Just Blaze Reveals Michael Jackson Was Originally on Jay-Z’s ‘Girls, Girls, Girls (Remix)’

In the early 2000s, Michael Jackson and Jay-Z had some memorable moments together. The King of Pop popped up at Jay-Z’s headlining set at Hot 97’s Summer Jam concert in 2001, and the Brooklyn MC even made a cameo on Jackson’s “You Rock My World (Remix).” In a new interview with Noah Callahan-Bever for Bloomberg’s Idea Generation, longtime Roc-A-Fella producer Just Blaze added more tales to their storied relationship by revealing that Jackson contributed to the once-fabled “Girls, Girls, Girls (Remix).”

Produced by Blaze, the single originated from Jay-Z’s 2001 opus, The Blueprint, and peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. During quarantine, Blaze unearthed rare vocals from the Thriller legend on his own computer and realized that the urban legend of Jackson teaming up with Hov was indeed fact.

“So Michael Jackson is on the ‘Girls, Girls, Girls remix’ — the A version,” begins Blaze. “And I never knew that. I don’t know if I didn’t go to the studio that day. I thought it was an urban legend or something that Jay said like in jest one day or just was some kind of a myth.

He continues: “So one day I was looking for something on the server and I find this straight folder that says ‘MJ vocals.’ And I’m like, ‘MJ — don’t that mean Michael Jackson — oh whatever.’ And I’m thinking it’s probably stuff from — remember Jay had or remember they had the ‘[You] Rock My World’ — so I’m thinking it’s, like, takes from that session. And I’m like, ‘I don’t think they recorded this at Baseline, but let me take a listen and see what it is.’ And I realize as I’m listening to it it’s him singing on ‘Girls, Girls, Girls.’ And I’m like … ‘It’s true.’ The last 20 years, I just found it during quarantine. So all these years, I’ve never known it was a real thing. And turns out the files had been sitting downstairs this entire time.”

Watch Blaze’s full interview with Idea Generation below.