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Xscape General Discussion

JEMFTV said:
Speaking of Tupac....
It is officially confirmed that Tupac is featured on an version of Xscape.
How did they do it? Is it done with computer/autotune?
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Well since Tupac is not exactly singing notes, I doubt that autotune would be needed in the process. But I bet that at least one computer has been involved on the making of such a remix.
 
JEMFTV;4005172 said:
Speaking of Tupac....
It is officially confirmed that Tupac is featured on an version of Xscape.
How did they do it? Is it done with computer/autotune?
Click to expand...

Computers, I think.

Honestly, as L.A. did the song and actually played it to the audience at some point … They needed to ask for some kind of permission to mix and to play it. If so it is hard to think that it was made just for fun. IMO the Estate has some plans for it.
 
From the billboard review: http://www.billboard.com/articles/review/6084867/michael-jackson-xscape-album-review-track-billboard


"Once he was the world's biggest pop star, Jackson might spend years working on individual songs, cutting up to 50 tracks for a single album. But Timbaland completed his tracks for "Xscape" at pace of about one a day, once he got past the difficulty of listening to Jackson's vocals in the studio and not being able to talk back to him. Stargate took longer -- about a week -- for one of "Xscape's" standouts, "Place With No Name.""

One day of work per song?... that's... not striving for your best by my book.
 
odedia said:
From the billboard review: http://www.billboard.com/articles/review/6084867/michael-jackson-xscape-album-review-track-billboard


"Once he was the world's biggest pop star, Jackson might spend years working on individual songs, cutting up to 50 tracks for a single album. But Timbaland completed his tracks for "Xscape" at pace of about one a day, once he got past the difficulty of listening to Jackson's vocals in the studio and not being able to talk back to him. Stargate took longer -- about a week -- for one of "Xscape's" standouts, "Place With No Name.""

One day of work per song?... that's... not striving for your best by my book.
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I could have sworn I saw Timba saying somewhere he spent about a year on this album?

Anyways, songs were really good the way Mike left them so if that is true, it is only compliments Michael that they didn't have work on them long to make them listenable.
 
mjchris said:
2014.05.10 - New Michael Jackson Album 'Xscape' - Rolling Stone Magazine Review (MSNBC Live)

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I had a giggle when the host apologised to the viewers for short clip of new album, because that was all they could afford - MJ is still very expensive:D

I nearly fell off the chair, that man was from RS and he was talking only positively of MJ:scratch:
 
Good news!!!!

Michael Jackson’s posthumous album Xscape set to debut at Number 1
http://www.officialcharts.com/chart...s-album-xscape-set-to-debut-at-number-1-3011/

The Black Keys can Beat It

beat-it-ugh-o.gif
 
JEMFTV said:
Speaking of Tupac....
It is officially confirmed that Tupac is featured on an version of Xscape.
How did they do it? Is it done with computer/autotune?
Click to expand...

They better not release that version as a single. I want Michael by himself
 
AMG said:
The official music video for "Love Never Felt So Good" has just premiered worldwide! Join the dance party and celebrate with Michael and Justin Timberlake. Watch now! ?#?MJXSCAPE? ?#?MJandJT?
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I've been doing real good for the past few months... after crying for 4 years and being obsessed everything & anything Michael... I took a break for him the first time in my 22 years of fandom.... THEN I watched this video... and i started crying out of no where... :boohoo 've been doing soooo good these past months but this vid just reminded me again why we have to settle for posthumous album...

It was well put together, I mean they did great in using what they they had... which was just vids of Michael :(

Will watch it again after I calm down i guess.. :boohoo


L.o.v.e.
Romi
 
I was visiting my local Best Buy store for awhile looking for any advertisement for an Xcape. The week before the release still nothing. So I asked some employees about this issue. They had no idea about the album. On June 13 only one employee knew where the album was located (far away in the back). It was fully stocked with Deluxe edition. I wanted to talk to people who are responsible for that kind of "treatment" of MJ's new CD. The superviser stated that they have different company taking care of "displaying" CDs. I've got the name and phone number of the person who (according to superviser) should to answer the question "why Xcape is hidden in Best Buy? I wonder how Xcape is "treated" in other stores. Anybody tried to buy the copy from reg
 
Looked over the numbers in store today not only is MJ outselling The Black Keys, the Deluxe is out selling the normal version
 
I wish I could personally thank the Estate for everything to do with this album (except the Slave,Blue Gangsta and Xscape remixes cos I dont like them haha)but the promotions and production is everything i wanted.
 
TIME magazine album review

REVIEW: Michael Jackson’s Legacy Gets Honored (Mostly) on Xscape
Katherine St. Asaph @katstasaph May 13, 2014

For the first time in posthumous MJ history, the music can speak for itself

Old musicians don’t die. They don’t even fade away. They just become franchises. Like most artists who’ve been around longer than an album or so, Michael Jackson has a considerable vault of unfinished, unproduced or just unreleased tracks; and like most artists who’ve set multiple sales records per album, he’s got a vault that’s prime for plunder.

Xscape, out on Epic Records May 13, is the latest haul from that vault — and yet another in the sequel-crazed franchise that is posthumous Jackson. As with all posthumous records, the idea is inherently iffy, and it’s especially so in Jackson’s case given his beleaguered relationship with Sony and the dubious conditions of his death. A placeholder order page on iTunes had several reviews questioning the entire merit of the enterprise, sound unheard; they’re not fringe opinions but perhaps mainline. Nor does the posthumous Jackson business have the greatest track record, particularly when modern acts get involved; 2010’s disastrous Michael was marred by unfortunate Akon and Lenny Kravitz guest spots and credits-truther controversies; a few years later, on the reissues of Thriller and Bad, in with the demos and rarities were ill-advised remixes like EDM lunkhead Afrojack contorting the title track into a club thumper, complete with Pitbull and his moonwalk-related dad jokes.

None of this has escaped anyone involved with Xscape. “This isn’t record company greed, it’s art,” L.A. Reid said introducing the album at a listening party at Rockefeller Center (the first time in the U.S., though the Brits heard it roughly a week prior). “Some people say these are just outtakes left on the cutting room floor, but ‘Wanna Be Starting Something’ was written for Off the Wall. ‘Billie Jean’ almost didn’t make it [onto Thriller]!” If the powers that be sounded a tad defensive, it was only of Jackson’s legacy, specifically his “Jackson moments”: those first-burst encounters with Jackson’s music that make him worth the pre- and posthumous ado.

If Xscape is anything, it’s curated: eight tracks selected from 1983 to 1999. (The compact tracklisting means a couple promised tracks didn’t make the cut, including one, untitled for now, that reportedly would have included features from D’Angelo, Mary J. Blige and ?uestlove.) They’re unreleased, but they’re not new per se; it’s 2014, after all, and leaks are routine, and the appetite for unreleased Jackson material is much more voracious than anyone wants to admit. Despite the largesse of Epic Records and Jackson’s estate, much of this material had leaked at some point, in some form or other, and while most of it’s been scrubbed from the Internet, vestiges remain: bedroom acoustic covers, unsanctioned remixes, snippets from commercials, transcriptions of Jay-Z and Justin Bieber verses that were at one point attached, respectively, to “Twelve O’Clock” (now the memely, if unnecessarily tabloid-baiting, “Do You Know Where Your Children Are?”) and “Slave to the Rhythm.” (Part of Xscape’s “curation,” it seems, is curating the Google results to keep Biebs out of his legacy, which is downright noble.) But they’re not old, either.

Timbaland, who executive-produced the album with help from Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins, Jerome Harmon, Stargate and John McClane, gave the old recordings some modern production juice, calling the process — to some press joshing — “contemporization.” But to their immense credit, unlike some recent “contemporizations” (Drake’s mopey exhumation of the Aaliyah vault comes to mind), the material on Xscape seldom sounds gimmicky, or too full of its producers’ personal brands. Even producers like Stargate, who sound so identikit-distinctive you can usually reverse-engineer songs they’ve had a hand in, go subtle. It helps that Jackson’s voice is too singularly frenzied to be overshadowed in a mix; it helps even more that occasionally, as on “Xscape,” the contemporizer and original producer (in this case, Darkchild) were one and the same. Only once on the album do things get glaring: “Blue Gangsta,” which even in its original form seemed like a concept missing its video-PR tour, is so much like beatboxed-and-screwed Timbo that it’s almost funny. Everything else is – stunningly – mostly natural.
 
I would just like to take a minute to name the google search results for 'michael jackson' regarding the new xscape album at the moment:
-'Xscape' proves worthy of Michael Jackson's legacy (album revieW) (The Plain Dealer)
-Michael Jackson resurrected in 'Xscape' album out today (Kansas City Star)
-Michael Jackson's Xscape a reminder of the man's gift (Toronto Star)
-Michael Jackson’s posthumous “Xscape”? Not bad! But not “Thriller,” either. (The Washington Post)
-REVIEW: Michael Jackson’s Legacy Gets Honored (Mostly) on Xscape (TIME Magazine)
woohoo
 
I just watched the extras dvd. The part where Stargate is talking through the production with L.A. Reid playing vocals only and vocals with drums is amazing just spine tingling. Loved that moment and think it is my fav song on the album.
 
Can't get enough of Xscape, i'm so proud of Michael right now.. i feel blessed to be his fan, his music creations are timeless and these celebrations are extremely fitting.. where have you guys been hearing 'Xscape'? not just your own cd's but other sources.. i.e dj sets, music store playback etc.
 
damoonwalker said:
I just watched the extras dvd. The part where Stargate is talking through the production with L.A. Reid playing vocals only and vocals with drums is amazing just spine tingling. Loved that moment and think it is my fav song on the album.
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Mine too, at the moment.
 
damoonwalker said:
I just watched the extras dvd. The part where Stargate is talking through the production with L.A. Reid playing vocals only and vocals with drums is amazing just spine tingling. Loved that moment and think it is my fav song on the album.
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The stargate segment was the best. I loved it when he played APWNN on the piano and then stripped it in the studio, he was so exhilarated talking about it. They seem like good dudes :)
 
the two interviews from yesterday. L.A. Reid and Timbaland, but this time the FULL reports...

2014.05.13 - New Michael Jackson Album 'Xscape' - L A Reid-Interview (Today, NBC)




2014.05.13 - New Michael Jackson Album 'Xscape' - Timbaland-Interview (Today, NBC)

 
OnirMJ said:
Leaked "Slave" and "Children" are not originals. They are 2010 re-productions just like this 2014 re-productions.
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Yeah but who did reproduce them back then... did the "Michael" producers do it or was it actually Birchey?

In my opinion, MJ's versions are by far the best, then the 2010 ones, the 2014 ones being the weakest (especially "Children").
 
L.A Reid said the Song 'Loving You' was recorded by Michael in ''2003'' surely he got told the original recording years when the album was originally being curated?..
 
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Remington Steele said:
Yeah but who did reproduce them back then... did the "Michael" producers do it or was it actually Birchey?

In my opinion, MJ's versions are by far the best, then the 2010 ones, the 2014 ones being the weakest (especially "Children").
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Who? Birchey is just a fan, he is not a producer. Blue Gangsta and Do You Know were re-produced for MICHAEL album in 2010 probably by John McClain. Steve Lukather recorded guitar parts and solo for that 2010 version of Children. Slave To The Rhythm 2010 was produced by Tricky Stewart (guy who did Stay and Keep Your Head Up).
 
I didn't think "Loving You" had Bad-era vocals. Sounded much more recent to me.
 
0o0jackie0o0;4005245 said:
TIME magazine album review:

They’re unreleased, but they’re not new per se; it’s 2014, after all, and leaks are routine, and the appetite for unreleased Jackson material is much more voracious than anyone wants to admit.
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Good to see someone in the media admit to that.

The success of Xscape is a joy to see! Finally a release befitting of Michael!

Estate/Sony: you admitted to having 16 other songs that could have been where these eight are. Give them the care these eight received and I promise now to purchase and treasure those cds as I have with Xscape!
 
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