
We’d like to put a moratorium on collaborations. It’s for your own good, music industry. What with Chris Martin producing Jay-Z and Will.i.am supposedly working with Michael Jackson, we’re starting to feel like the business has just gotten too incestuous. And it’s not just the ick factor that we have to worry about, we think this you-be-on-my-record-I’ll-be-on-yours thing is starting to hurt the music. Case in point: “Give It to Me,” off Timbaland’s new record. The track features Timbaland mainstays Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake as guest vocalists, and it’s just not so good.
The basic beat is strong — a sort of dub-meets-jungle thump — and Timbaland’s vocals resonate like usual, but the Timberlake/Furtado parts feel gratuitous and forced. Plus, apparently JT’s verse involves some sort of attempt at calling out Janet Jackson for the way she handled nipplegate almost THREE FUCKING YEARS AGO. The lyrics (”I saw you trying to act cute on TV/ ‘Just let me clear the air’ “) may or may not be directed at Jackson but they definitely suck. Where’s the wit and the spirit in this song?
[via Stereogum]

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- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC.