Dr. Dre stated that the reason for turning down proposals to work with Michael Jackson (in the early 00’s) was because the rapper liked working with new artists or people that he worked with in the past, and also because he liked to develop new artists from the ground up.
Not because he thought that artists like Michael Jackson or Madonna would be hard to work with, like they would be demanding divas, or because he thought that he would not have much input and he did not like to work that way.
“… Somebody approached me about working with Michael Jackson, and I did say no because I like working with new artists or people that I've worked with in the past … I can develop them from the ground up…” (Dr. Dre, MTV Radio, 2001)
So, Dr. Dre instead of producing Michael Jackson’s ‘Invincible’ album at that time, he decided to produce the ‘Truthfully Speaking’ debut studio album which was released in 2002 by the newly-emerged American R&B female singer Truth Hurts (who is also known as Shari Watson).