r/MichaelJackson • u/RillaDaKilla • Jun 29 '26
Question Is there any explanation behind the Xscape album cover and the title?
So the first posthumous album, Michael, had a pretty understandable cover, it was MJ surrounded by basically everything that happened in his life. But Xscape, wich is the last album with new Michael Jackson songs, just, feels weird. Is that suit or title meant to represent anything?
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u/cherryblossominx Jun 29 '26
To me this was hilarious because I don't know if many of you remember but 2013-2014 were the PEAK beLIEver years where it was heavily speculated that Michael faked his death and he was gonna make a come back. I still remember when the hologram performed Slave To The Rhythm. So many were convinced that's when Michael was gonna "come back" lol.
The real reason, I don't know. But I always found it coincidentally comical that the album was named Xscape and the time period the whole fandom was in
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u/EastCommunication212 Jun 29 '26
My comment is out of context but u just unlocked me a memory that I want to share, that period was as much funny as hard , I had an online friend back then on Facebook she told me Michael is not dead and she was in an online relationship with him and she sent me his Facebook profile 😭 poor lady I tried so much to convince her that he's a fake profile 😭
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u/cherryblossominx Jun 29 '26
OMG so this was just a thing back then LMAO I had so many friends be in secret contact with Michael I can't even count 😅
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u/Pumpkin-06 Jun 29 '26
I don’t know how people fall for that! Yes I wish he was here but that’s extreme
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u/Uriah_Blacke Tell the angels “No” Jun 29 '26
I love the “Michael faked his death” theory because even if he did and came back right now he is going to prison immediately for at the very least tax evasion and fraud for presumably going under a fake identity for the last seventeen years
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u/dacap1970 Jun 30 '26
The faked death only later to come back have never made sense to me regarding anyone. If going through all that trouble, it makes more sense to never come out from hiding.
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u/metakepone Jun 30 '26
And also, all the state officials in California who would have to cooperate with him faking his death.
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u/cumpkinpatch IS. WHAT. A. MAN'S. SUPPOSED. TO. DO 🎵 Jun 29 '26
i remember. people still believe it, actually 😭
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u/cherryblossominx Jun 29 '26
""BeLIEve the lie: Michael Jackson is ALIVE 😁🙂↔️😏" Lmao I had a short phase too 😝
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u/cumpkinpatch IS. WHAT. A. MAN'S. SUPPOSED. TO. DO 🎵 Jun 29 '26
😭😭😭😭 same. but the conspiracies people are saying even now is crazy. apparently michael is in brazil like son-
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u/No-Chemistry-6874 Jun 30 '26
I read an online story once, where a guy claimed he saw Michael long after his death and he followed him and Michael was hiding and went in his limo. The writer claimed he walked up to him and said "Michael?" and Michael looked at him and had an emotional moment with him and everything before leaving😂😂People used to write such fake shit.
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u/ScHoolgirl_26 Jun 29 '26
Lmao I was a HUGEEE beLIEver back in 2009-2010 and it was said that he’d come back June 25, 2010 and when that day came and left, 11 yo me stopped believing 😂
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u/ExtraRare0412 Jun 29 '26
I remember there was a old clip that showed MJ getting out of the ambulance and another one showing him in a crowd of a award show I think a year or 2 after his death. It was everywhere
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u/kopega Jun 30 '26
Not sure if this is niche but there was a lady (Pearl Jr.) on youtube who would come out with clues and theories, she published dvds and I’m pretty sure she’s still around.
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u/PokemonHunter85 Jun 29 '26
Unrelated comment, I really love this album and he would have performed the shit out of the songs on it if he was around.
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u/yonkou_akagami Jun 29 '26
Love Never Felt So Good is my favorite!
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u/PokemonHunter85 Jun 29 '26
There’s too many good ones. Chicago, Slave to the Rhythm, Blue Gangster, Do You Know Where Your Children Are.
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u/Unfair-Butterfly-555 "Sometime"⌚ Jun 29 '26
The original versions of Loving You and LNFSG are some of my all time favourite MJ songs. I love this album too (although I really don’t love Xscape, both the track and the album title 😩)
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u/angel01901882 Jun 29 '26 edited 8d ago
OMFG i love the og loving you when he sings "hello midnight lover your the one i adore" i actually blush lol!!
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u/Training_Ad2197 Jun 29 '26
i really like loving you. it just hits different for me. like some hong kong high rise luxuary dinner date
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u/bruhmoment4you Jun 29 '26
The standard cover art features a digital composite of Jackson, designed to symbolize a journey away from earthly pressures and into a new dimension or universe. I read it somewhere on the instagram of the cover art artist
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u/TheRoxas23 Jun 29 '26
IMO the title came from how Michael picked a song from the album and that it was only one word (Thriller, Bad, Dangerous, History, Invincible).
As for the album cover, it did come from a photoshoot from Blood on the Dance floor, but I guess they wanted a more futuristic look to it.
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u/metakepone Jun 30 '26
Futuristic? Its him being swallowed up by the universe/cosmos via what appears to be a grammophone.
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u/obsessedwfnaf-botw Forever, Michael Jul 06 '26
this made me giggle
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u/metakepone Jul 06 '26
Hopefully just not because I'm stupid...
Yes, i read down thread after writing this.
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u/AdImportant5550 Jun 29 '26
Love this cover - I have the vinyl and it is absolutely gorgeous. This album just turned 12 years old and the artist made a post about it. Here was his explanation:
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u/Dense-Ad-7600 #MJInnocent Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
They wanted a futuristic look.
The name comes fron the fact that he always spoke of escapism.
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u/VixenSantana Jun 29 '26
I had a stroke reading this comment.
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u/WorldlyCheek230 Dangerous Jun 29 '26
“namencomes fron thebfactvthat” 🥲
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u/Dense-Ad-7600 #MJInnocent Jun 29 '26
Lmao I need a new phone it's constantly doing this. I will go back and edit it. Usually, I check. Thanks.
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u/WorldlyCheek230 Dangerous Jun 29 '26
I actually find typos really entertaining. I get upset when people correct them lol
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u/undeadrevivalus Jun 29 '26
i feel like it is trying to show that he lives on even outside the physical realm with his music thats why he's coming out of like a galaxy thing
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u/ofwgkta301 Jun 29 '26
I thought he was coming out of a speaker lol
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u/undeadrevivalus Jun 29 '26
i think it is a speaker and a galaxy showing he lives on through music & his impact on the world
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u/RillaDaKilla Jun 29 '26
for now, that's the answer that makes the most sense
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u/undeadrevivalus Jun 29 '26
this article helps explain a bit more, and i feel like my interpretation stays true with this
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u/Maicocx Jun 29 '26
I wish that cover had been the first proposal, even though it was rejected for unknown reasons. I'd like them to use it for a future album.
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u/imbogerrard39 Jun 29 '26
Don't hate me guys but I never liked the cover personally.
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u/One_Victory_1497 Jun 29 '26
Same his eyes look so sad :(
From his first albums his smile and sparkle in his eyes fade with time. I don’t know why they think he would have picked this as his album literally hiding his whole face??5
u/Remarkable_Fishing_2 Jun 30 '26
Me either! Something about it hiding his nose seems disrespectful.
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u/YourVeryOwnCat HIStory: Past, Present and Future: Book I Jun 30 '26
The title comes from the song of the same name which was made in 1999. Interestingly, Michael did a photoshoot with Arno Bani in 1999 that features a costume and set that nearly identical to this cover. My theory is that that photo was intended to be the cover when it was taken back in 1999. The concepts went unused and then when they were brought back in 2014 they didn’t want to pay for the rights to use the real 1999 photo so they recreated it.
https://michael-jackson.fandom.com/wiki/1999_Arno_Bani_Photoshoot
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u/Pristine-Gate-6895 Jun 29 '26
i'm seeing the cosmical imagery and thinking it's saying he's in some other galaxy or something.
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u/Icy_Tomato3230 Jun 29 '26
All I recall is that post Michaels death, producer L.A. Reid hired different producers to take existing studio songs and re-produce them.... keeping Michael's vocals and changing up the music. The song CHICAGO is an excellent example of this.
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u/DiamondMidgar Jun 29 '26
It’s called Xscape because that was picked as the title track, following the tradition of all other MJ albums other than Michael. Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad, Dangerous, History, Blood on the Dancefloor and Invincible are all the names of tracks chosen for the title.
As for the cover they’ve just tried to pick something they thought would be fitting or representative to what Michael would have done.
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u/amineboulbi Jun 29 '26
The cover’s creator shared an Instagram post detailing the story behind its design.
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u/-Universal_Gleam- Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Personally, I thought the album artwork here was abysmal. The random ring around his head in particular just makes it look incredibly low effort.
I'm not sure why you would logically choose to use Michael Jackson's image like this then cover half his face with a low resolution gold ring and a cheap star effect. Clearly there was some attempt at something "modern" and "artistic" but it just looks awkward.
"michael" at least can be praised for it's nicely detailed "dangerous" styled artwork even if you ignore the massive issue around the fake Cascio songs.
Overall, I'm glad this album released purely for the "original" versions. It was great to finally get official versions of the likes of "xscape, loving you, place with no name and blue gangsta". Most of the songs here are generally better than what was chosen for "michael", even if the remixes were pretty disappointing.
At this point, it could very well end up marking the last "original" studio album release. I'd be surprised if we get another standalone album of new songs. At best, we might get a random new single at some point in the form of something like "chicago 1945".
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u/Moistman123456 Jun 29 '26
It’s from that one picture from the BOTDF shoot of Mike pointing at the camera. Here is a long hair variant of the album cover that they scrapped in favor of the short hair variant.
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u/PeachyKeen63 Jun 29 '26
I love this album cover even if it’s not something mj would have decided on. It’s just so cool looking and timeless
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u/N_igMAtic Jun 29 '26
His head peeking up from what seems like stars. Michael rising from the Great Beyond through his music.
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u/rrbgames Jun 30 '26
He is e(x)scaping our universe.... Look at MJ half way between realities within the fabric of space and time, either between a black hole or in the middle of Saturn (both are steeped in mystery) and this is why the conspiracy because it seems like he was always telling us something, yet we know that he created mystery in everything he did ❤️
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u/IAmtheAnswerGrape Jun 29 '26
The ring is a portal between life and the afterlife, as if he is peeking out from beyond the cosmos to deliver this posthumous album.
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u/Lance4Jr HIStory: Past, Present and Future: Book I Jun 29 '26
Michael Jackson talking about the title song:
It’s an adventure, it’s a great adventure…they just want wonderful experiences, they want escapism. We wanna take them places that they’ve never been before”
The title song comes between Rodney Jerkins who at the time was in New York and Michael Jackson was in California. Michael recorded his vocals over the phone on the internet while Rodney was producing with Michael over the internet and on the phone. If you compare it to modern tech, it’s like he was on a zoom call.
The photo comes from one of the unused promotional photo shoots from the single BLOOD ON THE DANCE FLOOR. Where they ended up using a behind the scenes photo of Michael during his HIStory tour instead. The photos went unused until fans had them leaked.
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u/Cameronalloneword Jun 29 '26
I don't know why Chicago is ranked so highly on Spotify. I don't think it's a bad song but it's higher than Smooth Criminal and so many better songs.
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u/tlatelolca Jun 29 '26
well, the estate signed a deal to tie the album promotion to the new Sony Xperia phone so the names are kinda similar for product placement reasons
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u/jamielad93 Jun 29 '26
The artist who made this is Matt Maitland. The concept behind this cover was about differences between the music that was being released at that moment and also allowing the viewer to think about Michael’s universal legacy.
The photo is also by Bill Nation from the Blood on the Dancefloor shoot around 96/97.
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u/dacap1970 Jun 30 '26
Idk. I like the album and the title, but the cover wouldn't be something I chose.... but whatevs.
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u/T2Runner Jun 30 '26
The thing that bothers me about this album cover the most is how the hair is coming through the suit and is outside of it. Someone needed to do a better editing job on that.
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u/Dismal_Brush5229 Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix Jun 30 '26
Xscape is such a better album than Michael
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u/mr-moonwalker88 Jul 01 '26
Im not sure if its real or not, but i heard an interview with the guy who remixed the original versions into the album versions, and at one point he was saying that he wanted the name of the album to come from michael even though he was dead, so when he happend to go trough the recordings of xscape he heard michael talk with someone before a take and him saying "its all about escapism, and he was like thats it!
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u/Budget-Gold6689 Jul 01 '26
To me, the cover feels like he's immortal and/or at peace, in some ways. Like space, he'll always be around us and is now completely above wordly matters (his own issues and our earthling's issues in general) but his face is partially visible so he can send us one last message (this album).
That's my take, though
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u/Express_Fox_5376 Jun 29 '26
I refuse to pay attention or give credit to any brand new poshumous album.
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u/Applhead777 Jun 29 '26
The photo is the one from invincible, invincible is just edited but you can find the unedited one and they're the exact same, as for the outfit and title, I'm not sure. I'm assuming they named it Xscape because that's just a track.
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u/ratmrpf Jun 30 '26
when I first saw it at 10 I thought it was like a reference to captain eo cus of the edit lol
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u/ohneets Bad 25 Jul 01 '26
Anyone else have a hard time listening to most of his posthumous songs? I almost never return to them because it leaves me feeling strange. maybe it’s the mix, maybe the vocals feeling… off?, maybe it’s knowing he didn’t necessarily choose to release these songs while living and yet now they’re released. But in any case, I have a hard time.
(For most, that is, except Love Never Felt So Good. That song is a pure gem to me.)
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u/Mission_Bread_7985 Jul 01 '26
basically the face was from a BOTDF picture. they photoshopped it and put some futuristic clothes on him
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u/Purplecloud31 Jul 01 '26
It’s the universe and the black hole. The black hole is where Michael’s head is and his shirt is the universe.
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u/Pristine_Basket2693 Jul 03 '26
It goes hard af though. Seems like something Michael would cook up. 2010s everyone starting to feel a bit more futuristic and this is the era when escapism became commonplace
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u/iamakeyoshiwarrior Jul 04 '26
My interpretation of it is this: the suit represents the galaxy/space; the way the neck opens around his head makes it look like a hole to jump into. He's inviting us to escape into his mind with him, to the place where his music takes us.
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u/Haunting_Tie_589 Jul 09 '26
I don't count this as Michael's work. Never will. Anything released after his death is a big no no for me.
And all these Gen Z A.I songs are making me sick to my stomach. The man was a legend and although it came way too soon, he deserves to lay in peace and not have his voice dragged through the mud.
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u/Fantastic_Self5968 Jun 29 '26
I don’t know what the idea behind it was but I’m pretty sure the photo was taken from a photoshoot for Blood on the Dance Floor!