Ask 50 Cent and Nas: beef sells. But is it too much to ask that Timbaland, the most flamboyant sonic risk-taker in hip-hop, not spend the lion's share of his album firing mushy lyrical barbs at nameless haters and wanna-be's? Cast aside the meandering Magoo lyrics that bog down Under Construction Part II — the duo's third and weakest collaborative album — and what emerges is a bitter Timbaland, sneering from his throne. "Don't Make Me Take It There" encapsulates the tone: "If a nigga didn't make his entry/Niggas would be making them same old beats." Even "Hold On," ostensibly a tribute to the late Aaliyah — one of Tim's true muses — laments the copycat culture: "I done seen the world become products of a revolution that we begun." Meanwhile, Tim's normally dazzling beats dodder along harmlessly, proof that he's looking over his shoulder when he should be hunching over his studio equipment.

“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."