▼ THE KEY & MORE ▼
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VAULT DOSSIER · THE TRUE VAULT
"BLUE GANGSTA"
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● SURFACED
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>> STATUS READOUT :: WHAT EXISTS
RECORDED ....... 1998–1999
AT ............. RECORD PLANT
ON THE ALBUM ... NEVER SEQUENCED
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SURFACED ....... 2014
AS ............. XSCAPE (TIMBALAND MIX)
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| >> THE LIKELIHOOD METER :: WILL WE EVER HEAR IT? |
the vault's signature instrument |
JUSTIFICATION :: it came out — the 2014 Xscape album carries it in a Timbaland remix, after thirteen years in the vault. an official release is the meter's ceiling; nothing left to wait for. ■
>> THE STORY :: THE DOCUMENTED HISTORY, ON THE WIRE
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01
1998
A spaghetti-western idea, cut at Record Plant. ■Written and produced by ⌜Dr. Freeze, recorded 1998–1999 at Record Plant, built around Ennio Morricone's spaghetti-western soundscapes.
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02
1998
“A new ‘Smooth Criminal.’” ▤⌜Dr. Freeze conceived it as “a new ‘Smooth Criminal,’ something more modern and rooted in the 2000s.”
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03
THE GUITAR COMES OUT — THE WHISTLE GOES IN. ■On March 7, 1999, a Spanish-guitar part was replaced with a whistling theme drawn from Morricone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly — the move that locked the song's western signature. The lineup around it: ⌜Brad Buxer on keyboards, Greg Phillinganes on Minimoog, Jerry Hey on horns.
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04
13 YRS
Thirteen years down — paired with a sibling. ■It sat in the vault for exactly thirteen years alongside ▤ A Place With No Name before both reached official release — the two Dr. Freeze cuts that waited out the same stretch.
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05
2014
It surfaces — in a Timbaland remix. ■It entered public knowledge in two separate instances before its 2014 official release on Xscape, in a Timbaland remix. The reassessment era making room for the material Jackson held back is a Phase IV beat.
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