(March 31, 2014) Five years after the death of "King of Pop" Michael Jackson, Billboard magazine has reported today that Epic Records and the estate of Michael Jackson will be releasing Xscape, an album of eight previously unreleased songs, including collaborations with Ne-Yo and Stargate, Rodnew "Darkchild" Jerkins, and more. This continues the unseemly annual crate digging of Jackson's previously unreleased work by Epic.
(March 31, 2014) Five years after the death of "King of Pop" Michael Jackson, Billboard magazine has reported today that Epic Records and the estate of Michael Jackson will be releasing Xscape, an album of eight previously unreleased songs, including collaborations with Ne-Yo and Stargate, Rodnew "Darkchild" Jerkins, and more. This continues the unseemly annual crate digging of Jackson's previously unreleased work by Epic.
Epic CEO L.A. Reid said in a statement, "Michael left behind some musical performances that we take great pride in presenting through the vision of music producers that he either worked directly with or expressed strong desire to work with. We are extremely proud and honored to present this music to the world."
While we haven't heard any music from Xscape, we can't help but feel this is another cynical scavenging of the deep vault of music that MJ left behind, much of which would be better left hidden. As in releases like 2010's Michael, we expect that there will be some redeeming moments, but also expect that these songs were largely unreleased for a good reason -- they weren't of the high quality that Michael Jackson expected of his CD releases. At some point, it will be time to stop this scavenging and let Jackson and his incredible legacy rest in peace. Let's just hope it is soon.
By Chris Rizik
Thanks to Gary V. of Disco, Soul, Gold for letting us know about this.
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