MJ x MCs
Michael Jackson f/ LL Cool J – “Serious Effect“
from Dangerous Sessions (Unreleased, 1991)
Run DMC – “Crack (Demo For Michael Jackson)“
from Tougher Than Leather Deluxe Expanded Edition (Arista, 1986/2005)
The rapps loved MJ and he loved them back. Way back in the XXL days YN ran down the spotty history of rapping guest spots throughout his official catalog but I wanted to also take a minute to discuss two unreleased high profile hip hop collaborations with the King of Pop.
“Serious Effect” was a duet with Cool James that was scrapped from the Dangerous sessions. It’s hardly essential, a fairly competent 90s era Mike cut with a short verse from LL in full lip lick mode. But it’s an interesting artifact none the less.
There were also rumors of a Run DMC collab, to be entitled “Crack Kills” and featured on Bad but supposedly the two parties had a falling out somehow related to dinner and a monkey. If it was ever recorded it doesn’t seem to have leaked to the internet. But the ‘05 reissue of Tougher Than Leather featured Run & D’s rough demo for the session and MJ’s chicken scratch lyrics for a song that appears to be called “Crack Kills” were auctioned online. So combine them in your mind.
And unrelated to rap but how hard is this footage of a young MJ auditioning for Motown in 1968?!
June 25th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
whoa… lil’ typo on the video… ‘68, not ‘86
and yeah man… I can’t believe this shit YET. wow.
June 25th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Total non sequitur to MJ’s passing (and seriously, RIP, he’ll be missed), but the Run-DMC joint got me thinking about how much of a sucker I am for minimalist beats. I would love to hear a contemporary rapper do an entire album over 808s and guitar samples. Kanye probably has the balls, but definitely not the talent…
June 26th, 2009 at 1:04 am
BUT this is the best loop ever, from all time favorite Cocaineblunts album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz_RACCMqbg
June 26th, 2009 at 1:19 am
On a related note…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeFUvW5YInQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CoxNzOOoQU
June 26th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Noz–
I see you’re currently listening to Black Sheep’s second album–interested to hear your thoughts.
Upon revisiting that album about two years ago, I concluded that Black Sheep was not actually a good group but was, instead, a group that had one good album.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:48 am
See I had mostly ignored it for years because it was so universally shitted on and was pleasantly surprised when I finally gave it a listen. It’s not a masterpiece or anything but there is some good rapping, at least on Dres’ part and decent enough production, I think.
June 26th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Wow. Thanks for the Motown audition video. Fucking unbelievable.
June 26th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Also:
http://rj5000.tumblr.com/post/130400920
June 26th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
but is this a love that went both ways? I mean how come there weren’t any respectable MCs on Invincible or Dangerous saving Biggie’s verse.. Why did Dr. Dre decline to produce and why didn’t they find someone of his stature once he did? I feel like the tragic arc of his life was based on his inability to outdo his previous successes and though that surely was impossible anyways I think he could have achieved a lot more if the Hip Hop – Michael relationship had been stronger on both sides.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
Here’s what Dre said regarding Invincible: “Somebody approached me about working with Michael Jackson, and I did say no because I like working with new artists or people that I’ve worked with in the past, I can develop them from the ground up. There’s no set standard that I have to live up to or anything like that. All I have to do is go in the studio, and basically they’re going to bust their ass to come in there and do their thing the way it’s supposed to be done.”
June 26th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Non-Fiction is a surprisingly solid album, I can actually listen to it from beginning to end.
June 27th, 2009 at 1:35 am
michael jackson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h1euQKJsr4&feature=fvw
-wankle & tlisten
June 27th, 2009 at 3:57 am
no ones brought up the verse on black or white? Who was that dude anyway? “..cause I’m not gonna spend my life being a color” haha
June 27th, 2009 at 10:28 am
“I mean how come there weren’t any respectable MCs on Invincible or Dangerous saving Biggie’s verse.”
Jay-Z was on Invincible… although in the occasionally bizarro world of rap blog commenters he may not be respectable.
July 7th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
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