partially influenced by Jamaican toasting in the first place. Grandmaster Flash & Kool Herc had Jamaican backgrounds.

There are more than one styles of rapping, but Michael Jackson’s combination of rapping and singing (staccato) was not one of those styles.

His characteristic staccato style (that was also apparent on some songs from the ‘BAD’ album, such as on ‘Smooth Criminal’), is distinct from any style or variation of rapping.

Also, all of these acts that you mentioned are true rappers although with slightly different styles of rapping (meaning their songs are rap songs, too), as opposed to Michael Jackson who was never a rapper meaning also that his ‘rap’ songs were not rap songs.

Michael Jackson on some occasions even admitted that thing when he was asked about it, as he did in 2005 when he admitted to American reporter Geraldo Rivera that he never really rapped in his career.

Michael Jackson’s involvement with rapping had to do only with writing certain rap verses for very famous rappers to rap in some of the bridges of his songs.
 
mj_frenzy;4273049 said:
Also, all of these acts that you mentioned are true rappers although with slightly different styles of rapping (meaning their songs are rap songs, too), as opposed to Michael Jackson who was never a rapper meaning also that his ‘rap’ songs were not rap songs.
Stevie Wonder, Teena Marie, & Wham! are not "true rappers". They still rapped in some songs. Like I mentioned, one of Wham!'s songs is titled Wham! Rap, but is George Michael considered a rapper? Same for other singers who rapped like Blondie (Debbie Harry), Millie Jackson, & Prince. There are rappers who made songs with straight singing like Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5, Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliott, André 3000, etc. Queen Latifah put out a jazz album and has sung showtunes. Kid from Kid n Play sang the hooks on some of their songs and Salt n Pepa's too. Beastie Boys had punk rock songs on some of their albums. The Beastie Boys also has an album of instrumental funk songs that they played the instruments on. Ice T is the lead singer in a metal band called Body Count. Nelly has released a few country songs with straight singing. The Roots are the house band for The Tonight Show where they play behind artists from many genres and played the music on records by Elvis Costello, Jill Scott, Al Green, Erykah Badu, John Legend, & others. What about rock bands that had rapping and/or hip hop style sounds in their music like Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against The Machine, & Limp Bizkit? The entire Nu Metal genre was hip hop influenced. So is what modern R&B singers like Craig David & Bruno Mars do. Artists were rapping long before it had a name such as Pigmeat Markham, Cab Calloway, Joe Tex, Charlie Daniels, Shirley Ellis, James Brown, etc. So is there really such a thing as a true rapper?
 
Isn't MJ kind of rapping in Serious Effect?! I love that song btw :)
 
DuranDuran;4273062 said:
Stevie Wonder, Teena Marie, & Wham! are not "true rappers". They still rapped in some songs. Like I mentioned, one of Wham!'s songs is titled Wham! Rap, but is George Michael considered a rapper? Same for other singers who rapped like Blondie (Debbie Harry), Millie Jackson, & Prince. There are rappers who made songs with straight singing like Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash & The Furious 5, Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliott, André 3000, etc. Queen Latifah put out a jazz album and has sung showtunes. Kid from Kid n Play sang the hooks on some of their songs and Salt n Pepa's too. Beastie Boys had punk rock songs on some of their albums. The Beastie Boys also has an album of instrumental funk songs that they played the instruments on. Ice T is the lead singer in a metal band called Body Count. Nelly has released a few country songs with straight singing. The Roots are the house band for The Tonight Show where they play behind artists from many genres and played the music on records by Elvis Costello, Jill Scott, Al Green, Erykah Badu, John Legend, & others. What about rock bands that had rapping and/or hip hop style sounds in their music like Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against The Machine, & Limp Bizkit? The entire Nu Metal genre was hip hop influenced. So is what modern R&B singers like Craig David & Bruno Mars do. Artists were rapping long before it had a name such as Pigmeat Markham, Cab Calloway, Joe Tex, Charlie Daniels, Shirley Ellis, James Brown, etc. So is there really such a thing as a true rapper?

Yes, I know, I was a bit hyperbolic when I said ‘all of these acts’.

DuranDuran;4273062 said:
So is there really such a thing as a true rapper?

I believe there is such a thing as a true rapper when certain criteria are satisfied, i.e. the social and ethnic roots of young, urban, working-class African-American people.

So, if the rapper does not reflect these social and ethnic roots with his or her music, then subsequently the rapper cannot be considered a true rapper.

The way rap/hip-hop music evolved during the last years (with an excessive commercialization of the genre aiming also at a wider and not necessarily black audience) alienated to an extent that genre from its true roots.

In many cases, this alienation seems to cause some really big problems for the artist, like the clear example of the Australian female rapper Iggy Azalea who has come under a lot of harsh criticism because she does not truly reflect that genre (although her music consists entirely of rap/hip-hop material, including her mixtapes) and she has been also accused of cultural appropriation of the rap genre.

Iggy Azalea is also a white girl with blonde hair, and according to many advocates of the true rap genre, that physical look does not fit at all the true origins of the genre.
 
Re: rap cadence

I believe there is such a thing as a true rapper when certain criteria are satisfied, i.e. the social and ethnic roots of young, urban, working-class African-American people.

So, if the rapper does not reflect these social and ethnic roots with his or her music, then subsequently the rapper cannot be considered a true rapper.
But hip hop had Jamaican & Latino input from the beginning. What is "African American" anyway? That's a PC era term. Going by your logic then Jaden Smith is not a "true rapper" since his father is a millionaire. Both jazz & rock n roll originated from black musicians, but Living Colour is called a black rock band, like rock is supposed to be white by default.
 
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