Jackson’s P.Y.T. is a monster track, full of catchy hooks, an incredible vocal performance, and a super-polished production. The song is a funky disco track and features several synth part, such as an E-mu Emulator I sampling Jackson’s voice for the pad, customized Minimoogs for the bassline, and a Roland Jupiter-6 doubled with a Prophet-5 for the pitch-bend chorus synth lick. You can read more about the synths on Jackson’s signature songs in this fantastic KeyboardMag article.

The chipmunk vocals are unusual for the era it was recorded, and the pitch-shift disguises what Jackson is singing. Questlove posted a video on Instagram of himself in the studio along with Root’s guitarist Captain Kirk Douglas and keyboard player James Poyser listening to the multitrack stems of P.Y.T. pitched down, so the chipmunk vocal track sounds like how it would’ve before being repitched. Questlove commented: