Michael Jackson wasn’t known for his collaborations with rappers, aside from his songs "This Time Around" and "Unbreakable" with Notorious B.I.G. He did occasionally borrow from hip-hop–Heavy D appeared on his 1991 song “Jam”–but he mostly focused on pop. He was the “King of Pop,” after all.
Jackson’s coming posthumous album “Michael,” due out Dec. 14, features an unlikely guest star: 50 Cent. The rapper and Jackson appear on the track “Monster.” How did this come about? Was this some pairing dreamed up by marketers after Jackson’s death last year?
According to producer Teddy Riley, who worked on “Monster” and produced some of Jackson’s work when he was alive, the pop star was fascinated by 50 Cent. He was particularly interested the rapper’s colorful life history–the stories of shooters trying and failing to kill him, and the gossipy coverage of his private affairs by the hip-hop press. “Michael wanted 50 Cent on a record with him,” Riley says.
Riley says that Jackson reached out to 50 Cent about working together. After Jackson’s passing, the hip-hop star recorded the rap that appears on “Monster.” 50 Cent tweeted “michael reached out to me to do this song before he passed it going to be the biggest thing ever. hes the one we got our idea from.
You can read more about Michael Jackson’s new album on Speakeasy’s “On the Horizon” column.
Source: Wall Street Journal
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