Thank God that before listening to ”Faking Michael” series which claims to expose the Cascio tracks as “the biggest fraud in the music industry” I first read the same story from the same Damien Shields and could compare his much more biased previous version with its current variation, which is still a brainwasher but is at least cleaned of its most outrageous lies.
Thankfully, I was also familiar with the relevant media reports, videos and musical pieces as well as the court documents regarding Vera Serova’s lawsuit against Sony, MJJ Productions and John Branca of MJ’s Estate who were allegedly hoodwinked by the horrible Cascios. The lawsuit lasted for 8 years, survived two teams of Serova’s attorneys and a number of back-and-forth appeals before finally reaching the Supreme Court of California, after which it was settled on undisclosed terms. The Cascio songs were removed from the disc and all streaming platforms, but the Estate and Sony still remain firm in their position that the songs are real.
In so mysterious a story it was necessary to dig really deep and not only read and listen to everything under the sun but also learn the basics of the sound-engineering process without which it would be impossible to understand the duplicity of statements of some participants in this drama and the incredible scale of their hypocrisy.
I also went through hundreds and hundreds of pages on the MJJCommunity forum – which was actually a thriller of a job as it displayed the drama in its 14-year long development and provided some invaluable and sometimes crucial details.
Besides, it also showed a huge divide between the extremely vocal anti-Cascio group and the silent majority of fans who rarely talk but consider the tracks authentic or are sane enough to realize that given the circumstances the songs had to be processed – Michael Jackson is no longer there and is unable to re-record something or provide the missing parts, so we have to make do with what we have.
By now the fiery dispute over those tracks has somewhat died out – both sides look listless and act like they can’t care less. I wouldn’t bother either, if it were not for the sudden emergence of Damien Shields’s “Faking Michael” series and the amazing coincidence that the podcast appeared just a week after the Cascios’ alleged demand for $213 mln from MJ’s Estate – the problem most probably stemming from breaking the contract for the release of 12 songs submitted to the Estate and Sony by Cascio, Porte and their Angelikson company.
In case you don’t know, “Angel” in “Angelikson” stands for Eddie Cascio (this is how Michael Jackson used to call the younger brother of Frank Cascio) and “kson” is actually part of Jackson’s name.
Eddie the Angel said that the songs were recorded in 2007, when Michael Jackson and his children stayed with the Cascio family for about 3 months and they worked together in their home studio in the basement of their house in New Jersey. Michael was said to be singing from a shower cabin for better sound, a raised platform was installed nearby for him to dance there and as far as I remember Michael also slept somewhere around as his bed was also in that basement.
The 12 songs brought by Eddie Cascio and James Porte in 2009 were rumored to be sold to Sony and Estate for $5 mln, but only three songs were selected for the first album while the rest were put side until another time – however due to the scandal were never taken up again.
This leaves us with only Breaking News, Monster and Keep Your Head Up from the Cascio collection which later became part of the first posthumous Michael album released on December 14, 2010.
These three tracks were mixed and reworked by sound engineer Stuart Brawley and finished by producers Teddy Riley (Breaking News, Monster) and Jacen Joshua (Keep Your Head Up). The other tracks on the new album came from varied sources – some were old and fully finished, but were discarded by Michael Jackson for his earlier albums and possibly required some “modernization”; others were leaked long ago and were nothing new, or were the duets that contained only patches of Michael’s vocals. For example, the Hold My Hand duet with Akon had only 30% of Michael’s voice and was also leaked when MJ was still alive despite taking every possible precaution.
So the new Cascio songs seemed to be the most prized possession of all as they were the latest and most awaited by the public. The fact that added a huge amount of credibility to the songs was that they came from the Cascios – the people of high esteem who were like a second family to Michael and a safe haven for him and his children throughout his life. Add to it that Frank Dileo, Michael’s manager also endorsed them as he heard some of those recording sessions when he spoke with Michael Jackson over the phone.
The 12 tracks were made in cooperation with Eddie’s partner James Porte, a professional sound engineer and producer who had been invited to work with the 17-year old Eddie Cascio by Michael Jackson himself. Michael Jackson cooperated with Eddie and James at least since 2001 when both of them were writing songs for the Invincible album. Many Michael’s collaborators perfectly knew about that cooperation, and this too left little room for doubt about the Cascio songs’ authenticity.
But several months before the album release on December 14, 2010 the three songs from Cascio and Porte met with a fierce opposition on the part of the Jackson family.
Taryll Jackson
The first to express his fury was Taryll Jackson, the middle son of Tito Jackson. Episode 3 of “Faking Michael” podcast describes the way Taryll Jackson entered the scene.
“Upon starting on the project Teddy Riley and Lawanda invited the King of Pop’s nephew Taryll Jackson to join them in the studio. Lawanda was not only managing Teddy at the time, but also Taryll.”
Wait, the story has not even begun but we already stumble upon a person we’ve never heard of.
Who is Lawanda Lane? According to his interview with Billboard Damien Shields couldn’t reach this woman for 11 years and when she finally called him “at 2 in the morning Australian time”, he dropped everything and spoke to her “for four and a half hours.” Judging by the dates the conversation must have taken place sometime in 2021, and according to Shields it turned out to be “one of the cornerstone interviews for his research”.
Well, if that is the case, then it is an absolute must to find out who this super-important woman is.
On Instagram Lawanda (LaWanda) Lane goes by the name of @lalaelizalane and is described as a “mom and auntie” who works in fashion. Nowhere does she say that she was a manager of Teddy Riley, however we can assume that in her younger years she could indeed be a kind of a secretary or assistant to him.
lalaelizalane – Lawanda Lane. A mom, auntie, fashion, I work with amazing people, travels, music, movies. Lover of God, a conduit.
Nowadays her page on “Handbook”, which is supposed to be the “exclusive celebrity database” describes Lawanda Lane as a “social media influencer”.
“Handbook” describes Lawanda Lane as a “social media influencer”
The photo of the same Lawanda Lane is also found on the Internet on a site which opened only recently, on Nov.20, 2024 (just 10 days ago) under a strange title “Misunderstood statements”.
What adds to the mystery is that Lawanda’s photo is exactly the same as on her Handbook and Instagram pages but over here she is depicted with no head to her body.
See for yourself: https://enquete.paulodefrontin.rj.gov.br/inappropriatepublic4/lawanda-lane.html
As to the page content the “Misunderstood” site describes Lawanda Lane as an accomplished artist and “winner of the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2023” – however the list of winners on the respective site does not contain any such name. So is it a joke, a parody or what?
According to “Misunderstood Statements” Lawanda Lane is also an “artist and winner of prestigious grants”
What isn’t a joke though is that Lawanda Lane works as a caregiver for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s twin daughters. The thing is that for many years Lawanda Lane had been a close friend of Kim Porter, Diddy’s wife, and after her death she took care of their twin daughters (now 17). While their father Diddy is in custody now the girls and Lawanda moved to Los Angeles where the girls attend high school and fashion shows.
Diddy’s twin daughters are under the care of family friend as he awaits trial
Lawanda Lane was also a friend of Tito Jackson and dedicated a post to him when he recently died.
“I remember when we did this shoot. Miss my friend. This is a great pic his son took” [Lawanda Lane @lalaelizalane, 2024-9-24]
LaWanda Lane is known for TJ Jackson: Last Night (2020)
“Last Night” was released on July 2, 2020. https://youtu.be/haFVqmfDSK0
TJ is the singer, Taj Jackson is the video director and Lawanda’s name is found among the “additional crew” in the capacity of an assistant production coordinator for the project.
So judging by IMBs this seems to be her only accomplishment in the music industry – with no mention of Teddy Riley or anyone else there.
In fact, the only other place where we meet Lawanda and the Jacksons again is the Cascio saga related to us by the “Faking Michael” podcast. So let’s go back to where we left off and see how Taryll Jackson found himself in Teddy Riley’s recording studio at all.
“Upon starting on the project Teddy Riley and Lawanda invited the King of Pop’s nephew Taryll Jackson to join them in the studio. Lawanda was not only managing Teddy at the time, but also Taryll.
And Teddy and Taryll had been discussing the idea of working together as a production duo and so the new Michael Jackson album presented the perfect opportunity for that idea to become a reality.”
Taryll recalls:
«I met with Teddy and we started talking about music and about MJ and songs and all kinds of stuff and we just connected, so we were going to become like a production team and we were going to start doing a bunch of production stuff together. And at the time he was approached by the Estate to start working on this project – a Michael Jackson project of all these songs, and he said, “You know if I do this we’re going to do this together and it’s what Michael would want”. “And you know I was off for it.”
Well, of course he was off for it (who wouldn’t?), so the next step in their collaboration was to document the newly formed alliance by having a photo of them working together in the studio.
Lawanda invited Jackson’s longtime photographer Harrison Funk to document the process.
Funk recalls: I came in because Teddy’s manager called me and said Teddy wanted me to come down and shoot. Okay, fine. And I knew Teddy, so that wasn’t a big surprise and I documented every nuance of the recording as I would have done for Michael. I was in there, you know, with all the background people. And the vibe in the studio was awesome, it was a lot of fun, and I think that Teddy’s heart was really in the project.
Regrettably, no idea of a photo session came to the Cascios and Michael Jackson who were busy doing a job and not capturing themselves for history. This was a huge oversight on their part because now the anti-Cascio activists demand photos of them working together with Michael. Even the words of Michael’s bodyguards who heard the music recorded in that basement are not enough proof for these people – “they must have been working on Thriller 25 tracks”(which they really did), “so the Cascio songs have nothing to do with it”.
The only evidence that can probably suit the naysayers is a video of Michael actually singing the Cascio songs. And surprisingly, during the This is it rehearsal Michael did indeed sing a piece of the Cascio’s “Water” (which wasn’t selected for the album) but even that was discarded as no proof in a long and rambling explanation provided in episode 9 of “FM” podcast.
The explanation didn’t explain anything except that the song “Water” was indeed written by Cascio and Porte and that Michael Jackson was indeed humming it during the This is it rehearsal.
According to “FM” podcast the vibe in the studio was good, but only until the 12 Cascio songs were delivered there. After that Taryll began “to feel a lot of negative energy in the room” which was so bad that the computers began to occasionally shut down on their own. The Cascio songs were undoubtedly to blame for it because
“Michael’s voice was pure, powerful and uplifting and had always made Taryll feel good, but the Casio tracks were having the opposite effect. Listening to those vocals was making him feel sick. To Taryll they just sounded bad”.
Teddy Riley was asked to choose one of the 12 songs to start working on, but in contrast to Taryll he apparently liked them so much that he wanted to work on eight of them.
In fact you can even see the enthusiasm in Teddy Riley’s eyes when he was talking about those songs. His eyes are positively sparkling with excitement here:
Teddy Riley: “Believe me, this is really Michael’s voice, yeah, whoever says whatever…”
However McClain didn’t allow Teddy to work on more than one song at a time. The “FM” podcast says:
“Full of enthusiasm for the project, Teddy responded telling them that that he wanted to work on eight different Casio tracks” but the Estate co-executive John McClain insisted that Teddy could have only one song.
They would listen to “what he’d done and decide whether Teddy was the right producer for the job or not.”
McClain himself was working on one of the Cascio tracks called All I Need in cooperation with the renowned Burt Bacharach, however eventually that song was excluded from the album and never reappeared again – which is a complete shame, in my opinion. The song would have been fantastic had it been finished and made it into the album. Here is one of its versions:
The Rolling Stone said about that track:
“All I Need” is a gentle, piano-driven ballad similar to “Much Too Soon”. The track features a mellow horn solo and choir-like backing vocals, and was recorded with producer Eddie Cascio. The embellishments were added by legendary songwriter Burt Bacharach; they certainly sound like his work.
At some point Teddy Riley began working on three Cascio tracks and Lawanda complained that McClain was pressuring Riley too hard. According to her Teddy felt very uncomfortable as McClain basically demanded that he should “do what he is told” and Teddy felt like he had McClain’s “foot on his neck”. McClain wanted Teddy to “work fast” and in general “was being horrible to him”, according to Lawanda.
This makes me suspect that the Cascio songs had nothing to do with the negative energy in that studio after all.
The dynamic between the two Estate executives McClain and Branca wasn’t the best either – McClain wanted to have three Cascio songs on the album while Branca wanted five. McClain also insisted that it was he who was “doing the music” and tried to exclude Branca from the process. But the most friction seemed to center not on the songs proper, but on the schedule and on how soon the tracks would be ready for release.
Marvin’s studio where Terry Riley was working belonged to McClain, and when Teddy eventually asked to be moved to another studio McClain allegedly went crazy, kicked him out and threatened to replace him with a different producer. The co-executor John Branca and Sony people made him calm down, and the foursome (Teddy, Taryll, Lawanda and photographer Harrison Funk) happily moved to another studio called Encore.
But over here another chapter of the soap opera began.
A NEW CHAPTER
If Teddy Riley hoped to be more comfortable in the new studio, his hopes were doomed to failure from the start because this time the studio was invaded by various members of the Jackson family.
When Teddy was provided with one more Cascio track called Keep Your Head Up (which is my favorite) Lawanda said that “it sounded horrible” and over the next few days she called several Jacksons to listen to the Cascio tracks. Everyone said that “something was wrong with his vibrato.” Randy Jackson was invited too and also thought that the vibrato wasn’t Michael’s, proclaiming that he would bet his life on the fact that the songs were fake.
The other complaints were that the tracks lacked Michael’s signature finger snaps and no foot stomping (hardly possible on the porcelain floor of the shower cabin in my opinion).
As to Taryll, TJ and Taj Jackson they did not only reject the vocals but also the lyrics. Previously Jermaine found it strange that in “Breaking News” Michael sang his own name (…everyone wants a piece of Michael Jackson…) and upon hearing Michael sing this line Taj Jackson nearly had “a heart attack”
- “[Our] uncle would never mention himself in a song. It’s just not who he is, it’s the opposite of him. It’s a very conceited line. It doesn’t even represent what he would be singing about.”
For Taryll Jackson the whole Cascio collection “screamed phony”, so to prove his point he played to the congregation the song by Jason Malachi (Mamacita) released in 2007 , at which time it was accidentally mistaken by the public and Michael’s fans for the real Michael Jackson song.
Malachi himself was stunned by the reaction and before finally admitting his authorship kept everyone in the dark for some time as to who was the singer – he was apparently amused by the mistake and even took pride in being taken for Michael Jackson.
TMZ was routinely offensive towards MJ: “New Jacko Tracko -Done by a White Guy!” [Sept. 21, 2007]
However this so-called Malachi’s song was actually not his – it was first sung by a rising star Chris Trousdale in 2005.
You can see Chris Trousdale performing “Let Me Let Go” in New York City on March 15, 2006:
As to Chris Trousdale’s song it indeed originated from an earlier “Monster” which was written – you won’t believe it – by the same Eddie Cascio and James Porte, only sometime around 2001.
The first “Monster” was written for the Invincible album, was even partially recorded by Michael Jackson and had a very good bridge according to producer Michael Prince who was present at the recording sessions.
The first version of “Monster” was allegedly different, wasn’t finished and was later abandoned by Michael Jackson. However, same as other Michael’s songs, it was obviously leaked, reworked in its lyrics and melody and given to Chris Trousdale. But Chris Trousdale died young and eventually the song somehow landed with Jason Malachi.
So this was the round-about-way in which Malachi’s “Let Me Let Go” became sonically close to the two versions of “Monster” both of which were composed by Cascio and Porte, only at different times.
The Jacksons didn’t know of the song’s origin but were amazed by all these similarities, and their verdict was ready with no more proof needed – “the Cascio songs are fake and are sung by Jason Malachi.”
According to the “FM” podcast, everybody insisted that Teddy should stop working on the Casio tracks immediately.
Teddy agreed, assuring them that he would do whatever the Jackson family wanted. However when Taryll arrived at the studio the next day Teddy was yet again working on the Casio tracks. Taryll was furious asking Teddy why he would waste his time on fake songs.
Caught between the two fires, Teddy answered that “he was only continuing to work on the Casio tracks in the hopes that he would eventually be given a real Michael Jackson song.”
However when the Estate and Sony arranged two official listening sessions to determine whether the Cascio songs were real or not, Teddy Riley allegedly “flipped sides” and announced that the songs were sung by Michael Jackson.
Lawanda and Taryll see the money motive behind Teddy’s so-called betrayal. According to them Taryll Jackson told the truth (the way he understood it) and paid a high price for it – he didn’t receive a cent for his non-vocal recital in “Hollywood Tonight” and missed some career opportunities at that.
And Teddy Riley who allegedly flipped sides was lavishly paid for his services. Lawanda Lane says that she was the person entrusted to negotiate Teddy’s payment, so now she readily shares with the “FM” podcast the sums received by Teddy Riley for his work.
The sums included:
- “The $75,000 and 10% publishing Teddy received for his work on Hollywood tonight
- He was also paid $50,000 per Casio track for his remixes of Breaking News, Monster and Burn Tonight though the latter was not even included on the album.
- He also received $25,000 for the work he did on the Casio track Keep Your Head Up despite the fact that he abandoned production on it “because of the vocals”.
“So in the end Teddy alone was paid $250,000 for his work on the Michael album”.
As to our good Lawanda, to “everyone’s shock” this honorable woman resigned – even though she “worked so hard”. The explanation given by her is the following:
“I was like – I can’t do this and I resigned, and everybody was in shock because I worked so hard. And I didn’t want to be a part of foolishness. He grabbed me by the arm and pushed me back. He had betrayed me, my uncle, my family. Teddy flipped the script and was like “yep that’s him” and just went against everything that he said he stood for. Teddy lied. He just told me one thing and did another. Now, I could have just stayed. I had integrity and I said to myself – you either stand up for something or you fall for anything.”
What an upstanding position indeed, and what a rare exception to the corrupt and depraved world of music industry, especially now that we know how dark and Diddy-like this world really is!
GHOST SINGERS, MIMICS AND THE LIKE
In no time at all the controversy over the Cascio songs spilled out into the open. Without thinking twice Taryll Jackson went on Twitter to declare that the songs were fake and sung by a soundalike and not his uncle. All fingers pointed at the policeman named Jason Malachi, though his only guilt was that his natural voice sounded like Michael’s (except for the faster vibrato, of course).
On the other hand there were several professional singers and mimics who could sing much better than Malachi and imitate Michael Jackson’s voice down to its every detail. One of them is an Italian-born Ricky Galliano who made a tribute single to Michael Jackson and released an electronic mix of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” on October 1, 2009 – soon after Michael’s death and a year before the Michael album went into production.
I’ve listened to Ricky Galliano’s rendition of Billie Jean in “Rocco Deep Mix” and find it a complete marvel. No wonder it was quite a success.
Here it is.
Rocco & Danny Marquez – Billie Jean (Rocco Deep Mix).
Produced by Rocco & Danny Marquez *Vocals by Ricky Galliano
Released on: 2009-10-01
With so many talents around us, some of whom can perfectly imitate Michael Jackson’s voice and who were already known to the public in autumn 2009, it is unclear why any would-be-conspirators who allegedly wanted to fake Michael Jackson’s songs didn’t approach Galliano instead of Malachi, especially since the latter was singing with the unwanted vibrato.
Anyone who listened to Galliano will say that he is the guy for the job – and no one would have noticed the difference had it been him.
Believe it or not but on November 22, 2010 – in the midst of all that buzz over the Cascio songs – Ricky Galliano spoke to the Sun and claimed that sometime in October (the year was not specified) he was paid cash for 21 tracks to be sung in Michael Jackson’s style and to do so he was summoned to a secret studio in a Swiss city of Lausanne. The go-between was believed to be someone from Bahrain.
Galliano was allegedly paid up-front €2 000 per track and was asked to make his voice sound as much like Michael’s as possible. The owner of the studio where Ricky recorded the tracks was Mohammed Ben Salah who said that he believed the songs were for a Michael Jackson tribute disc.
Ricky Galliano claims that he was paid to mimic MJ in October [2009]
Italian-born Ricky told The Sun newspaper:
“They were most insistent that I make my voice sound as much like Michael’s as possible – to mimic him exactly.”
He explained how he recorded the songs after being approached by a man, whom he thinks was from Bahrain, to record the studio sessions, and paid €2 000 per track.
The owner of the studio where Ricky cut the tracks, Mohammed Ben Salah, said he believed they were for a Michael Jackson tribute disc. https://www.news24.com/life/michael-jackson-impersonator-on-michael-20101123
Well, the source is the Sun of course, but the “Billie Jean” mix was indeed recorded in Switzerland; Ricky Galliano himself resides in Switzerland, Geneva, the real name of DJ and producer Rocco is Sémakdji Mourad and the electronic mix made by his team was indeed used for a MJ tribute.
What happened to the other 20 songs allegedly recorded by Ricky Galliano I have no idea, but it is clear that the Cascios and Porte have nothing to do with it – their recordings had a vibrato which everyone associated with Jason Malachi and Jason Malachi alone.
On the other hand the remaining 20 songs could not be wasted away either, and in case some other tracks on the album were not finished or were lacking parts, the producers responsible for those songs could indeed (only in theory, of course) use some snippets of Galliano’s voice to fill in the gaps.
And let us not get horribly shocked or faint at this theoretical supposition of mine – only the naïve are unaware that things like that are universally practiced in the pop music industry. The lead vocals are routinely sliced into pieces, reshuffled, copy-pasted and combined with someone else’s voices, the strong but unknown background vocalist may be taken forward while the weak voice of a celebrity will go back, and all this can be done not only in a studio but “live on stage” too, not to mention the deceased singers, whose records may indeed require a good deal of legit restoration to give the song a more or less finished sound.
Cory Rooney, for example, who looks like a purist who will reject any cheat in making music considering his outrage over the Cascio “fakes”, is known to have produced Jennifer Lopez’s songs where some unknown singers …well …. sort of “lent their voices to her”.
In each of his episodes Damien Shields reverently calls Cory Rooney a former Vice-President of Sony Music Entertainment (which is true), however the nuance lost on his listeners is that Cory was nominated for this post in 1998 by Tommy Mottola after Mariah Carey left him (in 1997) and Mottola was set to take revenge on her by sending into stardom his new favorite – Jennifer Lopez.
Lopez however, is a splendid dancer but no vocalist, and being aware of her vocal deficiencies, the newly appointed Cory Rooney had to manipulate Lopez’s voice to a degree when her vocals were actually replaced by the vocals of some unknown singers.
The music industry insiders are perfectly aware of it, and know that in some cases J.Lo sings no more than 5% of her songs, while the real lead singers are credited as back vocalists or not credited at all.
And after the 20 years of this practice, now that Diddy’s protection of Jennifer Lopez has somewhat diminished, the news of these manipulations is finally beginning to surface.
How Jennifer Lopez succeeded in music without being a good singer
Carlos Megía
JUL 22, 2023
…In addition to her boyfriend at the time, rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs — also known as Puff Daddy — the all-powerful Tommy Mottola was the intellectual and financial mastermind behind J.Lo’s leap into the spotlight.
Mottola’s amorous misadventures sparked the first major controversy surrounding Lopez’s first album; several sources claimed that the jilted mogul had stolen melodies and samples of future songs from his ex-wife, who had left the label after their separation, and given them to Lopez.
The executives’ obsession with giving Lopez the best available songs even led them to take potential hits away from other artists, especially African-American musicians who were just starting out in the industry. Chante Moore claimed that Diddy demanded that producer Rodney Jerkins snatch a demo called “If I Gave Love” from her and turn it into the smash hit “If You Had My Love”.
In addition, Lopez’s vocal skills were always questioned. Stereogum asserted that listening to her could be described as an experiment in hiding a star’s vocal deficiencies.
Singers who have gone on to illustrious careers have also admitted that they lent their voices to some of J.Lo’s hits. For instance, despite not being credited as a vocalist, Christina Milian sings the entire chorus on the song “Play” (Milian also wrote the song’s lyrics).
The same occurred with singer Ashanti on Lopez’s singles “I’m Real” and “Ain’t it Funny”; the former’s voice was featured in the final versions despite the fact that Lopez was the only recognized singer.
It also happened with Natasha Ramos in “Jenny from The Block”.
When answering the question how J.Lo managed to get away with ghost singers and avoid a “Milli Vanilli”-type scandal for so long, those in the know explain the technical side of it by using Lopez’s signature song “Jenny from the Block” as an example.
- “Natasha Ramos was hired to do a demo of it and background vocals. The demo was for Jennifer Lopez to learn and record it herself. But J.Lo can’t sing, so instead, the executives and producers basically stole Natasha’s voice by keeping it front and center in the song and put Jennifer Lopez in the background. They paid J.Lo millions and Natasha peanuts despite using her vocals as lead and passing them off as Jennifer Lopez. J.Lo mainly just did the verses which is not even the singing part. Same thing happened with Ashanti on J.Lo’s songs.”
Wiki says that the executive producer for Lopez’s signature song was Cory Rooney, along with Troy Olivier, Samuel Barnes, and Jean-Claude Oliver.
And Cory worked not only on that song, but on at least five Jennifer’s albums where each and every song was produced under his guidance and each could be very well engineered in a manner described above.
And now this person is moralizing us on the alleged use of an impersonator in the Cascio songs? Indeed, he who is to blame most shouts the loudest!
THE PLOT THICKENS
Facing the mess around the three Cascio songs the Estate and Sony took the matter seriously. They re-approached everyone who was connected with mixing the songs, had them listen to their acapella versions and separately asked each of the experts for their opinion. Part of them stood their ground and said that the songs were authentic while others couldn’t say it one way or the other and were sitting on the fence.
The Estate and Sony also had the tracks examined by two separate musicologists (their names are not disclosed) who made a wave form analysis of the songs and confirmed that they were authentic.
Besides that the Estate’s co-executor John Branca and attorney Howard Weitzman made separate calls to Jason Malachi himself. Malachi denied any involvement and said that he wouldn’t risk his job by creating forgeries – singing was Jason’s hobby while his regular job was with the police (he has been in law enforcement for 15 years and is now a deputy sheriff at the Montgomery Sheriff’s office).
After the two listening sessions, consulting two prominent figures who used to work with Michael Jackson and the two wave-form analyses the Sony concluded:
“[We] have complete confidence in the results of our extensive research, as well as the accounts of those who were in the studio with Michael, that the vocals on the new album are his own”.
Here is the report of attorney Howard Weitzman who was entrusted with the investigation (more about it in another post).
But instead of subsiding the uproar over those tracks was going only stronger, and it was decided to broadcast the song “Breaking News” on November 8, 2010 – a month before the release of the whole album in order to test the waters and get some feedback from the public and MJ’s fans.
However the waters were already hopelessly poisoned, especially since the Jacksons and others went on tweeting that the songs were fake.
Taryll Jackson, November 8, 2010
- “I am shocked that things have gotten this far. This is ridiculous. I was at the studio when these questionable files were delivered. I heard these “so-called” Michael Jackson songs raw and without the distraction of the well produced music by Teddy Riley. How they constructed these songs is very sneaky and sly. many people who have worked on this project either have strong doubts and questions, while others KNOW the truth, yet decided to turn and look the other way with their hands out for $$$. I will NEVER look the other way. Right is Right, Truth is Truth, Facts are Facts, and it will all come out!!! I tried so hard to prevent this craziness, but they wouldn’t listen. I KNOW my Uncle’s voice and something’s seriously wrong when you have immediate FAMILY saying it’s not him. Don’t you have to wonder why? I have strong, undeniable points. They can’t give me answers, yet continue to move forward with lies and deception. Sounding like Michael Jackson and BEING Michael Jackson are two different things.”
TJ Jackson, November 8, 2010
- “There are many MJ vocal impersonators – some better than others – but there is only ONE Michael Jackson. Deceptively merging shady vocals with MJ samples will never fool me. Why they would ignore the obvious, look the other way, and rush a suspicious track (‘Breaking News’) that was NEVER on my Uncle’s radar is beyond me. I’m disgusted, disappointed and saddened.”
Cory Rooney, November 2010
- “I have read the statement [in defense of the Cascio tracks] from the MJ Estate, and I have to say that it’s just more bullshit! I was in that room, and the majority of the people mentioned did not agree that it was MJ! Some felt it sounded like him, but all agreed that there was nothing there that was consistent with any MJ habits like finger snaps, headphone bleeding, foot stomping or just simple things like his voice asking for another take. Both Dr. Freeze and Teddy Riley sat with Taryll Jackson and myself and stated that they felt what we felt.”
Cory Rooney, November 8, 2010
- “YouTube ‘Jason Malachi.'”
TMZ obtained a snippet of Paris Jackson’s video chat with a friend which was recorded in November that year where Paris also said that it wasn’t her father’s voice. However her comment only complicated things further because as proof of her words she played the song Hold My Hand – a duet with Akon which no one had yet disputed before her.
They FAKED My Dad’s Voice on ‘Michael’ Album
Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris made a bombshell announcement to friends … telling them the MJ album released in the wake of the singer’s death did NOT contain MJ’s actual voice … it was an imposter. … the announcement was made during an online video chat with several friends in 2010 … just before the “Michael” album was released.
“During the video chat, Paris played one of the songs from the album, “Hold My Hand” … and one of her friends asks why the singer doesn’t sound like MJ.
Paris replied, “It’s NOT him … the whole album isn’t even him!! Go online … go on YouTube and look up Jason Malachi. That’s him!!” She continues, “I should know if it’s him or not because he would sing to me all the time.”
MJ’s fans were surprised by the new twist to the story and complained that
- “lot of people corrected her saying that it wasn’t a Cascio song, it was an old song and it was Michael. But Paris rejected them all with saying “he sang to me every night, I know his voice (better)”
Ivy of the MJJCommunity seemed to express the general opinion that they couldn’t rely on a kid who was simply picking it up from the adults around her:
- This isn’t new at least for us. Paris on her formspring and her twitter – now verified – said similar things. She said it’s not Michael, she said it’s for money, she said the exact same quote of “he sang to me everyday I know his voice” and she even clearly and specifically said that “Hollywood Tonight” isn’t Michael – multiple times. …like Hollywood tonight, her mention of “Hold my Hand” and “whole album” shows that she’s not real knowledgeable about the issue. In short it will just show that Paris agrees with the opinion of the songs being fake, however it’s not based on facts or first hand knowledge.
On November 9, 2010 Jackie Jackson also joined in and claimed that he and McClain had insisted “for many weeks” to have certain tracks removed from the album, but no one listened:
- My friend John McClain (co-executor of the Michael Jackson estate) and I have insisted for many weeks to have certain tracks removed from Michael’s new album. Unfortunately, our concerns were not taken seriously.”
But a week later (on November 17, 2010) Randy Jackson said exactly the opposite and claimed that McClain was so supportive of the Cascio songs that he “insisted that no family members were allowed at his studio where the project was being completed” and that McClain, same as John Branca, didn’t see “eye to eye” with the Jacksons. “What are they trying to hide?” he fumed.
Published: 18 Nov 2010
Randy Rages: ‘MJ Songs Are Fake’
Screaming foul play…Randy Jackson
MICHAEL JACKSON’s brother RANDY went on a Twitter rampage last night and made the astonishing claim that some of the songs on the tragic icon’s new album are bogus.
Despite experts insisting Jacko’s voice features on every track, Randy is adamant that simply isn’t the case — and he’s fuming at the Sony chiefs behind the release of Michael.
He says he was “sick” when label bosses signed a £165million deal with executors of the MJ estate to release 10 albums, claiming he became “suspicious” of the project when bosses banned the Jackson from visiting the studio while the tracks were completed.
The singer tweeted: “Me and my nephew were the first to say that it wasn’t his voice on some of the tracks. The family and the executors of the estate, Branca and (John) McClain, are not on the same page. We don’t see eye to eye.
“I became suspicious about the album, when I heard hen [ten?] armed guards were involved since my brother’s passing… John McClain insisted that no family members were allowed at his studio where the project was being completed.
“My first thought was, ‘What are they trying to hide?’
Teddy Riley (producer) was brought in just to mix and insisted on switching studios at which (point) he called me to come down and hear my brother’s music.
“I heard the music and I immediately said it wasn’t his voice. Some of the songs are him, and some aren’t. I would bet my life on that.”
His online rant also fuelled conspiracy theories into the King Of Pop’s June 2009 demise.
He added: “What’s worse (than) harsh is that my brother isn’t here, and all these people are more concerned about making money off his death.
“They could care less about why and how he died, or maybe they already know.”
The new album — due out on December 14 — has already attracted controversy.
Pop titans AKON and WILL.I.AM are at war after the BLACK EYED PEAS man blasted the posthumous collection as “disrespectful”. Akon — whose Jacko duet Hold My Hand is the first single release — hit back, claiming the 10-track disc serves as a fine tribute to the Thriller legend.
Let me make a side note here. All this incessant talk about “people making money off his death and no one caring about his legacy” sounds to me as a huge load of hypocrisy and idle talk.
Back in 2010 the Estate’s biggest concern was paying off Michael’s debts and restoring his fortune for the sake of his children in the first place. So all those who speak of the “greediness” of “powers that be” and them making millions “off Michael’s death”, had better shut up as it is actually them who don’t care about Michael’s legacy and don’t give a damn about his children.
As an alternative I would suggest that these critics take it upon themselves to pay off Michael’s debts and take care of Michael’s children this way. Who will be the first to volunteer, please?
Will.i.am and Akon are in dispute over the Michael album
Some will disagree and say that Will.i.am, for example, also protested against Michael’s posthumous album.
But Will.i.am was not privy to Michael’s financial situation and reasoned only from the point of view of MJ’s perfectionism.
Besides, being an insider in this business, Will.i.am was also aware that a posthumous album would be inevitably partially artificial unless it contained the fully finished songs that were polished during Michael’s lifetime and approved by MJ himself. And that it’s no use pretending that a posthumous album can be as excellent in quality as the one done during his lifetime.
But no one pretended that the songs on the Michael album were fully finished and impeccable.
NO SECRET AT ALL
In fact, the creators of the Michael album went to great pains to explain that the songs were incomplete and were only “the foundations” and “creative blueprints”, and certainly not Michael’s fully finished work.
The booklet that goes with the Michael album even says it in plain words that the album was (only) conceived and inspired by the King of Pop.
And before the album was released the major media journalists were gathered for the first listen and were provided with a press release that also made it clear that the songs were incomplete.
The BBC reported:
First listen: Michael Jackson’s new album
2 December 2010
The press release given to journalists at the album playback is honest in describing the source material for the album as “creative blueprints” and “foundations”.
In other words the songs were incomplete.
A team of producers including Teddy Riley, Eddie Cascio and Theron ‘Neff-U’ Feemster helped turn them into fully formed tracks. The result, somewhat predictably, is not a cohesive body of work. What this album doesn’t do is give fans an indication of what Jackson wanted to do with the new material he was writing, or leave clues as to his state of mind in his last few years. ‘Michael’ is released in the UK December 13th.
The Independent said the same:
Elisa Bray hears the record Michael Jackson never got to complete
Thursday 02 December 2010
Just when it seemed Michael Jackson had finally been left to rest in peace, out comes his first studio album in nine years. Yesterday it was played to a handful of journalists for the first time.
The project took shape when the producers and collaborators – including Akon, 50 Cent and Lenny Kravitz – took 10 unfinished songs by Jackson and completed them.
The late star’s vocals are more prominent in some songs than others, but [ ] a couple of the tracks are so over-produced that, with all the backing vocals, you can barely hear Jackson’s voice.
Only one of the tracks on the album was fully completed by Jackson (back in the Thriller era), the album’s closer, “Much Too Soon”. It could explain why some of the songs seem to simply fade away, without any proper endings, rather like the man himself.
So when half of MJ’s fandom claimed that the Estate and Sony committed a fraud and the album misled the purchasers as to its content, it becomes clear that none of them took the trouble to read the booklet for the album and all of them simply followed the whistling crowd in a zombie-like fashion.
Fortunately I have the original version of the album and can provide the screenshots.
Firstly, the information on the “Thank you’s” page says that the album was “conceived and inspired by the King of Pop Michael Jackson.”
It was only conceived and inspired by Michael Jackson….
The page containing the credits enumerates the songs and says which of them were written by Michael Jackson and which were not (Akon’s was not). “Written by Michael Jackson” means that he either composed music for it, or wrote the lyrics, or both.
The page with short credits says which songs were written by Jackson
Another page provides detailed credits for each song – who produced what, who were the vocalists, who did the sound-engineering job, etc.
And over here we are amazed to find that Michael Jackson is credited with lead vocals in only two songs – “Another Day” with Lanny Kravitz and “Behind the Mask” (circled in red).
This page contains detailed credits for all those involved in the album
The songs which credit Michael’s with background vocals are marked yellow and include “Another Day”, “Behind the Mask” and two Cascio songs – “Keep Your Head Up” and “Monster”.
Some songs mention additional background vocals by other vocalists (marked gray) and Michael Jackson’s name is not to be found there there at all (“Hollywood Tonight” and “Best of Joy”).
And finally, nobody’s vocals are mentioned (probably for copyright reasons) in Akon’s “Hold by hand”, “(I like) The Way You Love Me, “Much Too Soon” and the Cascio “Breaking News.”
In addition to the above the back side of the booklet says that these vocal tracks were “performed” by Michael Jackson and that the tracks were “recently completed using music from the original vocal tracks and music created by the credited producers.”
The back side of the album booklet
In other words, the album is practically screaming to its purchasers that though the songs are performed by Michael Jackson (they indeed are), his performance there is coming in varied degrees – sometimes it’s the lead vocals, sometimes it’s the background vocals, and some songs could probably be lacking some parts and this didn’t allow the album producers to even put Michael’s name there.
The text also openly reveals that the songs were “completed” (obviously by others) “using music from the original vocal tracks” and also the “music created by the credited producers”.
In short the producers of the album are exceptionally honest with its listeners and tell the whole truth as it is – most of the songs were incomplete and had to be reworked, processed and finished by other people who did the job to the best of their abilities. And this concerns not only the Cascio tracks but all others too.
So the only thing that was required of Michael Jackson’s fans was to take the trouble to read the information accompanying the album – which they apparently failed to do because hardcore fans like Damien Shields stifled all other voices and drowned them in the sea of those who screamed “foul play” from every corner, focusing their rage only on the Cascio songs for some reason.
The booklet for the album is also proof enough that the class lawsuit filed by Vera Serova on behalf of the “defrauded” purchasers does not have a leg to stand on – there was simply no subject matter for the lawsuit. No purchasers would have been fooled had they read the booklet and if they had, none of them would have expected the same quality of Michael Jackson’s songs as the one they were used to in his earlier albums.
Apparently, the lawsuit was a high-powered scam concocted out of thin air and most probably assisted by those who are sometimes called “the powers that be”. The first and foremost idea of these people was to bring down the Cascio family and ruin their reputation – in order to make their voices no longer valid in case they were summoned to the court of law to tell the innocent truth about Michael Jackson.
And if this scam managed to bring down the MJ Estate too, it could be regarded as an added bonus to the job so exceptionally “well done” by all these activists.
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Okay, but what about the infamous vibrato which every doubter of Cascio songs thinks to be “the most compelling evidence of all”?
Well, let us look into that too.