Michael Jackson

#mandatorymichael – hey lover

by thebiz on 04/25/2011

LL Cool J’s ’95 hit “Hey Lover” samples MJ’s classic “The Lady in My Life“. This just happens to be one of my personal favorite MJ tracks and it’s a perfect example of how far reaching his influence on music outside of song and dance is.

Did he do the song justice? It may not be the classic MJ’s cut is, but it’s a good track none the less. What do y’all think?

[Edit] That link to MJ’s song is a version I’ve never heard before. It must be the demo version or something. I’ll get a rip of it and post it up later tonight. I like it!

[Edit 2] Download

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#mandatorymichael – MJ & JJ

by thebiz on 04/11/2011

janet jackson michael jackson #mandatorymichael MJ & JJ

Michael and Janet made HIStory with their debut duet “Scream” on MJ’s HIStory double album. A not widely publicized fact is that they shared another track a decade prior to it’s release. Janet is one of the “PYT” girls in the song of the same name. Not much of a feature, but “Scream” fixed that issue for us.

The musician side of Michael came out in this track too. He plays a lot of the instruments in the song. The song is also produced by Janet’s running buddies, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Making the video cost a grand total of 7 million, making it the most expensive music video ever. It went on to be nominated for a Grammy and an American Music Award. Needless to say, it also skyrocketed to the top of the charts despite a two week leak it faced. That song alone went platinum. Needless to say, that album did extremely well for itself. It’s tour earned Jackson his biggest audiences as well. His opening track for the HIStory world tour was a solo rendition of “Scream”. Sadly, there’s no footage of the two performing either of their smashes together. Even worse for us, there are no other known collaborations in the vault.

Scream’s set up and choreography is payed homage to in TLC’s “No Scrubs” and The-Dream’s “Walkin’ on the Moon” among other tracks.

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#mandatorymichael – the patriot

by thebiz on 03/21/2011

jackson #mandatorymichael the patriot

When Michael wasn’t in the spotlight, he spent a lot of time visiting sick children and their families. He was involved in an endless list of charities for those in need. One of the things he was most passionate about was visiting troops and showing them his support. This was especially true for those that were injured in some way while out fighting for our country. He greeted them by thousands. Normally, stories like this about Jackson don’t come out because he was relatively quiet about his charity work. This story was mentioned in his memorial service and was mentioned in a few articles online by those that were touched by his generosity.

“About 3,000 troops and their family members gathered at a fitness center at Camp Zama. Jackson walked around shaking hands and exchanging words to thank them for their service.

“Those of you in here today are some of the most special people in the world” Jackson told the crowd, reading from a statement. “It is because of you in here today, and others who so valiantly have given their lives to protect us, that we enjoy our freedom.”

Props to militarygear.

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#mandatorymichael

by thebiz on 03/17/2011

Michael Jackson and Prince #mandatorymichael

Michael and Prince are two very iconic frienemies. There were debates about who was the best between the two their entire careers. After the release of Thriller, Jackson’s commercial success overshadowed his and everyone else’s for that matter. There was some jealousy there, but who wouldn’t be during the time of Mike Jack’s reign? Luckily enough, there were no problems that went far enough to start a personal war between the two. They had even planned on recording a song together. Well, at least Quincy Jones wanted it to happen.

“Bad” was originally intended to be a duet/duel between Jackson and Prince. It would have been fun to see these two megastars playing up their friendly fued in a music video. Who even knows what level of awesome it would’ve been to hear them singing on the same song. Alas, when Prince heard the song, he decided that the song would be a hit without him and his contribution wasn’t needed. He was right, but the song still would’ve been better had he gone for it. I think so at least.

The end result is what we have in our collections. Bad’s theme was changed from battle to anti-violence (lol) and the rest is history. Here’s an excerpt of Quincy Jones talking about the situation. It’s from the Bad Special Edition that was released in the early 2000′s.

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Mandatory Michael #003

by thebiz on 03/07/2011

Michael Janet Biggie 2 Mandatory Michael #003

Mike did real songs with big. No made up shits. There’s not much information out there about what their relationship was like when they were both alive. They could’ve been anything from drinking buddies to just two guys that made a song together. Who knows? One thing is for sure, they dropped the ball by not pushing this song harder. Biggie was at the height of his popularity and banking off of “One More Chance” and Michael skyrocketed to the top with “Scream” alongside little sister, Janet. It seems like a no brainer to give “This Time Around” the music video treatment, right? The wrong people are running the music industry. Such dummies.

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To be fair, “Unbreakable” is a “made up shit”. Big’s unreleased verse probably came out of Diddy’s vault. I think it was Jackson’s producer’s idea to add his verse in and it was a last minute idea if I remember the story right. Don’t quote me on that, though. I do know that Michael was pushing for this song to be his big comeback song and the debut single for Invincible. For some strange reason, Sony had different ideas that they thought were better than his and they started playing label games with his ideas. Yes, it even happened to Michael fucking Jackson. Unbelievable.

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Mandatory Michael #002

by thebiz on 02/28/2011

Michael Jackson Invincible Mandatory Michael #002

This week, I’m going to address some of that bad press that Invincible got. Overall, it’s not as good as some of his older material. The biggest problem this album has is with it’s production. The sound had way too much going on in some of the songs (Heartbreaker/2000 Watts) and it put a lot of listeners off. The stuff that was more stripped down and more easily digested (Heaven Can Wait/Butterflies) was way better received by listeners and critics. The last thing that really hurt it was that it kind of drags on near the end. I agree with that criticism too. There were too many ballads towards the end (Speechless/The Lost Children) and it just starts to feel like it’s dragging on towards the end. All that aside, that doesn’t necessarily mean the songs aren’t any good.

Is he still a thriller?

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Mandatory Michael #001

by thebiz on 02/22/2011

michael jackson live2 334x500 Mandatory Michael #001

I’ve got an idea I want to share with you all! As a child, I remember listening to a radio station down in New Orleans that had an hour they called “Mandatory Metallica”. For that hour, they played nothing but Metallica songs as a salute to what they did to influence and change alternative music. Since the radio isn’t brave enough to do the same for the man that has just as much influence over hip-hop/R&B/soul/pop/etc, I’m going to take it upon myself to do it for them. The man did a lot in his lifetime inside and outside of music, and a lot of it is overlooked.

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Rip Mike Jack DJ Jazzy Jeff & Michael Jackson – Hes The King, Im The DJ

by Ja3mik3 on 06/26/2010

12 Abc Mix

My Fav Tribute To Mick Jack by Dj Jazzy Jeff. This should be bumped every June on the 25th! check for tracklisting and Link after the jump.
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