HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (often referred to simply as HIStory) is the ninth studio album by American singer and songwriter Michael Jackson. It was released on June 20, 1995, by MJJ and Epic Records. Released as a double album, it contains two-sides with A-side being the greatest hits album, HIStory Begins, and B-side being its original material, HIStory Continues. It was Jackson's fifth album to be released through Epic and its first release on his label-imprint, named MJJ Productions.
HIStory features guest appearances from Janet Jackson, Shaquille O'Neal, Slash, and the Notorious B.I.G.. The album genres span pop, R&B, and hip hop with elements of hard rock and funk rock. Its lyrical themes includes environmental awareness, isolation, greed, and injustice. Several songs pertains to the child sexual abuse allegations made against Jackson and Jackson's perceived mistreatment by the media.
HIStory debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 and charted in nineteen other countries. The album lead single, a double A-side of "Scream" (a duet between Jackson and his sister Janet) and "Childhood", reached the top five of the Billboard Hot 100. "You Are Not Alone" became the first song to debut at number one on the Hot 100 and was Jackson's final US number-one single. Three other tracks—"Earth Song", "They Don't Care About Us", and "Stranger in Moscow"—were also released as singles from the album. "They Don't Care About Us" drew accusations of antisemitism of which Jackson denied.
HIStory sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time, and was certified eight-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It received generally favorable reviews, though it was viewed as a regression from Jackson's previous releases. HIStory was nominated for five Grammy Awards at the 1996 Grammy Awards, including Jackson's third Album of the Year nomination. It won Best Music Video – Short Form for "Scream". To promote the album, Jackson embarked on the HIStory World Tour, his third and final concert tour as a solo artist. It grossed $165 million, making it the highest-grossing solo concert tour of the 1990s. Disc one was also re-released as a standalone compilation album, titled Greatest Hits: HIStory, Volume I, in 2001.
Background
Starting in the late 1980s, Michael Jackson and the tabloid press had a difficult relationship. In 1986, tabloids claimed that Jackson slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and had offered to buy the bones of Joseph Merrick (whom calls himself as the "Elephant Man"), both of which Jackson vehemently denied. These stories inspired the derogatory nickname as "Wacko Jacko" of which Jackson despised. He stopped leaking untruths to the press, In 1989, Jackson released a song, "Leave Me Alone", a song about the victimization he felt by the press.
In 1993, the relationship between Jackson and the press collapsed when he was accused of child sexual abuse. Although he was not charged, Jackson was subject to intense media scrutiny while the criminal investigation took place. Media coverage included misleading and sensational headlines; paying for stories of Jackson's alleged criminal activity and confidential material from the police investigation; using unflattering pictures of Jackson; and using headlines that strongly implied Jackson's guilt. In 1994, Jackson said of the media coverage: "I am particularly upset by the handling of the matter by the incredible, terrible mass media. At every opportunity, the media has dissected and manipulated these allegations to reach their own conclusions."
To deal with the stress of allegations and media coverage Jackson began taking painkillers, along with anxiety medications Valium, Xanax and Ativan. A few months after the allegations became news, Jackson stopped eating. Soon after, Jackson's health deteriorated to the extent he canceled the remainder of his Dangerous World Tour and went into rehabilitation. Jackson booked the whole fourth floor of a clinic and was put on Valium IV to wean him from painkillers. The album comprises two discs. The first, HIStory Begins, is a compilation of songs from Jackson's albums Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), Bad (1987) and Dangerous (1991). The second, HIStory Continues, comprises new material recorded from January 1994 to March 1995, although one of the songs (a cover of the Beatles' "Come Together") had been recorded as early as 1986. Jackson co-wrote and co-produced a majority of the new songs; other writers include Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Dallas Austin, the Notorious B.I.G., Bruce Swedien, R. Kelly and René Moore, and other producers include David Foster and Bill Bottrell.
Similarly to Thriller and Bad, HIStory contains lyrics that deal with paranoia. Several of the album's 15 new songs pertain to the child sexual abuse allegations made against him in 1993 and Jackson's perceived mistreatment by the media, mainly the tabloids. Two of the album's new tracks are covers. The lyrics pertain to isolation, greed, environmental concerns, injustice. "Scream" is a duet with Jackson's sister Janet; with "spitting" "D.S.", a hard rock song, has lyrics about a "cold man" named "Dom S. Sheldon". Critics interpreted it as an attack on district attorney Thomas Sneddon, who had led the investigations into the allegations against Jackson.
"Money" was interpreted as being directed at Evan Chandler, the father of the boy who accused Jackson of child sexual abuse. Similar to "Scream", the lyrics to "They Don't Care About Us" pertain to injustice, as well as racism. In "This Time Around", Jackson asserts himself as having been "falsely accused". "Earth Song" was described as a "slow blues-operatic", "Stranger in Moscow" is a pop ballad that is interspersed with sounds of rain, with lyrics instructing listeners to not believe everything they read in the media and tabloids. "HIStory" was not released as a single from HIStory, but a remix of the song was included on Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix and released as a single in 1997.
As an introduction for "Little Susie", Jackson used his own variation of "Pie Jesu" from Maurice Duruflé's Requiem. The song's accompanying album artwork resembles the painting "Beautiful Victim" by Gottfried Helnwein, which may have inspired the song.
Controversy
Accusations of antisemitism
On June 15, 1995, The New York Times said that "They Don't Care About Us" contained antisemitic slurs in the lines "Jew me, sue me, everybody do me / Kick me, kike me, don't you black or white me". The following day, David A. Lehrer and Rabbi Marvin Hier, leaders of two Jewish organizations, stated that Jackson's attempt to make a song critical of discrimination had backfired. They felt the lyrics might be ambiguous and were unsuitable for young audiences because they might not understand the song's context. They acknowledged that Jackson meant well and suggested that he write an explanation in the album booklet. In his review of HIStory, Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote that the song "gives the lie to his entire catalogue of brotherhood anthems with a burst of anti-Semitism".
On June 17, Jackson promised that future copies of the album would include an apology. On June 23, Jackson announced that he would alter the offending wording on future copies of the album. He reiterated his acceptance that the song was offensive to some. It was reported that "Jew me" and "Kike me" would be substituted with "do me" and "strike me", however, the offending words were instead covered up with loud, abstract noises drowning them out. Remixes of the song that were later released instead use repeated words ("Jew me, sue me" being replaced with "Sue me, sue me"). An apology was included in later issues of the album: