Michael Jackson had recorded a wealth of new material before his sudden death last Thursday, it has emerged.

The pop star had worked on new records with Will.i.am and Ne-Yo, as well as a new song about climate change.

"It was fresh," Will.i.am told the BBC of Jackson's new material. “It was very demanding. It demanded all the people to the dance floor. “Of course, it was melodic. As he would say, juicy."

But Will.iam said that he didn't know what had happened to the new songs because Jackson kept them on a hard drive.

“I move around a lot and to make songs with Michael Jackson and risk me losing that music, I didn't want that responsibility,” he said. "So he kept all the stuff that we worked on."

Ne-Yo told Billboard that the pair were working on “a lot of ideas” together.

Meanwhile, Jackson's friend Deepak Chopra revealed the star had phoned him two day before his death about a new song his was writing about climate change.

"The voice message said, 'I've got some really good news to share with you.' He was writing a song about the environment, and he wanted me to help informally with the lyrics, as we had done several times before," Chopra wrote on the Huffington Post.

"When I tried to return his call, however, the number was disconnected. (Terminally spooked by his treatment in the press, he changed his phone number often.)

"So I never got to talk to him, and the music demo he sent me lies on my bedside table as a poignant symbol of an unfinished life."

(by Jason Gregory)