January 11, 2008: Michael Jackson News & Mentionings

MJ News:

http://michaeljackson.com/news_5
January 09, 2008 - BET HONORS

Michael is the latest recipient of a BET Honors special, which will air in February. It will feature a large segment on Thriller.

http://www.sohood.com/1/content/view/3251/69/

Carlos Santana to work with Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones

Legendary Guitarist Carlos Santana recently appeared Thursday night on Mas Vale Tarde con Alex Cambert on the Telemundo Television channel along with his son Salvador Santana whose also a musician like his pops, were interviewed on the show. Carlos Santana rarely conducts TV interviews so I definitely had to watch. I didn’t know he worked with Bob Dylan and Bob Marley, which he said that he smoked and got high with them a few times back in the day when they made music together.

Carlos also spoke about how his father taught him from a young age to play the violin; his father showed him an example about how powerful music is by pointing at a tree where a bird was singing and his father played from his violin some music notes back and fore with the bird he went. He then realized his true passion was playing the guitar to reach the masses through his music. But what surprised me from the interview is when he spoke about working again with Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones. I never thought Michael and Quincy were going to make up and do another album together again but Carlos said this on national TV. I’ll believe it when the album actually drops. –Edwin Diaz, So Hood Magazine, SoHood.com

http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2008/01/michael-jackson.html


Michael Jackson makes his best album in more than a decade -- with a lot of help from Rhymefest

The Michael Jackson revival is in full swing. A 25th anniversary edition of “Thriller,” his biggest album, is scheduled for release next month, and Jermaine Jackson says there will be Jackson 5 reunion tour this year that includes his most famous brother. Bottom line is that Jackson is still an icon, despite a litany of tabloid indiscretions that would’ve crushed most careers and reputations.
But Jackson also hasn’t made much in the way of compelling new music in at least decade. And I doubt that any of the Michael-is-back projects will equal the artistic inventiveness (or the affordability) of the latest release from South Side rapper Rhymefest, who just released “Man in the Mirror (The Michael Jackson Dedication Album)” as a free download on his Web site, rhymefest.com.
The release is musical contraband; it flouts copyright law and freely dips into the Jackson back catalog for source material, including a trove of audio interviews. It rearranges this material into a fascinating virtual collaboration between two artists of different generations who have never met. Gimmicky as it sounds, sparks fly. Jackson hasn’t had such a provocative and inspired collaborator since he was working with producer Quincy Jones --- back when “Thriller” reigned.
Such legally dicey remix projects have been a crucial part of the hip-hop underground for at least a decade, and survive in part because they’re usually low profile and low profit. Rhymefest says he lost money paying for studio time to make “Man in the Mirror,” and isn’t going to make a penny off its release because he does not intend to sell it.
What’s more, Rhymefest is clearly a fan; he digs beyond the obvious hits in songs stretching across five decades. Even his jokes at Jackson’s expense are affectionate rather than mean-spirited. The humor is one of the disc’s greatest charms, in part because it’s been missing from Jackson’s music and public persona for years. Rather than coming off as a freak, Jackson is portrayed as a gentle eccentric with musical chops to burn.
Chopped and spliced into the audio equivalent of a buddy film by Rhymefest and his longtime producer Mark Ronson, the disc humanizes Jackson through mock conversations; they range from juvenile jokes about flatulence to a poignant exchange on race relations called “Mike the Mentor.” Jackson acts as a virtual catalyst, his performances on vintage tracks such as “Don’t Let Your Baby Catch You,” “I Can’t Help It,” “Dancing Machine” and the title track inspire potent new songs. Best of all is “No Sunshine,” in which Jackson’s impassioned interpretation of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” courses through an equally fierce Rhymefest meditation on the traps of ambition. “You ever wanted something so bad ‘til you got it,” Rhymefest asks, “and it loses all the magic and it just don’t feel exotic?”
“Man in the Mirror” brings out the best in both artists. It’s prime Rhymefest, a prelude to his forthcoming album, “El Che,” due out through more legitimate channels later this year. And it adds up to the best Michael Jackson album in nearly two decades --- even though he may not even know it exists.