In an appearance on the All the Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, DJ Quik revealed that Michael Jackson once told him to face the wall to avoid eye contact.
“We booked his studio Westlake for my first single ‘Tonight’ and moved from our studio to his,” said the rapper and producer. “He wanted to get in there one time, so [..] they came through [and] warned everybody that Mike was finna come through and he didn’t want nobody to see him. ... These guys come in and they’re like ‘Aye y’all, we’re about to bring somebody through here.’ They didn’t ask us to leave, they asked us to just turn around and face the wall while they bring the artist through, right?
Initially, Quik thought it might have been a joke, so one of MJ’s crew spoke with him and eventually convinced him to turn and face the wall. “So it’s like ‘Are y’all serious? This not a joke?'” he said. ““This shit seem weird as shit, like some police shit; ‘hands up on the wall.’ So the door opens, then you just hear some penny loafers running through the little thing. Turn around and you can see him, his little hair and sh*t. That motherfucker went in the door and closed it. They were like ‘Alright, y’all cool, y’all can turn around.”
Quick explained that he later met the superstar at the studio again, but was met with the silent treatment. He suggested that it might have been because of his association with the Bloods, and he joked that MJ was cool with the Crips.
Listen to the full episode of the podcast below.
