Yuki Naka Seemingly Confirms That Michael Jackson Composed For Sonic 3

The long-running myth that Michael Jackson, The King of Pop was a composer for Sonic 3 has seemingly been confirmed to be true by series co-creator Yuji Naka on his Twitter.

Naka made a post on Twitter, exclaiming his surprise at the fact that the music for Sonic 3 was changed for its recent rerelease as part of the Sonic Origins collection.

He says that this is in spite of “SEGA Official” using Michael Jackson’s music.

Oh my god, the music for Sonic 3 has changed, even though SEGA Official uses Michael Jackson’s music.

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— Yuji Naka / 中　裕司 (@nakayuji) June 23, 2022

This more or less confirms the rumor to be true. Naka later made a follow-up post saying that when he wrote ‘SEGA Official’ he was referring specifically to the SEGA Official TikTok account which had recently posted a video of Sonic dancing to the Michael Jackson song ‘Billie Jean’.

I feel like I’m being misunderstood a lot, probably because I don’t speak English and I’m using a translation tool. Sorry.

— Yuji Naka / 中　裕司 (@nakayuji) June 23, 2022

What he seems to be saying is that it’s strange that Sonic 3’s music was changed (allegedly due to issues with Jackson’s estate) even though Sonic’s TikTok is using Michael Jackson songs.

Naka also tweeted a picture of what seems to be Jackson’s Ranch, which further hints at the rumor being true.

This is a picture taken by me with my camera when we went to his house in his helicopter. It’s pretty faded. I miss it. pic.twitter.com/wtM1BtMHwT

— Yuji Naka / 中　裕司 (@nakayuji) June 23, 2022

It is possible he’s being “misunderstood” in that there isn’t a connection between Sonic 3 and Michael Jackson and he was just talking about the Tiktok but I doubt he would mention the two in the same tweet if the rumor wasn’t true.

Sonic and Michael

The Sonic 3 Micahel Jackson rumor stems from the belief that the pop singer was working with Sega on the OST for the game but had to leave partway through development due to the 1993 allegations of child sexual abuse against him.

Jackson has worked with Sega on other games, most notably lending his likeness to the Sega Genesis platformer Micahel Jackson’s Moonwalker as well as voice acting the character Space Michael in Space Channel 5 for the Dreamcast.

It should be noted that regardless of Naka’s direct confirmation, there is already strong evidence that supports Michael’s music being in Sonic’s soundtrack. In an interview with an official Michael Jackson Magazine (via Kotaku), the singer’s musical director Brad Buxer, who did work on Sonic 3’s OST, said that Michael Jackson composed some of the arrangements in the game.

Buxer says the following was the reason Jackson was not credited for his work:

“And if he [Michael Jackson] is not credited for composing the music, it’s because he was not happy with the resulting sound coming out of the console,” Buxer said. “At the time, game consoles did not allow an optimal sound reproduction, and Michael found it frustrating. He did not want to be associated with a product that devalued his music…”

While the general consensus among the Sonic fanbase has been that the Micahel Jackson rumor was more of an open secret, it’s cool to see it seemingly confirmed by a developer.

Sonic Origins, which includes Sonic 3 (but without the alleged Michael Jackson tracks) is now available for Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Feature Image Source: MDShock

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