Let’s take a minute to look at the career of the legendary hit-making producer Timbaland. Born Timothy Zachery Mosley in Norfolk, Virginia on March 10, 1972. At birth he was diagnosed with Tourettes Syndrome, which is said to attribute to his avant-garde style of music. He began his musical career making hip-hop tracks on a Casio keyboard. While in high school he met rapper Melvin Barcliff who went by the stage name Magoo they formed a long-term bond through music collaborating on many projects. As a teen Timbaland also became apart of the production team S.B.I (which stood for Surrounded by Idiots) Neptunes producer Pharrell was also featured in the group.
He became apart of the group after being shot in 1986 while working at a part time job at Red Lobster, it resulted in him being partially paralyzed for a period of nine months. During that time he learned how to DJ with his left hand going by the name “DJ Timmy Tim” or “DJ Tim”. After singer and rapper Missy Elliot had a chance to listen to his work she began to work with him along with her R&B group Sista. Missy and the group Sista auditioned for DeVante Swing, the member and producer of the R&B group Jodeci.
Devante signed Sista to his record label Swing Mobb and Missy brought Timbaland and Magoo with her to New York, where the label was located. It was DeVante that gave Timbaland his name, after the popular construction boot. Timbaland did production work on numerous projects with DeVante, including 1995’s Jodeci LP The Show, The After Party, The Hotel, and Sista’s (unreleased) debut album 4 All the Sistas Around da World. In 1996 he hit the mainstream by producing a majority of both Aaliyah’s second album One in a Million and Ginuwine’s debut album Ginuwine…the Bachelor, which included the mega hit singles “If Your Girl Only Knew” by Aaliyah and “Pony” By Ginuwine. Timbaland became known for his signature sound, by taking the genre of hip-hop and blending it with R&B.
In 1997 he fully produced Missy Elliot’s debut album Supa Dupa Fly as well as his first album with long time friend Magoo entitled, Welcome to Our World. Because both album’s where rap albums he was now considered a hip-hop producer.
Timbaland’s sound was very different from other hip-hop records at the time which had a more hard and edgy sound with a lot of sample use. Tim’s sound however, was clean, hypnotic, and electric, plus he didn’t use samples which was very new to the hip-hop masses. He went on to become the biggest hip-hop producer of the 90’s and his music became very influential and eventually common, because he was doing records for a lot of top 40 artists by this point, including Jay-Z, Nas, and The LOX.
During this time he also worked with other acts such as UGK and Jay-Z with the hit record “Big Pimpin”, Xscape, Nicole, Playa, and Total. As well as Usher with “You Make Me Wanna”, Ludacris with “Roll Out (My Business), Petey Pablo’s “Raise Up” and Beck’s Cover of David Bowe’s “Diamond Dogs”. He went on to open Beat Club records in 2000 and in 2001 released the first record from the label by way of artist Bubba Sparxx in September of 2001.
Since then Timbaland has become a house hold name and a must have producer for just about any artist in the industry. He has been responsible for jump-starting the careers of many of our favorite artists of the 90’s until now. As a producer and artist myself Timbaland has been the producer I strive to be like. He has accomplished many things to many for me to talk about right now. He set himself apart from the game he basically made the game what it is today because of the influence he had on the sound. Hopefully within the next five years I will have reached at least half of his success, because when you get to that level you know that you have really made it!
Lennon John JDE 