Is Katherine Jackson Trying to Thwart Sony's Michael by Releasing M.J. Music on Her Own?

Family members of the late singer deny the Jackson matriarch's involvement in the release of an alleged Michael Jackson original

Did M.J.'s mama jump the gun?

Katherine Jackson reportedly leaked 12 minutes of new Michael Jackson music on Saturday in response to Sony's now-controversial decision to release Jackson's first posthumous album, Michael.

But did Katherine even authorize the drop? And more importantly, can this M.J. mish-mash really even be called a song?!

The song in question is "Opis None," a musical number culled from the Michael Jackson Secret Vault, the company responsible for the book Never Can Say Goodbye, which was narrated by Katherine.

Reports that Katherine was behind the "Opis None" release began shortly after the clip, which features a "With L.O.V.E. from Mrs. Jackson" signature, hit YouTube earlier this weekend.

However, there are two very important facts regarding the new release that must be addressed. First, Jackson Secret Vault has now updated their "Opis None" post, stating: "This track was NOT released by Mrs. Jackson, this is a dance remake created from unreleased masters in the JacksonSecretVault.com archives. We sincerely apologize to the fans for any confusion."

Michael's brother Jackie Jackson took to Twitter this morning to refute claims that his mother authorized any such thing, as well:

"Dear fans: I just spoke with my Mother and she did NOT authorize the release of the demo track called Opus None," he wrote. "I personally think it was sampled together by an unauthorized party.... Please don't believe gossip sites...."

Tito Jackson's son Taj also tweeted: "Just talked to my grandma. She didn't even know about the "song", nor did she authorize it. We are getting to the bottom of this."

So there you have it, Katherine Jackson was never behind the unauthorized track.

But the second item of note is the "song" itself. In the lengthy twelve minute track, a lyric of any kind is missing in action. Sure, there are faint remnants of M.J.'s signature style throughout, but the mainly instrumental number hardly fills the gaping musical void Jackson left behind.

Elsewhere, Sony is still moving forward as planned with their own Michael release, scheduled to drop on Dec. 14, with the single "Breaking News" available now on MichaelJackson.com.

(Originally published on November 7th, 2010 at 12:25 p.m.)