Michael Jackson’s Xscape album will feature Justin Timberlake and Mary J Blige.
The Grammy Award-winning artists are just a few of the names set to appear on Epic Records executive LA Reid’s upcoming project, which will unveil unheard tracks written by the late King of Pop prior to his death in 2009, including the single Love Never Felt So Good, which was released on Thursday.
Justin Timberlake features on the first single, Love Never Felt So Good. Listen to it here:
According to the music mogul’s son Aaron Reid – who worked on the posthumous record – most of the recordings discovered were incomplete.
He told the New York Post newspaper: “Michael Jackson didn’t trust anyone with his music. He stopped finishing songs. He had a whole bunch of material stored away. He had hooks. He had verses. Then we put it together.”
Aaron described the project as an “amazing process” after getting the opportunity to work closely with executive producer Timbaland, and help his father LA to recruit producer StarGate.
He gushed: “Michael Jackson is my favourite artist of all time. With this project, I got to carry on his legacy and even contribute to it. There’s nothing like it.”
Timbaland’s right hand man Jerome “Jroc” Harmon and Michael’s long-time producer Rodney Jerkins are set to produce eight songs for the album which is released on 13 May, while Guitarist Jesse Johnson – best known as a member of the Time – and drummer Questlove will also play on the album.