Like to listen to Michael Jackson from time to time?
You might be listening to burgled beats, according to Quincy Jones, the master music producer behind the King of Pop's most famous albums, such as Off The Wall, Bad and Thriller.
Jones and Jackson made music history (and millions) together, however, this week Jones claimed that his collaborator plagiarised some of his biggest hits.
Speaking to Vulture, the 84 year old said: "I hate to get into this publicly, but Michael stole a lot of stuff. He stole a lot of songs."
“Greedy, man. Greedy. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough - Greg Phillinganes wrote the C section, Michael should’ve given him 10 percent of the song. Wouldn’t do it.”
But the most shocking revelation was yet to come, when the music producer continued, commenting on a No. 1 single from Thriller, an album for which Michael Jackson won a record 8 Grammys.
He said: “Donna Summer’s State of Independence and Billie Jean. The notes don’t lie, man. He was as Machiavellian as they come.”
State of Independence was released the same year as Billie Jean, but was recorded earlier.
Jones has had to address controversy about the hit track before. It has been claimed that he originally didn't want the song to be included on Thriller, citing it as too weak for the album and disliking the bassline. He has called these rumours false in past interviews and said anyone could hear that it was a good song.
It now appears that he might have been trying to prevent the suspiciously similar bassline from coming out on Thriller, which would, and has, crushed the fame of another artist.
