DJ Quik Reveals Michael Jackson Made Him Face Wall In Studio To Avoid Eye Contact
Michael Jackson was an enigma while alive, but a new story about the King Of Pop revealed just how eclectic he really was. DJ Quik says that he was told to turn around and face the wall once when the late singer came to a studio session.
The Compton, Calif. producer sat down with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, co-hosts of All The Smoke, on Thursday (March 9) and told them about his experience working with stars like Tupac, Prince, Snoop Dogg, and Jay-Z. When he got on the topic of MJ, the 53-year-old was visibly still bewildered by the experience he had.
More from VIBE.com
Questlove Wins Music Podcast Of The Year At 2023 iHeartPodcast Awards
Just Blaze Reveals How He Found Michael Jackson Version Of Jay-Z's "Girls, Girls, Girls"
“We booked his studio Westlake for my first single ‘Tonight’ and moved from our studio to his,” Quik began. “He wanted to get in there one time, so [..] they came through [and] warned everybody that Mike was finna come through and he didn’t want nobody to see him.” He goes on to describe how he and group of people were outside of the studio playing pool or relaxing in the kitchen area while taking a break from recording.
“These guys come in and they’re like ‘Aye y’all, we’re about to bring somebody through here.’ They didn’t ask us to leave; they asked us to just turn around and face the wall while they bring the artist through, right? So it’s like ‘Are y’all serious? This not a joke?'” Quik described how one of the men tried to calmly reason with him and admitted that he was a fan of his music in order to gain his favor before requesting him to turn around and face the wall once again.
“This sh*t seem weird as sh*t, like some police sh*t; ‘hands up on the wall.’ So the door opens, then you just hear some penny loafers running through the little thing. Turn around and you can see him, his little hair and sh*t. That motherf**ker went in the door and closed it. They were like ‘Alright, y’all cool, y’all can turn around.”
The “Put It On Me” artist described another studio experience where Michael Jackson was a bit more cordial but still came off as unwilling to connect with him. Quik surmised that his affiliation with Bloods turned the “Thriller” artist off, as he was “Crippin,” both Quik and Barnes said through laughs.
DJ Quik shared another story about Tupac and how they almost got into a fight over the former supposedly mimicking the latter’s performance style. “He got in my a** one time too,” Da Quiksta told All The Smoke. “We were about to get into a fight because he thought I was stealing his stage show — like when he would rap and jump up on the speakers.” Fortunately, they did not come to blows and instead channeled their adrenaline into lifting weights with one another.
Check out the full interview above.