Nearly a decade after his death, Michael Jackson is out with new music in a guest appearance on the keenly awaited new album by Drake.
The late King of Pop appears in a song on “Scorpion,” the fifth studio album by the Toronto hip-hop star who pulled another surprise by using the release to come clean about his secret child.
True to form for Drake, whose sensibility for catchy beats has made him one of the top-selling artists of recent years, the 25-track album that came out Friday sprawls defiantly, as if resisting the traditional confines of records.
Yet Drake loosely divides “Scorpion” in two, a first “side” in which he hones his rap skills and a second, more unexpected half in which Drake branches further into pop.
“Don’t Matter To Me,” the song with Jackson, belongs firmly to Drake’s pop mode. The 31-year-old proves his bona fides as a singer, his piercing rap delivery giving way to a full-textured silkiness that complements Jackson’s higher ranges. Drake revealed nothing about the song’s genesis.
