Mikey Dread: Easy Star All-Stars Unveil “Thrillah” LP + Luciano’s “Billie Jean” Cover

Words by Jesse Serwer—

Easy Star All-Stars, the musical crew behind the much-celebrated 2003 Pink Floyd reggae tribute Dub Side of the Moon and the Radiohead covers album Radiodread, have been building hype for their upcoming LP over the last few weeks by keeping it’s exact identity a secret, encouraging fans to pick which classic album they thought they were set to tackle. After checking possibilities like Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On and U2’s The Joshua Tree off the list, today they’ve removed the curtain and unveiled Thrillah, a reggae tribute to Michael Jackson’s Thriller due out Aug. 28

Among other things (the dreads-meet-the-“Thriller” video-zombies cover art, T-shirts, fall tour dates), they’ve leaked the album’s first single—a heavily funky reggae version of “Billie Jean” featuring some knockout vocals from none other than Luciano! Download the tune for the price of your e-mail address over at Easy Star’s site, or stream it right here. You can wait ’til July 10, when it drops as a proper EP, but we recommend you check it now—it might just be the best MJ cover since Shinehead’s own classic version of “Billie Jean.”

[audio:http://largeup.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Billie-Jean-feat_-Luciano.mp3|titles=Billie Jean (feat_ Luciano)]
Easy Star All-Stars feat. Luciano, “Billie Jean”

Other guests on the album include Mykal Rose, Steel Pulse, Spragga Benz and Mojo Morgan of Morgan Heritage. We’ve heard Mykal’s contribution, and that one’s gonna knock your socks off, too. It looks like a worthy video for “Billie Jean” is on the way as well, based on the looks of this preview/trailer that also appeared on the Easy Star site today: