Michael Jackson’s executors say it’s him singing on new song Breaking News, and they really, really, really want to you believe them. A lawyer for the estate has issued a four-page essay in support of Breaking News and the rest of the controversial “Cascio tracks” on Jackson’s upcoming posthumous album. This is the voice of the King of Pop, they promise, vouched for by Jackson’s former producers, engineers, and two “of the best-known forensic musicologists in the nation”.
Nobody disputes that Jackson died with lots of songs in the vault. For years, there has been talk of a comeback album produced by R Kelly, Will.I.Am, RedOne and Ne-Yo, and representatives for the estate have said there are more than 100 tracks awaiting release. But scrutiny has fallen on a particular subset of these, recorded in 2007 with Eddie Cascio and James Porte. Cascio, 28, is the son of Jackson’s long-time friends Dominick and Connie Cascio, whom he has known since the 1980s. For one summer, Jackson and his family lived with the Cascios in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, where he reportedly recorded a dozen songs.
Five of these are slated for Michael, the upcoming album of unreleased material. But Jackson’s mother, Katherine, and his children, Paris and Prince, are said to be among those who feel the tracks obtained by Sony Records are fake. “[Katherine] says the Cascios have added some things and given the Sony corporation false tracks,” a source told CTV.
Full story: Michael Jackson estate fights back against album track ‘fake’ allegations | Music | guardian.co.uk