Grammy-nominated producer Just Blaze has been working with JAY-Z since his album The Dynasty: Roc La Familia. On JAY’s 2001 magnum opus The Blueprint, Blaze was responsible for the track “Girls, Girls, Girls,” which reached No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. The same year he dropped The Blueprint, Hov also contributed verses to a remix of Michael Jackson’s “You Rock My World,” the lead single from the singer’s 10th and final studio album, Invincible.

On Monday (March 13), Blaze appeared on Bloomberg’s “Idea Generation” show and reflected on Hov and MJ’s working relationship. He also revealed that during the pandemic he stumbled upon a long-lost recording of “Girls, Girls, Girls” with vocals from none other than the King of Pop.

“So Michael Jackson is on the ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ remix,” he stated. “And I never knew that. I don’t know if I didn’t go into the studio that day. I thought it was an urban legend or something that JAY said like in jest one day or, you know, was some kind of a myth.”

He went on to recount just how he found the audio file that left him speechless. “One day I was looking for something on the server and I find this folder that says, ‘MJ Vocals.’ And I’m like, ‘MJ? Don’t that mean Michael Jackson? Oh, whatever.’ And I’m thinking it’s probably stuff from… Remember they had the [song] ‘[You] Rock My World’? So I’m thinking it’s, like, takes from that session.”

“I realize as I’m listening to it [that] it’s him singing on ‘Girls, Girls, Girls.’ And I’m like, ‘It’s true!'” he exclaimed. “[I never knew] for the last 20 years… I found it during quarantine. So all these years, I’ve never known it was actually a real thing. And turns out the files had been sitting downstairs this entire time.”

JAY’s friendship with MJ dates back to before The Blueprint‘s release. During his iconic performance at HOT 97’s Summer Jam in 2001, Hov brought the “Thriller” superstar out on stage as a special guest, though he didn’t perform and just received the love and cheers from surprised fans.

Both The Blueprint and Invincible were released just a few months later. While Jackson never released an album again, Hova went on to drop two sequels to The Blueprint and other projects, such as his Grammy-winning collab LP with his wife Beyoncé, Everything Is Love.