In this long-awaited memoir, illustrated with over 100 never-before-seen photos from his personal collection, the groundbreaking record producer chronicles his struggles, his success, and the celebrated artists that made him a legend.
Over the last twenty-five years, legendary music producer and record man LA Reid—the man behind artists such as Toni Braxton, Kanye West, Rihanna, TLC, Outkast, Mariah Carey, Pink, Justin Bieber, and Usher—has changed the music business forever. In addition to discovering some of the biggest pop stars on the planet, he has shaped some of the most memorable and unforgettable hits of the last two generations, creating an impressive legacy of talent discovery and hit records.
Now, for the first time, he tells his story, taking fans on an intimate tour of his life, as he chronicles the fascinating journey from his small-town R&B roots in Cincinnati, Ohio, and his work as a drummer to his fame as a Grammy Award-winning music producer and his gig as a judge on the hit reality show, The X Factor. In Sing to Me, Reid goes behind the scenes of the music industry, charting his rise to fame and sharing stories of the countless artists he’s met, nurtured, and molded into stars. With fascinating insight into the early days of artists as diverse as TLC, Usher, Pink, Kanye West, and Justin Bieber, his story offers a detailed look at what life was like for stars at the start of their meteoric rise and how he always seemed to know who would be the next big thing.
What emerges is a captivating portrait from the inside of popular music evolution over the last three decades. Part music memoir, part business story of climbing to the top, this beautifully designed book, jam packed with photos, showcases Reid’s trademark passion and ingenuity and introduces a multifaceted genius who continues to shape pop culture today.
Michael Jackson was known for being happy and child-like, but he had a cold side, reveals legendary record producer L.A. Reid in his new memoir.
He was especially mean to competitor Prince and dismissive of his older brother Jermaine, Reid writes in his new memoir, “Sing To Me.”
In the early 1990s, Reid was co-producing an album for Jermaine when Michael Jackson’s manager called asking if Reid and his partner, Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, would like to discuss writing songs with the star.
Reid told Jermaine only that they were slipping away to Los Angeles for a quick project. They didn’t mention what it was.
A helicopter picked up the two at Burbank Airport and flew them to Neverland Ranch, where they were met by an assistant with a nondisclosure agreement — “Nobody got to see Michael without signing one” — and were taken to Jackson’s library.
They discussed music, and Jackson took them on a tour of Neverland. Finally, he brought them to a screening room and showed them footage of a 1983 James Brown concert where Jackson, called on stage as a guest, “danced a few steps,” then told Brown that Prince, Jackson’s longtime rival, was in the crowd as well. Brown called him up too, but to Jackson’s delight, his appearance didn’t go nearly as well.
“Prince [couldn’t] make his guitar work, frantically stripping off his shirt and trying tricks with the microphone stand and making all these poses. After Michael’s dazzling star turn, Prince fell as flat as he could, and Michael enjoyed laughing at the video.”
But Michael wasn’t done humiliating him.
“After that, he put on a scene from Prince’s movie ‘Under The Cherry Moon,’ the artsy black-and-white bomb he made after ‘Purple Rain,’ and he laughed some more at Prince.”
Following a lunch where “Michael’s pasta was all cut in the shapes of Disney characters,” it was arranged that the duo would fly to LA to write songs with Jackson for three weeks. When Jermaine found out, he went ballistic, demanding to be released from Reid and Edmonds’ label, LaFace Records.
When Reid told Michael what happened, the superstar replied, “He’ll get over it.”
“ ‘That’s not really the problem,’ I said. ‘The problem was that he wants off the label now.’
“ ‘Did he sign a contract?’ asked Michael.
“ ‘Yes,’ I said.
“ ‘Then he’ll have to live with it because those are the rules,’ Michael said and walked out.
“That Michael Jackson was one shrewd man,” Reid writes. “He was not wrong, but you didn’t expect that from Peter Pan. You expect a little compassion or something. No. Cold as ice.”
Reid and Edmonds smoothed things over with Jermaine in Atlanta, but when they went back to work on his record, Jermaine complicated matters further by telling them, “I want to make a song about my brother. I want to talk about how he’s treated me through the years, like how every time I find producers like you guys, he takes my producers. He doesn’t care about his family or anybody but himself.”
As Jermaine’s producers, they had to serve their artist. Much as they didn’t want to produce a song slamming Michael, they had no choice. Radio stations nationwide picked up Jermaine’s “Word to the Badd!” and Reid was in his apartment in LA when he received a call from an angry Michael Jackson.
“ ‘You have to stop this,’ he said. ‘You’re the head of the label. You have to kill this. This isn’t good.’ ”
The brothers convened at their mother’s house to discuss the issue, after which Jermaine called Reid to say that the record would stay on the air, followed by Michael calling to again tell Reid to put a stop to it.
Two days later, Reid writes, “The record disappeared off the air, as if it had never been there in the first place. I don’t know what Michael did. I don’t know if Michael did anything, but it went away in a flash.”
And once more another bullshitter add his bullshit story to the saga of the post 2009 bullshitters.
Why this LA Reid did NOT open his mouth while Michael Jackon was alive ?
Convenient for all these ppl to talk about anything related to MJ when the man is dead and have no say on anything these bullshitter write or say…..
Amazing how fans love gossip post 2009 when MJ hated this sort of bs gossip !!
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1rltf3_ghosts-background2_music
Having a cold side in your personality fits right in with being childlike because children are often straight with their feelings and can also be quite egocentrical.
Jermaine spoke about it in his book ” YOU ARE NOT ALONE ” and he says he later apologized to Michael for his attitude.
I just want to say that I didn´t mean anything negative about Michael in what I was writing. It was a reflection about being childlike because I see children every day at work.