Michael had told us he wanted to do a song with Janet, so she came to the studio and we came up with five or six ideas to take to him, one of which would become “Scream.”

Michael comes into the studio that day very quietly, wearing a bunch of bangles, jewelry and hard shoes – all the things you’re not supposed to have in a studio. He’s all timid, very quiet, and says [Jimmy affects a perfect Michael voice], “Go ahead, play it from the top.” Straight away he turned into some sort of Tasmanian devil; dancing all around the studio, clapping, snapping, stomping his feet. Normally you’d say something like, “Hey, you gotta stay on the mic.” But we were just were like, “We’re just gonna watch this while you do your thing.” Janet—who was supposed to be recording her vocal the same day—saw this, turned to me and said, “Erm, I think I’ll do my vocal down in Minneapolis.”

I’d never seen anything like it before. I’ve never seen anything like it since. Over the years I’ve had some wonderful and moving studio experiences, but there was an earthquake in New York that day, and it was Michael. The force of Michael. He had just got married to Lisa-Marie Presley at that point. We asked her what brought them together, besides the fact they had showbiz in common, famous families and everything. She said he was the kindest person she’d ever met. That really struck me because that’s exactly what I thought about him too.

— Co-writer and producer of the song, Jimmy Jam, via VICE.

At $7 million, (inflated to $11,509,718) the futuristic video set the Guinness World Record for the most expensive music video/short film ever.

The short film earned Michael his second Grammy Award for Best Music Video – Short Form. In addition to a record 11 MTV Video Music Award nominations, winning three, including Best Dance Video, Best Choreography and Best Art Direction.

The highly stylized black and white production features Michael and Janet dancing, playing games and relaxing on a giant spacecraft. A dozen corresponding sets were constructed on multiple soundstages on the Universal Studios backlot over a period of just two weeks, including a Zen garden, a sport court and a room for dancing. – source

On his website, Michael said:

Sometimes, the only thing we can do is scream. Don’t you ever feel that way, that you wanna just let it all out? People should listen, and decide for themselves.