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"Xscape"

Date range confirmed in Damien Shields’ “Xscape Origins” (“Michael spent most of May 1999 recording at both Sony Music Studios and the Hit Factory, which were a matter of feet apart on West 54th Street. At Sony, the Darkchild team finally presented their demos to Michael… [One of the] demos became ‘Escape’,”), as well as Damien Shields’ “Xscape Origins” (“One of the songs that sprouted from Rodney Jerkins’ 1999 New Jersey sessions with brother Fred Jerkins III and LaShawn Daniels was ‘Xscape’... engineer/producer Brian Vibberts… worked on ‘Xscape’ during the summer of 1999.”)

Rodney Jerkins, co-writer, “Associated Press” (May 2, 2014) (archived)

Jerkins said he and Jackson originally started work on the song “Xscape” in 1999 when they recorded the “Invincible” album. He revisited the track in 2003 and retouched it this year for the new eight-track album.

“Even when Michael was alive, we never stopped working on the song ‘Xscape,’” he said. “It was one of those songs where he specifically said to me, ‘It has to see the light of day one day.’”

Jerkins said he visited Jackson in 2007 in Ireland where they were “vibing out,” but didn’t focus on creating music exclusively.

“Billboard” (May 5, 2014) (archived)

When he was collaborating with Jerkins on "Xscape," which was recorded between 1999 and 2001, he sent the producer out to junkyards with a DAT recorder to find new percussion sounds. "[I'd] start hitting stuff and was like, 'Wow, that could fit in a song. That could go with the kick.' After awhile, the sounds started coming to life, and it was all of those moments of him constantly challenging for that next thing. He was so into trying to figure out how to create sounds.

"'Where is the sound that is going to make you listen to it over and over again?' " he'd ask Jerkins. "We have to be pioneers and create that next sound."

“MichaelJackson.com” (first accessed March 27, 2017) (archived)

“Wait until the world hears ‘Xscape’,” Michael Jackson declared to producer Rodney Jerkins. “MJ loved everything about it,” recalls Jerkins, “The energy, the lyrics. It’s kind of a prophetic song. Listen to the bridge. MJ says, ‘When I go, this world won’t bother me no more.’ It’s powerful.” In another verse, Jackson sings of escaping from the surveillance of “electric eyes.” Jerkins first presented an early demo without lyrics to Jackson in 1999 over the phone. The pair continued to work on the track up until the release of Invincible (and even a little bit after). When Jerkins came in the studio to update the song over a decade later, he says, “it was really important for me to kind of like zone out and think as if Michael was sitting right next to me—what he would be telling me and what I would be telling him. I knew that the times have changed sonically. I would’ve been saying to Michael, ‘It’s 808s now, the 808s are prevalent now, we gotta make sure they’re in it.’ And I know Michael would say, “but make sure it stays funky. It’s gotta be funky.” And I would tell Michael live horns and live strings are a feel-good element again in music today and the rhythm guitars. Michael loved guitars…When I was working on it—it sounds insane—but I was really trying to make sure I was kind of communicating with MJ, what I felt MJ would be telling me if he was right there working with me.” Of the final result, Jerkins says, “When I listen to it, I’m proud. It feels like what we did yesterday, it feels like what we would do today, and it feels like it could still work tomorrow. That was always the goal with us.”