There's been an internet rumor going around for quite some time, claiming that the music featured on the soundtrack to the popular video game Sonic the Hedgehog 3 was composed by none other than the "King of Pop" himself, Michael Jackson. After about 20 years since proposing this theory, we have an answer. Listen to the soundtrack below to see if you can tell if Jackson did in fact compose the songs on the popular video game!

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Ben Mallison was an avid gamer as a child growing up in Manchester, England, with a bias towards the fast hedgehog Sonic as opposed to, say, Mario of Super Mario fame. He was also a big music enthusiast that was convinced that Jackson was linked to the 8-bit tunes heard in the game.

The Huffington Post recently shared an in-depth report on Mallison's theory and the evidence around which it was based. It's certainly a great read and worth checking out (click on the link above), but you're here for the facts, aren't you?

"I've always been musically inclined and have a knack for noticing stuff like samples or ripoffs in songs," Mallison explained. He explained the The Huffington Post that the lead track off of Jackson's Dangerous record, "Jam," sounded a lot like "Carnival Night Zone" featured in the video game.

From this, Mallison went on to prove that, yes; Michael Jackson did compose the music to Sonic the Hedgehog 3, but was not credited. As UPROXX points out, he probably didn't get any credit because he was embroiled in a terrible scandal at the time of the game's release, so Sega didn't include the musician's name in the credits.

Howard Drossin is the composer credited with the music, but you can have a listen below now knowing that Jackson was heavily involved in the music:

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