With December marking the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson's landmark Thriller album, the reclusive singer actually granted an interview to Ebony magazine in which he talked about his solo career and the state of music and Hip-Hop today. The magazine comes out on Monday, but some excerpts have already been released.

When comparing his debut solo album, Off The Wall, to Thriller, Jackson said it was "a complete transition." "Ever since I was a little boy, I would study composition. And it was Tchaikovsky that influenced me the most," he tells Ebony, according to MTV News. "If you take an album like Nutcracker Suite, every song is a killer, every one. So I said to myself, 'Why can't there be a pop album where every [song is a killer]?'... I do that same process with every song. It's the melody, the melody is the most important. If the melody sounds good in my head, it's usually good when I do it."

The singer is rumored to be working with Kanye West and Will.I.Am on a comeback album, and while he did say, "I'm writing a lot of stuff right now" and "I'm in the studio, like, every day," he didn't reveal when a new album would be coming. He does, however, think that Ne-Yo, Chris Brown and Akon are "wonderful."

"When [Rap] came out, I always felt that it was gonna take more of a melodic structure to make it more universal, 'cause not everybody speaks English, and you are limited to your country," Jackson explained, according to MTV News. "But when you can have a melody, and everybody can hum a melody, then that's when it became France, the Middle East, everywhere! All over the world now, 'cause they put that melodic, linear thread in there. You have to be able to hum it, from the farmer in Ireland to that lady who scrubs toilets in Harlem to anybody who can whistle to a child poppin' their fingers. You have to be able to hum it."

There are no concrete tour plans in Jackson’s future, but he did say he doesn't see himself staying on the road in his old age. "Not the way James Brown did, or Jackie Wilson did, where they just killed themselves," Jackson said. "I wish [Brown] could have slowed down and been more relaxed and enjoyed his hard work."

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