- A record producer said a version of Jay-Z's "Girls, Girls, Girls" featuring Michael Jackson exists.
- Producer Just Blaze previously thought the collaboration was "an urban legend."
Producer Just Blaze has confirmed that a version of Jay-Z's 2001 hit "Girls, Girls, Girls" featuring Michael Jackson exists, but that the recordings were lost for two decades.
Just Blaze, who produced the track, made the revelation during an appearance on the latest episode of the Bloomberg Originals series "Idea Generation," released on Monday.
"So Michael Jackson is on the 'Girls, Girls, Girls' remix – the A version," said 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."
Shortly after Jackson's death in 2009, Jay-Z told NME that the "Billie Jean" singer had recorded vocals for the track. The version featured on Jay's 2001 album "The Blueprint," however, did not feature Jackson.
Blaze said he found the Jackson version while searching his computer a couple of years back.
"I find this folder that says 'MJ vocals,'" he recalled. "And I'm like, 'MJ? Don't that mean Michael Jackson?"
"And I realize as I'm listening to it, it's him singing on 'Girls, Girls, Girls.' And I'm like, it's true," he added. "Like I never, the last 20 years... I just found it during quarantine. So all these years, I've never known it was actually a real thing. And turns out the files had been sitting downstairs this entire time."
The footage shows Jay performing his Nas diss-track "Takeover" on stage for the first time before bringing out Jackson.
Hov and Jackson can be seen chatting on stage as Jackson waves to fans and tells them he loves them. Jay then performs "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" — which samples The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" — to close out his set.
Speaking to NME in 2009, Jay recalled the historic moment.
"He played a concert with me in New York, which was great," he said. "He got up and he walked out and the place went mental, guys were just grabbing their hats and throwing them like, 'Aiiiiiiiiiieeeeee!'"