HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I is a double album by the American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson, released on June 20, 1995.

Also in 1993, the Daily Mirror held a "Spot the Jacko" contest, offering readers a trip to Disney World if they could correctly predict where Jackson would appear next.

[13] In early November 1993, talk show host Geraldo Rivera set up a mock trial with a jury of audience members, though Jackson had not been charged with a crime.

[18] Some reviewers commented on the unusual format of a new studio album being accompanied by a "greatest hits" collection, with Q magazine saying "from the new songs' point of view, it's like taking your dad with you into a fight.

Several of the album's 15 new songs pertain to the child sexual abuse allegations made against him in 1993[20] and Jackson's perceived mistreatment by the media, mainly the tabloids.

In September 2007, a Belgian judge ruled the song had been plagiarized from the Van Passel brothers, and it was banned from radio play in Belgium.

[20][23][27][28] "Money" was interpreted as being directed at Evan Chandler, the father of the boy who accused Jackson of child sexual abuse.

[31] "Stranger in Moscow" is a pop ballad that is interspersed with sounds of rain,[20] in which Jackson references a "swift and sudden fall from grace".

[22][23] The album's title track, "HIStory" contained multiple samples, including Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

[35] The following day, David A. Lehrer and Rabbi Marvin Hier, leaders of two Jewish organizations, stated that Jackson's attempt to make a song critical of discrimination had backfired.

[36] In his review of HIStory, Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote that the song "gives the lie to his entire catalogue of brotherhood anthems with a burst of anti-Semitism".

[39][40] It was reported that "Jew me" and "Kike me" would be substituted with "do me" and "strike me", however, the offending words were instead covered up with loud, abstract noises drowning them out.

I just want you all to know how strongly I am committed to tolerance, peace and love, and I apologize to anyone who might have been hurt.Spike Lee defended Jackson's use of the word, by mentioning the double standard from the media.

says 'nigga' on 'This Time Around', another song on the HIStory album, but it did not attract media attention, as well as, many years before, use in lyrics of word 'nigger' by John Lennon.

"[43] HIStory's music videos displayed different themes and elements, while some of them encouraged awareness of poverty and had a positive effect on their shooting locations.

[45] The resulting media interest exposed Olodum to 140 countries, bringing them worldwide fame and increasing their status in Brazil.

The interesting aspect of Michael Jackson's strategy is the efficiency with which it gives visibility to poverty and social problems in countries like Brazil without resorting to traditional political discourse.

[49] This second version was filmed in a prison with cellmates; the video shows Jackson handcuffed and contains real footage of police attacking African Americans, the Ku Klux Klan, genocide, execution, and other human rights abuses.

[50] In 2008, a writer for the Nigeria Exchange said that "'Earth Song' drew the world's attention to the degradation and bastardization of the earth as a fall out of various human activities".

Jackson's "Stranger In Moscow" music video influenced the advertising campaign for International Cricket Council Champions Trophy 2004, which featured "a series of smart outdoor ads and a classy TV spot".

[52] The television commercial was inspired by "Stranger In Moscow"s video where "the maiden in black splash about in the rain, with kids playing cricket for company".

The tour, beginning in Prague, Czech Republic on September 7, 1996, attracted more than 4.5 million fans from 58 cities in 35 countries around the world.

[67] To promote the tour, Epic placed ten 30-foot replicas of the statue in locations around the world,[68] including the River Thames in London, Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Eindhoven in the Netherlands, and the pedestal of the destroyed Stalin Monument in Prague.

[90] The album was certified eight times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on August 23, 2018, in the United States.

[97] In Chile, the album topped the charts and broke all sales records in the country when it sold 25,000 units within 72 hours of its release on June 16.

In a glowing review, Jon Pareles of The New York Times praises HIStory Continues as "meticulous, sumptuous, [and] musically ingenious".

[106] James Hunter of Rolling Stone gave HIStory four-out-of-five stars and found that it "unfolds in Jackson's outraged response to everything he has encountered in the last year or so."

[21] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave HIStory three-out-of-five stars, commenting that it was a "monumental achievement" of Jackson's ego.

[103] Erlewine noted that HIStory Continues is "easily the most personal album Jackson has recorded" and that its songs' lyrics referencing the molestation accusations create a "thick atmosphere of paranoia".

[103] He cited "You Are Not Alone" and "Scream" as being "well-crafted pop that ranks with his best material", but concludes that "nevertheless, HIStory Continues stands as his weakest album since the mid-'70s.