Timbaland

Arguably the most influential contemporary hip-hop and R&B record producer since at least Dr. Dre, Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley has had one of the longest running hot streaks of any record-maker. Timbaland's arresting signature style is a kind of jittery electro-funk notable for its use of empty space, but even as he's beefed up his basic sound, his touch is still one of the most recognizable in contemporary music. Though he's recorded five albums under his own name, three of them with rapper Magoo, Timbaland's microphone skills have never been especially notable; it's as a beat-maker that he deserves his vaunted reputation.

Mosley began making music as a teenager, performing at one point in a band with fellow Virginians Magoo (born Melvin Barcliff, July 12, 1973, Norfolk, VA) and Pharrell Williams, later of the Neptunes (see separate entry). He also became friends with Missy Elliott, another Norfolk native who was in an R&B girl group called Sista. When Sista was signed by DeVante Swing, a member of Jodeci, Mosley and Magoo followed Elliott to Suffern, NY, and — along with male vocalist Ginuwine and male group Playa — became part of Swing's stable of writer-producer-performers. Mosley worked on Jodeci's The Show, the After Party, the Hotel (Number Two, 1995) and the unreleased Sista album; soon, he, Magoo, Elliott, Playa, and Ginuwine split from Swing.

Timbaland attracted significant notice thanks to his work on Ginuwine's second album, Ginuwine . . . the Bachelor (Number 26, 1996), which spawned the hit "Pony" (Number Six, 1996). He followed it up with work on Aaliyah's second album, One in a Million (Number 18, 1996), whose title track went to Number Two on the Dance chart. Both tracks utilized snaking syncopated drum patterns and skittering hi-hats, as well as plinking keyboards (playing both typical keyboard sounds and sound effects) and strong, glutinous bass. The tracks were mechanized but had an improvisatory feeling, befitting Timbaland's night-and-day studio time: the track for "Pony" was finished in a single night, with the released version a rough mix on a two-track DAT that the song's engineer, the studio veteran Jimmy Douglass, a frequent Timbaland collaborator, delivered to Sony.

That sound perked even more ears when Timbaland produced his old partner Missy Elliott's solo debut, Supa Dupa Fly (Number Three, 1997), which spawned the groundbreaking hits "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" (Number Four R&B/hip-hop) and "Sock It 2 Me" (Number 12, 1997). Suddenly, the predominant laid-back whine of G-funk was out, and door-knocker snares, desert-dry kick drums, and odd little background noises were black pop's new lingua franca. Timbaland and Magoo soon released their own Welcome to Our World (Number 33, 1997), which broke off a hits of its own in "Up Jumps Da Boogie" (Number 12, 1997), featuring Elliott and Aaliyah, and "Clock Strikes" (Number 37, 1998).

Timbaland followed Welcome with his own album of showcase collaborations, Tim's Bio: Life From Da Bassment (Number 41, 1998). More significant were a stunning string of singles for others, including Jay-Z ft. Big Jaz's "Nigga What, Nigga Who (Originator 99)" (Number 84, 1999), Nicole ft. Missy Elliott's "Make It Hot" (Number Five) and, most significantly, Aaliyah's contribution to the Dr. Doolittle soundtrack, "Are You That Somebody" (Number 21, 1998), a work whose heaving sound gaps and its hook, featuring a gurgling baby, rendered it both deeply funky and near-avant-garde. More than anything, "Somebody" fixed the "Timbaland sound" in the public ear, and raised the bar for other producers (as well as Timbaland himself) to top it for sheer audacious style.

Timbaland next oversaw Elliott's Da Real World (Number Ten, 1999), and Ginuwine's 100% Ginuwine (Number Five, 1999); he also contributed four standout tracks to Jay-Z's Vol. 3: Life and Times of S. Carter (Number One, 1999), including the hit "Big Pimpin'" (Number 18, 2000), which, Village Voice critic Robert Christgau noted, sounded as if it "were recorded in Cairo." That song was marked a significant shift in Timbaland's sound: he would flirt more and more heavily with Eastern sounds, a tendency that peaked in 2001 on Elliott's Miss E . . . So Addictive (Number Two, 2001), featuring the single "Get Ur Freak On" (Number Seven, 2001), whose beat, driven by an Indian tabla and carrying echoes as well of U.K. drum and bass and Jamaican dancehall, made "Are You That Somebody" sound like a hymn.

Before that, though, Timbaland also crafted four tracks for the excellent Romeo Must Die (Number Three, 2000), the soundtrack for a film starring Jet Li and Aaliyah; her "Try Again" (Number One, 2000) featured a Roland TB-303 bass-synthesizer line snaking through the tune, utilizing an instrumental signature usually associated with blaring acid house music and turned it into purring R&B. He also helmed three cuts on Aaliyah (Number One, 2001), issued shortly before the singer's sad death at 22 in a plane crash in the Bahamas. Timbaland's work on the album includes "We Need a Resolution" (Number 59, 2001), a milder variation on the "Try Again" template, and "More Than a Woman" (Number 25, 2002). He also reunited with Magoo for Indecent Proposal (Number 29, 2001), as well as overseeing significant chunks of Bubba Sparxxx's Dark Days, Bright Nights (Number Three, 2001), featuring the "Get Ur Freak On"-quoting "Ugly" (Number 15, 2001), and Petey Pablo's Diary of a Sinner: 1st Entry (Number 13, 2001), whose "Raise Up" (Number 25, 2001) featured Timbaland at his most rugged and straightforward, as did Ludacris's "Roll Out (My Business)" (Number 17, 2001), another Timbaland hit.

Those records' direction presaged the consciously back-to-old-school moves of Elliott's Under Construction (Number Three, 2002), though on his tracks on Tweet's Southern Hummingbird (Number Three, 2002), particularly "Oops (Oh My)" (Number Seven, 2002), balanced his odder leanings with straightforward funk. The same went for the handful of cuts Timbaland produced for Justin Timberlake's smash Justified (Number Two, 2002), including the fluttering breakup tune "Cry Me a River" (Number Three, 2002). Next came Timbaland and Magoo's Under Construction Pt. II (Number 50, 2003) and Elliott's This Is Not a Test! (Number 13, 2003), both a touch wilder than their previous albums, neither as successful musically. In fact, Timbaland's peak work of this period was Bubba Sparxxx's Deliverance (Number 10, 2003), a deeply felt album that fused Timbaland's off-kilter beats with country-music instrumentation, such as the fiddle of "Goin' Round" and the stirring title track.

The mid-'00s saw Timbaland laying fairly low; even Elliott's The Cookbook (2005) featured minimal input from him. He played the journeyman, contributing tracks to several albums and garnering a handful of hits for L.L. Cool J ("Headsprung," Number 16, 2004) and Ludacris ("The Potion," Number 65 R&B), among others, but doing little of real import musically. It was during this time that Timbaland moved to Miami and began work as a bodybuilder; he also began working with Nate "Danjahandz" Hills, who is credited as co-producer on several songs from this period forward.

Timbaland's relative lull ended decisively in 2006, when he produced Nelly Furtado's third album, Loose (Number One) and Justin Timberlake's second, FutureSex/LoveSounds (Number One). Singles from both albums dominated the pop charts for the next two years: Furtado's "Promiscuous" (Number One, 2006), "Maneater" (Number 16, 2006), "Say It Right" (Number One, 2006), "All Good Things (Come to an End)" (Number 86, 2007), and "Do It" (Number 88, 2007); and Timberlake's "SexyBack" (Number One, 2006), "My Love" (ft. T.I.; Number One, 2006), "What Goes Around . . . Comes Around" (Number One, 2007), "Summer Love" (Number Six, 2007), and "LoveStoned" (Number 17, 2007). Timbaland continued this streak with his own Shock Value (Number Five, 2007), featuring the hits "Give It to Me" (ft. Furtado and Timbaland; Number One, 2007), "The Way I Are" (ft. Keri Hilson; Number Three, 2007), and "Apologize" (ft. OneRepublic; Number Two, 2007).