High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! "Wanna Be Startin` Somethin`" is a song by American songwriter and recording artist Michael Jackson. "Wanna Be Startin` Somethin`" was released on May 8, 1983, by Epic Records as the fourth single from Jackson`s sixth studio album Thriller in 1982. It is the first song on Thriller. The song was written, composed and co-produced by Jackson, and produced by Quincy Jones.