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“Jam”

Date range confirmed in Mike Smallcombe’s “Making Michael” (“In the summer of 1991 Michael enlisted the help of top producers Antonio ‘L.A.’ Reid and Babyface, real name Kenneth Edmonds, much to the dismay of his brother Jermaine, who was also working with the pair… Riley was asked to re-produce ‘Jam’ and ‘Dangerous’, which were started by other producers. Michael felt they weren’t ‘contemporary’ enough and wanted Riley to update the sounds.”)

Teddy Riley, co-writer, producer

Jam was a track that Michael had the idea for. He told me to see what I could do with it so I took it and created some more instruments and reproduced the record – and he loved it.

That's the way it worked a lot of the time. He'd come in with an idea and I'd flesh it out in the studio. He bought it to me as a DAT, and he told me there were things he wanted done, and I did them. It was my idea to get the rapper Heavy D to perform on there as well. He was Michael's favorite rapper at the time.

“Red Bull Music Academy Festival New York 2017” Interview (May 5, 2017)

He made it a point for me to go and listen to how he had "Jam" before I get to it. He said, "I really, really need you to hear this record. I don't know what to do with it." But do y'all know that Michael created "Jam" on the drum machine, himself, and had an MPC in the back, and he said, "You got to here this record." So, he played this record, [mouths beat of "Jam"] but it had nothing else, just a beat, and he's like, "What'd you think?" I said, "This is crazy. I don't know what I'm gonna do, but I know I want to be a part." He says, "You are. You're gonna take the drum machine and you're gonna work on this", 'cause I was working on all these beats, and he was loving all these beats, and he's like, "So, this may kick 'Jam' out." So, that's why he gave me "Jam". And when I took "Jam", I was just sitting there analyzing, how and what I'm going to do, and what could I add to really take this where it needs to go. And I started adding the horns, and all the crazy stuff, and all the villain stuff. And he's like, "This is brilliant. Now I gotta go back in and rewrite." And that's how we were making the records. We were passing them back and forth

Heavy D, rapper, “Vibe” magazine (June/July 1995)

I was in California the first time I heard Michael Jackson wanted to record with me. I was, like, Nah, no way, he’s too big, it can’t be true. Then I got a call from Michael’s people at my hotel telling me he was interested. But I still wasn’t believing it—I thought they were setting me up for a TV practical jokes show.

So me and my partner go to the place, and while we were waiting we were talking and cursing up a storm—I was thinking that if it was a blooper show, they wouldn’t be able to use it. Then Michael called and said he was on his way. When he got there he was just, like, "Hey, how ya doin?"

Michael’s just as regular as everyone else. We talked about all the normal stuff guys talk about. He’s real smart. People forget that he’s the most incredible entertainer we've seen in our lifetime. His name is Michael Jackson, not Super Michael Jackson. He makes mistakes just like all of us.

My favorite Michael Jackson song is “Music and Me.” It’s an old one, about him and his music, his love for music, and the time they’ve had together. It’s like a song that would be sung to a girl, but it’s all about music.

Brad Sundberg, studio engineer, Facebook post (November 28, 2017)

Rene was Bruce Swedien's songwriter/arranger. Rene was the Rene from Rene and Angela - an 80's R&B duo. He was funny could fly on an MPC-60 - Bruce's drum machine of choice. Bruce and I had recorded hundreds of acoustic drums into his MPC, so his sounds were incredible, and Rene was a master at creating great grooves. Can you say "Jam"?