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I was the scariest person on earth when I met Michael Jackson [laughs]. When I first met him he scared the [crap] out of me\u2026literally. I was at his compound in a room that [housed] all his accomplishments. I saw his humanitarian awards\u2026all of that stuff. And there was also a chessboard there in the middle of the room. So I\u2019m touching it because it\u2019s gold and platinum. And when I put my hand on the first piece Michael had his hand on my shoulder. And all I could do was fall to the ground. All I saw was Michael laughing. That put me at ease because usually when you are touching somebody\u2019s stuff in their house they look at you funny, but Michael just laughed. My heart was calmed down, until it was time for us to go into the studio to work on Dangerous. But before that whole experience of working with Michael I was going through a big transition in my life.<\/p>\n
Like I said, I lost both my brother and best friend. So, right after that Guy show I\u2019m driving in my Ferrari. I had gone through so much and all I wanted to do was produce. So I get a call on my cell phone from Michael Jackson! He\u2019s telling me that he wants to work with me! Michael was like, \u2018Can you be here next week?\u2019 That was the transition between Guy and me taking my career to the next level. I was struggling. I had moved back to the projects. I was going from hotel to hotel. And you know what saved me on my way to working with Michael? It was doing the remix to Jane Child\u2019s \u2018Don\u2019t Wanna Fall In Love\u2019. I can remember being in a hotel and Benny Medina (influential label executive) called me. He\u2019s like, \u2018I really want you to do this Jane Child remix because I want it to go urban\u2026it\u2019s too white\u2019 Now, I already loved \u2018Don\u2019t Wanna Fall In Love\u2019. It\u2019s a record that I had wished I produced. And then Benny calls me! Funny how the universe works. I knew I was going to tear that remix up.<\/p>\n
That song saved my life. I\u2019m thinking $20,000 for that remix. I thought it would help me pay off my credit card because that\u2019s all I had. I was on the outs with Zomba, so I wasn\u2019t getting any money from publishing. They thought I was stocking songs away. But Benny got me $75,000! That money got my family back to New York. I was ready to move everyone to New Jersey to a three flat condo. But my mom told me she wasn\u2019t going to move in with us until I brought her a house. And then my brother Brandon was shot. This was all in my mind going into Dangerous.<\/p>\n
Bringing back Michael to his R&B roots is something that I stood for. I didn\u2019t just want to go the pop route because that\u2019s not what he called me for. He called me for that New Jack Swing. That\u2019s what he wanted and that\u2019s what he got. When I was working on \u2018Remember The Time\u2019 this was at the same time I was doing a remix for \u2018D-O-G Me Out\u2019 in one room, \u2018Don\u2019t Wanna Fall In Love\u2019 in another room, and all of the other tracks I was presenting to Michael. I was at Sound Works studio in New York. I was using Q-Tip\u2019s (lead MC and producer of A Tribe Called Quest) little studio he was renting out. When I told him I needed a studio to work on Michael Jackson songs he was like, \u2018Oh, hell yeah!\u2019<\/p>\n
Working with Michael was like going to college. He basically gave me the map. He navigated me on how to actually compose. He taught me all the different ways of working with Quincy Jones and Greg Phillinganes. When I played my demos for Michael he stopped me at the fifth song, which was \u2018Remember The Time.\u2019 He took me to the back room and I thought I was going to get fired. I thought I had done something wrong, but it was a chord that he couldn\u2019t get around. He didn\u2019t know the church chords. The first chord you hear on \u2018Remember The Time\u2019 started off that song in a very church way. He never started off his songs in that way, and that\u2019s why he pulled me in the back because it was so unusual for him.<\/p>\n
Michael was testing me to see what the chord really was and what it meant to me. And he wanted me to play it right in front of him on this piano he had in his room. He was used to the straight C majors. He wasn\u2019t used to the C augmented chords. I could say I introduced the New Jack Swing chords to him. All of those songs were great to work on: \u2018In The Closet\u2019; \u2018Jam\u2019; \u2018Can\u2019t Let Her Get Away\u2019\u2026that\u2019s history for me. It was a great feeling to be a part of a huge selling album like that\u2026over 30 million records of Dangerous.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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Mike and me started the Invincible album in New York. That\u2019s when Michael built this studio for me on the top floor of a building. He had Criteria Studios build me a studio in a penthouse in two weeks. I kid you not. I went home and Michael was like, \u2018Go home\u2026the studio will be built in two weeks.\u2019 We finished everything else in Miami. When I started working on Invincible one of the songs that stood out for me was \u2018Whatever Happens.\u2019 It came from an artist that was signed to my label. We were going to sign him to Interscope, but this guy started tripping out. So I ended up going to the writers of that song and asked them could I produce the song for Michael. They let me do it. I told the label that I wanted a 40-piece orchestra to do strings on this record. And I told Michael that it would be great to have Carlos Santana on the song because of the guitars on there. Michael was like, \u2018Okay, we will make that happen.\u2019<\/p>\n
I wanted \u2018Whatever Happens\u2019 to be special. But we had a problem. Santana didn\u2019t want to leave the house at that time. He told us, \u2018This is family time.\u2019 He takes time out, for months, to spend with his family. So anything that would have to be done would be done at his home, so we went to his home studio. Santana was such a good guy\u2026very spiritual. And he is a very big fan of my idol Miles Davis. This dude had a Miles Davis guitar and all these performances on video. During the guitar track to \u2018Whatever Happens\u2019 Santana was doing the whistling that you hear. And Michael loved it. I remember his excitement over the record. He said, \u2018Let\u2019s keep it!\u2019 So we are working on the Invincible album and around the same time I invited Michael to Virginia. That was moment Virginia had a real respect for me. They were like, \u2018If he could bring Michael Jackson to Virginia as well as Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, he\u2019s bringing revenue to the state. So we have to respect him.\u2019 And I\u2019m talking about getting respect from the political side.<\/p>\n
I was in so much mess with this album [laughs]. Michael had me responsible for so many things. I remember Tommy Motolla (one-time head of Sony Music Entertainment) cursing me out telling me, \u2018This will be the end of your career if you don\u2019t turn over those masters!\u2019 I had no idea that Michael had told him I had the masters [laughs]. I called him up and said, \u2018My God Michael\u2026you put me in trouble with Tommy Motolla. Do you know who Tommy Motolla is? But I ended up helping Michael. I took the masters and I held them for him. Michael was upset with the marketing plans for the Invincible record. I was going to stand behind Michael and that\u2019s what I did. To me it was an album that was going to do the big numbers. But when Michael saw the marketing plans he told me, \u2018I\u2019ll be surprised if this album does only two million.\u2019 They took money from his budget, too. I didn\u2019t care about anything else. I just believed in Michael.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
2012<\/p>\n
vibe.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was the scariest person on earth when I met Michael Jackson [laughs]. When I first met him he scared the [crap] out of me\u2026literally. I was at his compound in a room that [housed] all his accomplishments. I saw his humanitarian awards\u2026all of that stuff. And there was also a chessboard there in the … Continue reading Teddy Riley explaining his involvement in Michael Jackson’s Dangerous and Invincible albums<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8173,7794,93,2710,11454,7811,1006,857,8174,7924],"class_list":["post-8140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-carlos-santana","tag-florida","tag-michael-jackson","tag-money","tag-music","tag-new-york","tag-q-tip","tag-teddy-riley","tag-tommy-mottola","tag-virginia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t