Hee-Hee Hell!

Last week, it was reiterated through the many Michael Jackson-affiliated Twitter accounts (specifically this one) that I follow, that a new Michael Jackson album is coming out this year....until the story was refuted not even 20 minutes later. Nevertheless, a new album from the King of Pop should be coming later this year. The deal that MJ's estate struck with Sony includes up to 10 albums of unreleased material, video games/DVD releases, etc., all of which could earn the estate up to $250 million!

Now if you're excited about more moonwalking, crotch-grabbing, and chamon-ing, your favorite hip-pop producer is not:

Will.i.am collaborated with Michael Jackson on the rerelease of "Thriller" in 2008 with remixed versions of some of the album's classic songs. He said Jackson was very particular about all aspects of his musical productions, from his vocals to arrangements to instrumentation. "I don't think that should ever come out. That's bad," he said. "He was a perfectionist and he wouldn't have wanted it that way. How you gonna release Michael Jackson when Michael Jackson ain't here to bless it? ... Now that he is not part of the process, what are they doing? Why would you put a record out like that? Because he was a friend of mine, I just think that's disrespectful ...What's wrong with what he already contributed to the world?"

If you know me, you'd know that I'm the biggest Michael Jackson fan out of all of my friends, my friends' friends, and THEIR friends - hell, I was even planning on going to the concerts in London! Speaking from my perspective, I'm all for unreleased material being released from Michael, especially since I've had some in my possession for at least 6 years now. Do a search on YouTube to find all kinds of demos and full songs of his, and bet your bottom dollar that what's coming out between now and 2017 will be eons better than that.

I also understand that Michael was a perfectionist and didn't let music go unless it was "blessed" by him, as will.i.am has said. I get that all the material released under his name from now on will not be up to par like the previous projects - I always think of Tupac in situations like these, where he had tons of unreleased verses and most, if not all, of it was put out. Some of it was successful, whereas other productions either didn't fit the verses or had Pac rapping with someone who he might have never recorded with in real life. So even as optimistic as I am about this deal, I know that not all of it will be up to snuff, but I think will.i.am is ignoring the fact that we the public can discern between the music Michael put out and the music he was never able to/meant to put out. His legacy won't be tarnished by these releases, at least in my eyes.

In the end, new music from MJ isn't a bad thing. If anything, these projects, successful or not, will be slightly more than footprints in his legacy 30 years down the road, simply because he IS Michael Jackson - everything released under his name will always be scrutinized. Rodney Jerkins is planning on releasing a project "in tribute" to Michael, which I hope doesn't underwhelm because although the Invincible album was slightly underrated - even I thought that they should've cut the fluff on that album - if these outtakes are similar in quality, I will definitely be disappointed that he even thought to release it. Outtakes are outtakes for a reason, even from Michael Jackson.

Although if they resemble snippets like THIS....get ready, America.