10 Things We Learned From Timbaland’s Candid New Memoir
Any conversation about the greatest producers of all time must include Timbaland. Timothy Mosley emerged in the Nineties with a series of beguiling records that changed the course of hip-hop and R&B; in short order, he launched a career in pop, helping to create unforgettable hits for Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado and Jay Z. The open-minded, genre-hybrid approach that dominates contemporary production would be hard to imagine without Timbaland‘s example.
The famous beatmaker’s memoir, modestly titled The Emperor of Sound, arrives tomorrow. Somewhat like a Timbaland beat, the volume takes a lot of strange jumps — ignoring, for example, the recording of the classic first Missy Elliott album — but the book still contains a wealth of interesting details. Here are 10 key revelations.
1. Timbaland loves Rod Stewart.
The producer showed his genre-defying impulses early on: While Rick James, Queen and Prince all played an important role in his musical education, no one receives more praise than Rod Stewart. “The genius of the instrumentation is unparalleled,” writes Timbaland of “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” “Like every truly great pop song, it’s got all the elements you’ve heard before, lined up in a way that you’ve never quite heard before. … That song picks you up and doesn’t let you go until the very last guitar lick.” He adds later that “trying to chart my influences is like trying to pinpoint the origin of a cell-phone signal in those movies when the bad guy is using a scrambler.”
2. In high school, he was in a group with Pharrell.
In his teens, Timbaland put together the wonderfully named band Surrounded by Idiots. Timbaland was the DJ and Pharrell served as one of several rappers. (Pharrell also had his own group, Dead Poets Society, at the time.) Magoo, who would eventually release several albums with Mosley, was also a member. Mosley believes Surrounded by Idiots were ahead of their time: “We even had a few songs that I think would still be up to the standards of today.”
3. He has a bullet lodged in his arm.
While working at Red Lobster in high school, Mosley was accidentally shot — someone was attempting to deliver a gun to another kitchen employee, but it went off and hit Timbaland, causing him to lose the use of his left arm for seven months. He DJ’d anyway, using his shoulder to scratch despite the pain.
4. Timbaland spent several torturous years as a producer for DeVante Swing of Jodeci.
Initially, Timbaland and Missy Elliott thought that earning the attention of Jodeci — an R&B group at the peak of its commercial powers — would be their big break. According to Timbaland’s description, working under DeVante Swing was more like being under house arrest. “We would go for days without eating,” he remembers. “We would be woken up in the middle of the night to run crazy errands. We were knocked around, kicked around, and beat down.” In addition, Timbaland suggests that he was barely paid royalties for work he did on various songs during this time period.