WENN/Daniel Deme/Ivan NikolovKenneth ‘Babyface’ Edmonds recalls what the late King of Pop told him, ‘ ‘Babyface, can you believe she wants me to dress like a girl?’ He was like, ‘I’d never do that.’ ‘
- Apr 23, 2020
AceShowbiz – During Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds’ record-breaking Instagram Live battle with Teddy Riley, the former spilled some tea about Michael Jackson. Among them was the moment when the late King of Pop got so mad at Madonna for asking him to dress up like a girl for his “In the Closet” music video.
In between songs, Babyface recalled what MJ told him, ” ‘Babyface, can you believe she wants me to dress like a girl?’ He was like, ‘I’d never do that.’ He said, ‘She was trying to change it all up. It was crazy.’ ” The record producer then mentioned that the “Heal the World” hitmaker “was really mad about it,” to the point where he decided to replace the Queen of Pop with Naomi Campbell.
Produced by MJ and Teddy Riley, “In the Closet” was released in April 1992 as the third single off his eighth album “Dangerous”. It became the album’s third consecutive top ten single as it peaked at No. 6 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. The song additionally topped Billboard’s R&B songs chart.
The song was originally conceived as a duet between the “Beat It” singer and Madonna. In an interview with British journalist Jonathan Ross back in 1992, the “Like a Virgin” hitmaker claimed that she worked on some lyrical ideas for the song but when she presented them to Michael, he decided they were too provocative and they decided not to continue with the project.
She said at the time, “I started writing words and getting ideas and stuff and I presented them to him and he didn’t like them. I think all he wanted was a provocative title, and ultimately he didn’t want the content of the song to… sort of, live up to the title.”
Source: Music - aceshowbiz.com
