L.A. Reid on Posthumous MJ Album: “We Tried to Do What Michael Would Have Loved”
June 6, 2014
Michael Jackson’s duet with Justin Timberlake, “Love Never Felt So Good,” made history when it reached the top 10 not long ago. Now, the late King of Pop is the only artist ever to score a top-10 hit in each of five decades. Response to the catchy, disco-flavored tune has been so positive that it’s easy to forget that not everybody likes the idea of Michael Jackson material being released after his death. But L.A. Reid, who oversaw MJ’s latest posthumous release, XSCAPE, says the late legend would have wanted it that way.
“He wanted his music to live forever and I think he wanted his legacy — as any great artist would want their legacy — to live forever,” Reid told reporters recently. “And I don’t think that when a great artist leaves us in body, that they leave us in spirit.”
“He was there in spirit, he was there musically,” Reid continued, describing the process of remastering the eight “leftover” songs that appear on XSCAPE. “In working on the record, we tried to do, as best we could, what we thought Michael would have loved. And those of us that worked on it that knew Michael really well, we had a good perspective on it. But the truth is, you can’t ever really know, because he wasn’t there.”
However, in response to those who wonder if the fact that MJ never released those particular songs must indicate that he felt they were sub par, Reid counters, “Those were his songs. And he sang them many, many times, so my guess is that he must have loved the songs.”
So why didn’t he release them? Because, Reid says, they simply weren’t as good as some of the other material Michael was working on at the same time. “Those songs were competing, at the time, against some of the greatest songs ever written that Michael had released, you know,” Reid points out. “So, they weren’t ‘Thriller.’ They weren’t ‘Off the Wall.’”
In other words, Reid joked, “They weren’t ‘Bad,’ — but they weren’t bad.”
As the fifth anniversary of Jackson’s death approaches, on June 25, he continues to make his presence felt, and not just through the new duet with Justin. His classic “Billie Jean” re-entered the top 20 last week thanks to its inclusion in a viral video of a high school kid dancing to it. Michael also scored his 50th Hot 100 single last week, thanks to “Slave to the Rhythm,” another song from XSCAPE that an MJ “hologram” performed on the Billboard Music Awards last month
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Afrojack: “Michael Jackson’s ‘Xscape’ Is A Damn Good Album!”
Dutch dance decimator Afrojack has told MTV News UK how Michael Jackson’s recent posthumous release is a “damn good album” despite having it released nearly five years since his death.
In an exclusive interview with the Ten Feet Tall producer, who in 2012 remixed the title track of the King Of Pop’s Bad as part of the LP’s 25th anniversary, told us his thoughts on whether albums should continue to be released after an artist’s passing…
“First off I don’t think that the release necessarily conflicts with being able to rest in peace. It’s a two-way story, just depending on how you tell it. On the one hand, you could say that an artist can start resting in peace, when his work is done.
“On the other hand, you could say that his legacy shouldn’t be shaped without his own accord. I’ve heard the tracks and, as a Michael Jackson fan, I must admit it’s a damn good album!”
http://www.mtv.co.uk/afrojack/news/afrojack-michael-jacksons-xscape-is-a-damn-good-album?
