Michael Jackson fans say 'This Is Not It'

With the feature-length concert documentary “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” reaching theaters Wednesday for a limited two-week engagement, a group of concerned fans has started an “awareness campaign” to bring to light what they see as certain dark truths about the King of Pop. Namely, the campaign seeks to highlight what one fan describes as the “blatant lies and attempted cover-up by those around Michael in his final months.”

On the website this-is-not-it.com and a dedicated This Is Not It Facebook page, the fans allege that Jackson felt overworked and overwhelmed in the buildup to his 50 sold-out concerts at London’s O2 Arena. Testimonies by fans who claim to have interacted with Jackson in his final months describe how he was filled with anxiety, wracked with back pain and looked severely undernourished.

Moreover, the fans accuse executives at Jackson’s concert promoter, AEG Live, of being more concerned with making money than with the performer’s well-being.

A representative for AEG Live did not respond to requests for comment. 

“[W]e believe we can inform people and help them see the movie with different eyes,” reads a statement of purpose on this-is-not-it.com. “We can tell you this did not have to be IT and you could be watching Michael Jackson alive on a stage instead of a celluloid picture.

“It is our hope that many fans around the world will agree to join us and to unite one last time to do something that will shed light on the lies that are being said.”

The many meanings of Michael Jackson's 'This Is It'

COUNTDOWN TO 'MICHAEL JACKSON'S THIS IS IT'

In March, Michael Jackson called a press conference to announce what would have been his swan song as a touring artist: the 50-date concert series at London’s O2 Arena, “This Is It.”

“These will be my final show performances …in London,” said Jackson, haltingly, before a throng of screaming fans in what would be his final public appearance. “This is it! When I say this is it, it really means this is it!” He laughed.

Over the intervening seven months, and with the singer’s untimely death in June, that title has taken on a grave alternate meaning. And now with the release of the feature documentary “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” on Oct. 28, as well as a new song titled “This Is It” that was leaked earlier this month, that terse, three-word title is more front-of-mind than ever.

But according to Jackson’s closest collaborators in the last months of his life -- Kenny Ortega, director of both the “This Is It” concerts and movie, and Travis Payne, associate director/choreographer of “This Is It” -- the moniker came to mean a number of different things throughout the development of what would have been Jackson’s return to performing after a 12-year touring absence.

Ortega recalled Jackson reaching out to him in March to enlist his directing services for the comeback concerts.

As Ortega told The Times last week, “I’ll never forget, he said, ‘This is it!’ And I said, ‘OK.’ He said, ‘This is it’ two or three times. And I said, ‘You should call the show that.’ He didn’t say, ‘Well, I will.’ But suddenly I saw it on a banner. So he did after all.”

According to Ortega, a confluence of personal reasons compelled the superstar to make such an extended return engagement to the limelight. 

“He started saying, ‘Kenny, my kids are so fascinated with what I’ve been doing my whole life, they’re like super fans. So I want to share with my children now that they’re old enough to appreciate it and I’m still young enough to do it,’” Ortega said.

He continued, recalling Jackson as saying: “‘Importantly, I want to do it for my fans, who are the greatest fans in the world. They’ve stuck by me in everything I’ve been through. Then there are the messages in my songs. Some of the ones I wrote 10 years ago are more meaningful today.’ He was really concerned about the planet, the health of the planet and the lack of love on the planet. He said, ‘This is the time now.’”

Justice remixes, reimagines and quite possibly improves Lenny Kravitz's 'Let Love Rule'

Fans of Ed Banger Records and French electronica purists started scratching their heads when Parisian dance duo Justice remixed U2’s “Get Your Boots On” earlier this year. The rap against the song was that it represented the latest prostitution of Justice’s signature menacing/distorted synth sound. But don’t hate Justice simply because the group has hit that place in its career where being in-demand remixers for hire – by the likes of Britney Spears, N.E.R.D. and MGMT -- doesn’t necessarily preclude having a bit of fun.

Exhibit A: Justice’s new remix for Lenny Kravitz’s "Let Love Rule.” While the 1989 original was a catchy (if blatantly derivative) little ditty, a floaty piece of California psychedelia packed with Beatles-esque melting harmonies and a tinny sax solo, the French guys totally re-imagine the song as an exercise in hard dance-pop. Its tetchy, stomping beat seems to almost make fun of the original “Let Love Rule’s” hippie-dippie aspirations. Call it a remix as implicit rebuke.

Then there’s the video. Set to the closing credits of a fake action movie, it’s one of the more original clips of the year. Names and titles scroll vertically across the screen for the duration of the video in what is clearly the denouement of what's supposed to be some lame shoot-‘em-up. Except here, the words have the unique ability to trip up and disrupt the people and things surrounding them.

All in all, a nice companion piece to Justice’s darkly sensational video for “Stress” from May ’08.

-- Chris Lee

Photo: Screen grab from the video "Justice - Let Love Rule (Lenny Kravitz Remix)" from Keith Schofield; Credit: Virgin Records

Jackson estate sues Heal the World

Michael Jackson’s estate filed a suit in federal court against Heal the World Foundation Tuesday accusing the organization of cybersquatting, trademark infringement and using the superstar’s name and likeness without permission in a bid to trick fans into thinking they are making donations to a Jackson-sanctioned cause. 

According to the suit filed in Los Angeles by special administrators for the Jackson estate John McClain and John Branca, the defendants have registered for six trademarks and applied for 41additional ones. Those applications, the suit alleges, “uniquely and unmistakably point to Mr. Jackson and his persona” and are intended “to cause confusion, mistake and to deceive.”

Jackson established his own Heal the World Foundation in 1992, naming it after his iconic hit song “Heal the World.” But that charitable organization has no relation to the defendants and ceased to function before the entertainer’s death. The suit alleges that Heal the World cybersquatted by establishing such deliberately misleading domain names as “mjaid.net,” “mjquotes.net” and “healtheworldfoundation.net.”

-- Chris Lee

Photo credit: Associated Press

The Michael Jackson new-music onslaught begins [Updated]

So this is “It.”

Sony Music announced Wednesday that on Oct. 12 it will release a new Michael Jackson single called "This Is It" -- the first previously unreleased recording to be put on sale since the superstar's death. The song's debut will be followed by a blitz of posthumous releases from the man remembered as the King of Pop, including a traveling exhibition of Jackson memorabilia and a two-disc album also titled "This Is It" (which hits retail internationally on Oct. 26 and North America on Oct. 27), featuring music that "inspired" the Sony Pictures movie "Michael Jackson's This Is It."

The feature arrives in theaters for a limited two-week run on Oct. 28, consisting of rehearsal footage shot during the preparations for Jackson's planned comeback: a 50-date concert engagement -- also titled "This Is It" -- at London's O2 Arena.

According to a news release, the album's first disc features original album recordings of many of the performer's biggest hits – sonically identical to the songs included on other Jackson discs -- sequenced as they appear in the movie. The CD ends with two versions of the song "This Is It," which includes backing vocals by the singer's brothers, the Jacksons.

Disc 2 contains "previously unreleased versions" of some of Jackson's most popular tracks -- in other words, it could contain alternative arrangements of some of the same songs on Disc 1 -- as well as a spoken-word poem, "Planet Earth," by the entertainer that has not been publicly heard until now.

The announcement follows the decision last week by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff to allow the music from “This Is It” to be released simultaneously with the theatrical roll-out of the documentary. Jeryll Cohen, an attorney for the special administrators of Jackson's estate -- John Branca and John McClain -- had argued that the deal would provide the estate with “an immediate and substantial cash advance from Sony.”

Further capitalizing on the rabid gusto for all things Jackson-related, AEG Live, the promoter of the singer’s London concerts, announced Wednesday that it will mount a traveling exhibition of Jackson memorabilia. 

L.A. judge gives Michael Jackson movie soundtrack the go-ahead

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has approved a deal with Sony Music Entertainment to allow the soundtrack for the Michael Jackson movie “This Is It” to be released at the same time as the theatrical rollout of the film. The move enables Sony and the superstar’s estate to cash in on some synergistic marketing at a time when demand for Jackson-related properties remains high.

Jeryll Cohen, an attorney for the special administrators of Jackson's estate -- John Branca and John McClain -- had argued that the deal would provide the estate with “an immediate and substantial cash advance from Sony.”

“In order for the album to be completed in time to be released simultaneously with the film, Sony must begin work on the album immediately,” Cohen said.

Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff approved the deal Thursday afternoon.

-- Harriet Ryan and Chris Lee

Photo: Associated Press

Was DJ AM's death a suicide?

The jet-set mash-up disc jockey had prescription pills in his stomach and one in his throat when authorities found him dead in his Soho apartment on Aug. 28, an unnamed New York City official told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

The official said that there were six pills in DJ AM’s stomach and that the one lodged in his throat appeared to be the powerful painkiller OxyContin. The official didn’t know the dosage of the pills and was not certain what kind of pills were in DJ AM’s stomach. A similar report on People.com quotes an unnamed law enforcement source as saying that eight undigested OxyContin tablets had been found in the DJ’s stomach and a ninth in his mouth.

The discovery suggests that DJ AM (real name Adam Goldstein, 36) swallowed the pills in rapid succession. “He wanted to die,” the source told People.com. “He was going unconscious when he took the last one. He didn’t even swallow it.”

Responding to a 911 call Friday, paramedics had to break down the door of Goldstein’s apartment; they found him shirtless and wearing sweat pants in his bed around 5:20 p.m. Prescription pill bottles and a crack pipe were discovered near the body. There was no evidence of foul play. Final autopsy and toxicology reports are pending.

-- Chris Lee

Photo: Noel Vasquez / Getty Images

DJ AM found dead in a New York apartment [Updated]

The celebrity disc jockey and Los Angeles club owner known as DJ AM was found dead in a New York apartment Friday afternoon, his publicist Jenni Weinman said in a statement.

“The circumstances surrounding his death are unclear. Out of respect for his family and loved ones, please respect their privacy at this time,” the statement said.

Adam Goldstein, 36, was famous as a jet-set DJ who spun records at some of the world’s most exclusive parties and grabbed tabloid headlines for dating Nicole Richie.

His death comes nearly a year after Goldstein survived a Learjet crash in South Carolina that claimed the lives of two other passengers and left the DJ covered with second- and third-degree burns. 

Goldstein had been in New York to throw the first pitch at a Mets game on Aug. 23. Last month, the DJ had announced he would participate in a new reality TV show, an eight-episode series for MTV called “Gone Too Far."

[Updated at 9:14 p.m.: In the docu-style series, which is scheduled to premiere on Oct. 5, Goldstein helps the loved ones of addicts stage interventions for them. Goldstein spoke frankly of his battles with addiction and obesity and his personal need to pay forward the fact that his life has been spared twice. The first time happened 11 years ago at a low point in his crack addiction when a gun jammed as he tried to kill himself. Then last year, he survived the plane crash.

"There's no reason why I should have lived or why I lived and they didn't," Goldstein said in a July news conference, discussing the plane crash that occurred the previous September. "I'm never gonna know. But I am alive and I'm here and I have to do something better with my life now."

On Friday night, MTV issued the following statement:

"Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein’s death is an incredible loss to the music community, his friends, family and his fans, and those of us who had the privilege of working with him.  MTV was honored to support him as he helped young people battle their own addictions. Our heartfelt thoughts go out to his family."]

--Chris Lee and Maria Elena Fernandez

Photo credit: Dan Steinberg / Associated Press

Blink-182 is a band of bros again

They were on a hiatus of indefinite length. Then Travis Barker was critically injured. As the trio gathered, the old times returned.

It took a brush with disaster to get the members of the multiplatinum-selling pop-punk trio Blink-182 to stop giving each other the cold shoulder after a four-year "hiatus" as a band. Specifically, it took drummer Travis Barker nearly dying last September in a plane crash -- which claimed the lives of his assistant and bodyguard -- to make the group's singer-guitarist Tom DeLonge reevaluate his priorities and break the radio silence toward his bandmates.

"We started talking again after Travis' accident," the boyish DeLonge asserted with uncharacteristic somberness.

The co-frontman was seated in a backstage dressing room before the band performed on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" last month. His mouth trembled with emotion before he lapsed back into his default goofball mode. "There was some hate before then," he blurted out. "Don't make me cry!"

But rekindling the bromance that propelled Blink's potty-mouthed popularity as one of Southern California's unlikeliest arena rock acts required that DeLonge, Barker and bassist-vocalist Mark Hoppus put aside their personal differences and come together as creative equals.

"We had to be friends before we could be in a band again," said Barker.

Hoppus, 37, recalled the moment of satori that would result in Blink's resurrection.

"We were sitting in the courtyard of our studio one day," he said. "We had been hanging out for about eight weeks or something, just as friends. And it was like there was a giant elephant in the room. It was like when you're dating a chick for eight weeks. Tom asked me and Travis, 'Where is this going? Are we going to do this thing?' Blink was obviously such a huge thing in our lives. We realized we wanted to continue doing it."

He added: "Not only with a sense of what we brought to the table but an appreciation for what everyone else brought."

Drake: From teen TV star to rap royalty

The Canadian hip-hop artist (‘Best I Ever Had’) has built a huge following with a gift for melodies, powerful allies and savvy management.

By any modern measure of musical popularity -- YouTube views, radio airplay, ring-tone ubiquity -- the single "Best I Ever Had" by Toronto rapper Drake is not only a hit, it's arguably 2009's "Song of the Summer." Since debuting on iTunes last month, the hip-hop lust track has sold 600,000 digital downloads and topped three separate pop charts. Even if you can't summon to mind its rap-sung vocals or brassy syncopated beat, you've probably heard "Best I Ever Had" blaring out of a convertible somewhere.

Less than a year ago, Drake was basically a zero in the music world, unsigned and virtually unknown as a rhyme-sayer. But thanks to some out-of-the-box branding efforts by several of the best-connected marketing executives in the urban world and the institutional backing of his mentor, rap superstar Lil Wayne, Drake landed two songs in the Top 10 this month -- "Best I Ever Had" as a solo artist and "Every Girl" as part of the rap group Young Money. He had already amassed a devoted fan base before he'd even landed a record deal.

Every Song of Summer has a saga behind it. And Drake's breakthrough arrives as a happy accident built on plenty of high-level networking, a label bidding war and an astonishing degree of cooperation among rap world big shots. Chief among them, Drake's career overseers: the heads of the New York management firm Hip Hop Since 1978 and Cortez Bryant, Lil Wayne's longtime manager.

"They have given me one of the greatest situations in hip-hop," Drake, 22, said of his team.

Under the unusually lucrative agreement he struck with Aspire/Young Money/Cash Money Records distributed through Universal, Drake received a $2-million advance. He retains the publishing rights to his songs and cedes only around 25% of his music sales revenues to the label as a "distribution fee," his managers said. By contrast, the overwhelming majority of new artists sign financially restrictive "360 deals" that sap their touring and merchandise income and offer much more restrictive profit-sharing.

A dissection of how the rapper was able to drive such a hard bargain underscores an evolution in the music industry. At a time when CD sales have declined by 15% over last summer's numbers and major labels remain more fixated on scoring hit singles than sustaining artist rosters, managers such as those working with Drake have stepped into the void to become king-makers in urban music.

"The record company doesn't have any ownership of Drake," Bryant said. "The label does not have participation on profits. They don't have ownership of his masters. We control his entire career. Those deals don't happen anymore."