Michael Jackson's last recordings have become the subject of a bizarre battle after they were allegedly seized by his sister LaToya.
The late star's sibling is claimed to have taken possession of computer hard drives containing unreleased material that Jackson was working on with urban stars such as Ne-Yo, Akon and Will.I.Am from the Black Eyed Peas.
Jackson's manager, Frank DiLeo, told Rolling Stone that LaToya took the drives from the rented home that belonged to her brother in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles when the family visited to claim its contents. "They backed up trucks, removing everything," DiLeo said. "They thought Michael owned it all, so they took even the rented furniture. That's who's going to run his estate?"
DiLeo has since told Reuters that he believes the hardware is being held at the family's compound in Encino, and letters will apparently be sent by estate lawyers in order to retrieve them.
The drives are believed to contain over 100 songs, with some tracks dating from Jackson's Bad period. Will.I.Am has insisted that he has no duplicates of the music he made with Jackson. And while it seems inevitable that the recordings will eventually be released, it looks like fans may have to wait a while.
Sony/Epic records president, Amanda Ghost, insisted: "We just want to pay our respects to Michael. We don't want to be seen to be jumping on any bandwagon associated with his death. If we do release any of the unreleased material, it has to be fantastic and it can't in any way damage his legend. I won't let that happen at Epic."
