One 4 Your Archives: Timeless Material: Michael Jackson, The Soulful Years

THIS mixtape right here was a project that i sat with for quite a few months before deciding to go ahead and put it out in January '06. i thought of the idea to do an Michael mix right when his trial was going on in the summer of '05. not that i necessarily needed anyone's approval but i kinda ran the idea by Drama, Jeanise, and the rest of my Aphilliates crew and my dude Applejac first and they all gave me the same response which was "nigga go for it!"

i coulda slapped a buncha cuts from "Off The Wall" and "Thriller" on it and called it a day, which is precisely what a lot of other DJ's decided to do to immediately capitalize off the media circus that swirled around this musical ICON, but i dared to be different, which has always been a creed that i subscribe to. not on some outlaw type shit mind you, but mainly on some DJ shit in general. i mean, who wants to sound like every other DJ in the city that doesn't respect the craft enough to actually put in the blood and sweat and PRACTICE in to be GREAT at it? certainly not this brotha here, but that's a whole nother post shawty...

anyway...

i had ambitious plans (there i go using that word again) of doing a double CD of all Michael joints and my first working title was gonna be "From Black To White". get it???

if not, it's pretty much self-explanatory, given the various shades of color that his skin has been at different times throughout his career but then i decided against that because i respect this man's music so much that it might've been taken the wrong way. also, i felt like even though the whole world absolutely CHERISHES his music (anyone who tells you differently is a fucking LIAR), 3 hours plus might've just been a TAD too much to digest in one sitting.

so what i did was scour the earth for every Michael/The Jacksons/Jackson 5 album that i didn't already have in my collection. no expense was spared and my girl at the time used to always look at me crazy for coming outta Earwax with stacks of dusty ass wax. she got over it though...

everyone knows "ABC" and "I Want You Back" as those are the obligatory "real old" Michael Jackson cuts that i've heard DJ's (including myself at times) spin at damn near every party i've been to for the last decade, and even WAY longer before that. my ambition (there i go again) with this mixtape was to give light to other joints that people either didn't know or just plain forgot about.

after it was done i sent out copies to Jazzy Jeff and Clark Kent and they both told me that i KILLED it. to have LEGENDARY DJ's like them say that about my mix meant the world because they are 2 of the DJ's that i most admire in this biz. personally, i think i did a pretty good job on it. the perfectionist in me wants to go back and revisit it without all the echoing "Jaycee" drops on it (it was my first big mixtape and i didn't want anyone to bite it so i put my name everywhere possible, forgive me lol.)

some people hail it as a classic, some even refer to it as the "illest Michael Jackson mixtape EVAR!" (stuntinonprose.blogspot.com, THANKS!!)

whatever your personal opinion of it is, i know it made sort of an impact amongst the people here in the streets of Atlanta who enjoy this sorta thing because a group of people that i used to associate with had the gumption to do a MJ themed party a few months right after this joint came out, even using the SAME picture from my CD cover as the basis for the flyer but not asking me to spin at the party on some straight bitch ass shit. (side note: not like i'm the authority on all things Michael but how y'all gonna do a MJ themed party but only play 1 hour of Michael shit? it's funny how a party like that had never been thought of to do in Atlanta until AFTER i did the mixtape. as Busta famously said on the Scenario remix "i see my influence still shinin'')

i also know for a fact that it made an impact around different parts of the world because no matter where i go, whether in the States or abroad people who are in the know about these type of things ALWAYS ask me about it and how can they get a hold of it.

although it's one long mp3 right now, here u go. until i dig up the actual cd this'll have to tide y'all over til then. you can thank me now or thank me later...

Michael Jackson: The Soulful Years