The behind-the-scenes clamor to make Michael Jackson’s unreleased music available to the public has taken a strange new turn. Record company executives will inevitably have many posthumous Jackson releases lined up, but they may face a struggle to get their hands on his precious archive.

The King of Pop’s sister, La Toya Jackson, has allegedly taken several hard drives containing over 100 Jackson songs, although it’s unclear what she plans to do with them. The hard drives apparently include recordings with Ne-Yo and will.i.am, and also contain outtakes from the Bad album.

An interview with will.i.am confirmed the existence of a duet between the pair. “Of course, it was melodic,” he said. “As he would say, juicy." He also revealed that Jackson did have the recording stashed away somewhere: “I move around a lot and to make songs with Michael Jackson and risk me losing that music, I didn't want that responsibility,” he said. "So he kept all the stuff that we worked on."

[Gigwise]