Will.i.am rails against new Michael Jackson record

Will.i.am collaborated with Jackson on the Thriller re-release two years ago

Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am has criticised plans to release a new Michael Jackson album in November this year.

The star said that previously unheard material should not be made public as it did not have Jackson's blessing.

"How you gonna release Michael Jackson when Michael Jackson ain't here to bless it?" he told the Associated Press news agency.

Jackson collaborated with Will.i.am before his death last year.

The only songs to be issued from their extensive recording sessions are a clutch of remixes featured on a re-release of Thriller in 2008.

The Black Eyed Peas' star said Jackson had been very particular about all aspects of his musical productions, from vocals to arrangements and instrumentation.

"He was a perfectionist and he wouldn't have wanted it that way," he said of the new album, which Sony is expected to release in November.

"I don't think that should ever come out. Now that he is not part of the process, what are they doing? Why would you put a record out like that?

"Because he was a friend of mine, I just think that's disrespectful.

"What's wrong with what he already contributed to the world?"

Jackson's former manager, Frank DiLeo, told Rolling Stone magazine on Monday that the new album would consist of of 10 previously unreleased tracks, chosen from more than 100 songs held in Jackson's archive.

"There are a couple of songs we recorded for the Bad album that we had to cut that are just sensational," he said.