Thoughts on JB and the Slave To The Rhythm controversy
I was prepared this weekend to delve back into the Wade Robson series where I left off, but since this leaked track has been all the talk for the last forty-eight hours (and is already fueling as much heated controversy as the Michael album did a few years ago) I decided I needed to take some time out to comment on it. That is the real purpose of a blog, after all-not so much to write in-depth articles in every case, but sometimes simply to give opinions and commentary on current topics that are heavy on our minds. So…here it is.
I had mixed feelings about this from the moment I heard the track. But in being fair, I try not to be one of those automatically jumping on the Bieber bashing bandwagon. There is a lot of hate for this kid-some of it for the wrong reasons, although if you read enough stories about him, it becomes easy to see there is a lot of bad publicity floating around on him, and more cropping up every day.
But then, they did the same thing to Michael, as well.
I listened to the track. It’s not bad. In fact, there is a lot more of Michael on this track than Hold My Hand, the posthumously released duet featuring Michael and Akon. However, the big difference is that Hold My Hand was officially recorded as a duet and as a collaboration between the two artists. It was understood from the get go that it was to be an Akon song featuring Michael Jackson. Michael was an active part of the creative process-in the recording and performing, at least, even if not in the final mixing.
Slave To The Rhythm, however, is being erroneously promoted as a Jackson-Bieber ‘collaboration” when, in fact, it is not. Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber did not go into a studio and record this track together, nor did they record vocals separately with the agreement that this might “possibly” be a duet sometime in the future. In fact, there was never any agreement or collaboration between them whatsoever because this was a song that Michael Jackson wrote with L.A. Reid and Babyface (most likely during the sessions for an album that would have been titled The World Is No Church) and recorded in 1998-when Justin Bieber was all of four years old and barely past potty training. (Some media outlets are erroneously reporting it as a track recorded in 2009. I think they do this simply in order to tease unknowing readers with the idea that this could have been something recorded right before his death-a way to spike the story with a little sensationalism).
No, let’s be honest. This is not a “collaboration.” This is a case of an artist living out some personal fantasy and through through the miracle of modern technology-by manipulating a track (i.e., it’s called “remixing)-being able to sing a duet with his idol.
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