Rest in Peace Michael Jackson, Long Live The King Of Pop

By now we’ve all heard the tragic news of the passing of Michael Jackson. Michael was and always will be one of my biggest inspirations musically, as I’m sure he is for many artists. As entertainers this day will go down in history as the day we lost one of the greatest entertainers in the history or entertainment.

2 months ago, I set out to recreate one of Michael’s most important albums: Off The Wall. My reasons for undertaking this projects were many. Off The Wall was a huge point of evolution in Michael’s career, his first time working with Quincy Jones and also his “Coming Of Age” in front of the world’s eyes. In much the same way, this project is intended to be the same thing for me. Musically we wanted to show that such an important album has inspired so many different people in so many different ways, and it was an incredible process sampling and re-imagining the album.

Due to the fact that Michael is no longer with us to receive this tribute I want to be very clear in saying in no way am I trying to capitalize on his death with this project. This is something that I’ve been excited about ever since I came up with the concept for it. Now that I’ve seen it come to life I feel like it’s even more important for it to be heard as a testament to just how much Michael has inspired generations of artists and will to continue to inspire further generations.

I hope more than anything that you will accept this project for what it is: A project inspired by one of the greatest. PERIOD. We are all affected by this one way or another. Michael’s legacy will never die. We won’t let it. With that said, Off The Wall will live again on the 30th anniversary of its original release August 10th, 2009.

-Esso