Missy Elliott Tells Rick Rubin How Timbaland Almost Lost the “Get Ur Freak On” Beat
Missy Elliott recalls making the hit “Get Ur Freak On” for her third album “Miss E... So Addictive” with Timbaland and how the super-producer nearly lost the famed beat after playing it for her. Hear Missy's full interview with Rick Rubin on Broken Record here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYfbJ...
Timbaland Tells The Real Story About His Smash Hits Records He Did With Missy Elliott "Get Ur Freak On", Aaliyah's "One In A Million" & Jay-Z "Big Pimpin"
Justin Timberlake Talks About The First Time He Met with Timbaland & Making His
Classic Smash Hit "Cry Me A River"
Can you believe that next year marks 12 whole years since we’ve had a Missy Elliott album?
Unacceptable.
The woman known as Misdemeanor has always been a trendsetter — something the game is really missing right now. Whether it’s her otherworldy rhymes or underrated harmonies, Missy constantly innovates every time she blesses us with new music.
While we patiently await her next album, let’s count down Missy’s 20 best tracks. This list will only focus on the tracks where she served as lead performer — we’ll look at her catalog of features next time.
20. “Smooth Chick” (1999)
19. “Funky Fresh Dressed” feat Ms. Jade (2002)
18. “I'm Really Hot” (2004)
17. “Shake Your Pom Pom” (2008)
16. “You Don’t Know,” featuring Lil Mo (1999)
15. “Lick Shots” (2001)
14. “Hit ‘Em Wit Da Hee,” featuring Lil Kim (1997)
13. “Get Ur Freak On Remix” Feat Nelly Furtado (2001)
12. “Wake Up,” featuring Jay Z (2002)
11. “One Minute Man (remix)” featuring Jay Z (2002)
10. “Pussycat” (2002)
9. “She’s a B*tch” (1999)
8. “Gossip Folks,” featuring Ludacris (2002)
7. “Sock It 2 Me,” featuring Da Brat (1997)
6. “Hot Boyz (remix),” featNas, Eve, Q-Tip and Lil Mo (1999)
5. “All N My Grill,” featuring Nicole Wray and Big Boi (1999)
In 2006,Nelly Furtadoreleased her third album, Loose. AlongsideBeyoncé'sB’Day,Justin Timberlake'sFutureSex/LoveSounds, and big country debuts byTaylor SwiftandCarrie Underwood, it went on to become one of the best-selling records of that year as well a career-defining album for the Canadian musician. Singles like “Promiscuous” and “Maneater” significantly altered Furtado's public narrative; until then she'd been known as a kind of heartfelt singer-songwriter, but began to be talked about in the hyperbolic, often patronizing tone reserved for pop stars who invoke their sexuality. ButLoosewas hinged on her magic chemistry with producerTimbaland, and set them both up as even more versatile artists than fans had previously understood. Ten years later,on the cusp of Furtado’s sixth album, The Ride, she gave The FADER the stories behind the making of the singularly compellingLoose.
BeforeLoose, I remember being like, "Okay, I want to do a pop album." I wanted to prove to myself that I could be more streamlined. My first albumWhoa, Nelly!— I feel like it took 18 months to record. [Producers] Track & Field and I were in the studio every day. Pro Tools kept crashing. So I had lots of time to come up with interesting rhythms and melodies. It was really fun when I tried to play the stuff live, but I always thought it made more sense in a club environment. Then I didFolklorein 2003, and that was more of a fleshed-out, live band sound. I used Madonna's Ray of Light as a template for Loose: she was smooth but sexy, universal, epic, iconic! Before I'd even stepped in a room with Timbaland, I already knew the name of the album would be Loose. It was actually Jimmy Iovine from my label, Interscope, that was like, "I think you and Timbaland should get together again!" Jimmy was always really stuck on my "Get Ur Freak On" remix with Missy Elliot from 2000. Putting that out was important, and it did really well; it was the official remix to a super iconic song. I’m pretty much rapping; it's totally me and Tim coming together and creating some kind of electricity. That was my first 'street’ hit, it was my first urban hit — nobody had heard "I’m Like a Bird" because it was on pop radio. This was before Instagram; people who only listened to urban radio were like, "Nelly Furtado's a really cool Jamaican boy! I wanna hear more from him!" [Laughs] Timbaland also did a really successful remix of "Turn Off the Lights,” from my first album. He loved my song "Baby Girl," and ended up sampling my vocal percussion to create a whole new song for Ms. Jade. We had a rapport going. I think Jimmy felt like we had never created magic together that wasn't remixes.
Ms. Jade & Nelly Furtado
So flash-forward: it's like 2004 or 2005, and he's like, ‘Tim's in Miami, you can go and start working on it.’ I had already worked in Miami on my little pre-Loose demo tapes with Scott Storch and Pharrell, and I had also worked with Nellee Hooper in England. So I went back to Miami, checked myself into this apartment-style hotel called The Sagamore with my cousin, who was helping me take care of my 20-month-old daughter. Potty-training by day, recording "Promiscuous" by night! “Potty-training by day, recording ‘Promiscuous’ by night!”
I hadn't seen Tim in five years, maybe, and I walk into The Hit Factory in Miami and him and I just had that same chemistry again. He was working with DanjaHandz at the time, making some really cool stuff. The first beat we played was what would eventually become "Maneater.” We were playing the music so loud that the large speaker on top of the console started to smoke, and then a flame came out of the speaker. It was on fire! [Laughs] It was a really cool omen, you know? But we were actually scared, like,Are we conjuring the devil or something?! What's going on?We didn't pull that song up for a couple weeks. I think we recorded the entire album in, like, maximum six weeks — with touch-ups after, mixing over that Christmas, or whatever. It was a super inspired time, and it was a cool time for Timbaland too because he was about to get in the studio with Justin Timberlake to recordFutureSex/LoveSoundsin Virginia.Loosekind of dovetailed into that record, in terms of the vibe. I was personally totally obsessed with electro-rock. I loved Bloc Party and Death from Above [1979]. These were young people making rock and alternative that was also steeped in the rhythmic knowledge of a world with hip-hop in it. Tim and I were both listening to this stuff; I really wanted it to have that kind of energy. So we were doing this like a garage band, writing and recording as we went, and sometimes mixing and doing vocals. It wasn't the traditional, we're gonna do a bunch of demos and then I'm gonna re-sing everything. It was very-real time. This thing was really unorthodox in terms of how it sounded; it didn't have that extra sheen that a lot of pop records had at the time. The distortion, the weird shit, we left it all on there.
And I think Miami at the time was peaking, in a way. It was a very happy time in my life. Tim was working out of Miami, Pharrell, Scott Storch, the whole Cash Money crew was all there. I remember Lil Wayne came to drop a remix verse on "Maneater.” We never put that out – I think it's available now. Everybody knows this, but Lil Waynedoesn't write anything down, he just comes and kind of channels it. At one point, his guys had a whole skate ramp in the parking lot at The Hit Factory — they had really moved in.
It was an exciting place to be. Forget the club, you wanted to be at The Hit Factory. There was a really weird work schedule. I personally would be hanging out at the beach, in the pool with my daughter, working on my suntan, and then I would head to the studio at like, 8 p.m.. Tim would get there at 8:30, 9. We'd work, and then by 1 a.m. I'd be really tired, because I was getting up with my daughter on her schedule around 7 a.m., so I'd go to this little room and crash on the couch for like an hour. Tim and his friends would go to the club, listen to the music, study what people are dancing to. He'd come back at 4 a.m., and we might work for another hour or three, then I'd go home.
The studio had an edge to it at the time. That's where Tim was at: leave, go to the club, come back, then basically live and die in the studio. He was coming off of two years where he’d parked his bus in the parking lot of The Hit Factory and lived on the bus. He had put his time in, so he was ready to pop off again. And I think he was feeling really good about himself; he was working out twice a day! I think he was getting ready for phase two. Although he has that Midas touch and he's really talented, he also put in the work. And I’m there as a new mom trying to make it work.
One night, we're dancing and having a good time, but it was 4 a.m. Tim looked at me like, "Ahh, you're tired, you're not gonna make anything good tonight." And I was like, "Yeah, I am! Whatever! Put a vocal effect on!" The way I like to work is to put the microphone inside the mix room, so you can hear your voice coming back through the speakers in the room, right on top of the track. It's very immediately rewarding. We had been watching Pink Floyd's The Wall on mute the whole night, and I started singing the opening lines of "Say It Right.” Tim immediately started building on the beat and we just jammed it out. That was a product of him being like, "You ain't gonna do shit tonight!"
The MTV Awards were in Miami that year. I ran into Chris Martin who I hadn't seen since we were playing the U.K. festival circuit back during my first album. We're talking, catching up. Timbaland was obsessed with Coldplay at the time and so I'm like, "I'm working with Timbaland, and he loves you guys!" and Chris is like, "Really? Oh my god! Timbaland, who produced ‘Dust Your Shoulders Off?’ 'DustYour Shoulders Off' is like, my favorite song ever and I'd love to work with Timbaland!" This was funny too, because it was right before Chris became friends with Jay Z.
So Chris gets to the studio the next night, and he was sort of jamming on his acoustic guitar, and Timbaland is literally calling him Coldplay, not Chris. He's like, "Coldplay, hey, check this out, Coldplay!" And I'm dying watching these two total geniuses working together. Eventually I'm like, "Ahh shit, I have to go soon. Why do all good jams come to an end?" And then Chris started singing, "Why do all good things come to an end?" We were originally going to keep his voice on it, but with his band or his label he couldn't, but that’s how Chris Martin from Coldplay co-wrote "All Good Things (Come To An End).”
I remember writing “Promiscuous” with Attitude and saying that all I wanted was to incorporate Steve Nash, because we both grew up in Victoria, B.C., and he’d won MVP two years in a row. Then everybody thought we were dating, which was not the case! I remember being a bit shy to put it out. That was probably the content, the fact that it's called "Promiscuous.” I hadn't done anything wrong but women are always judged. I've since changed my mind about that. By the time "Promiscuous" came out, I was super happy. I always felt like the male and female voices were equals. It was created in that tradition of a TLC or a Salt-N-Pepa song, where the women are assertive and just like, ‘I'm okay with my sexuality.’ I remember talking to Tim backstage at the Teen Choice Awards, like, "I really want to pull out condoms when we go out." We didn't go into it lightheartedly, you know? I guess the times have changed.
“It’s good to be proud of what you do, and I think Tim and I really did create something new. I’m proud we were able to celebrate our chemistry on such a large level. I’m happy people like seeing us together.”
I found it funny, the big media attention, like, "Oh my god, she's so sexualized!" I didn't agree. It's not like I was pole dancing or naked; I felt like my image was still pretty vanilla. My version was almost pathetic in comparison. Mine was the nun version, like, "Ooh, she took off her habit!" I don't even know what I did. I put more waves in my hair? Maybe I have a tighter dress on? My butt was bigger, because I just had a baby. It’s weird; you become politicized.
Over time, I've come to realize how special Loose is to a lot of people. It's good to be proud of what you do, and I think Tim and I really did create something new. I'm proud we were able to celebrate our chemistry on such a large level. I'm happy people like seeing us together. It's kind of funny, after Loose went down it was the classic thing where him and I started fighting. Tim felt that I wasn't grateful, then we got into this crazy argument because we had some legal stuff that we didn't agree on. When he got married [in 2008], I was away and couldn't come. All these little things led to a slow deterioration of our relationship.
Now we're great; we're friends again. We saw each other at the VH1 Awards this summer. I brought Dev Hynes with me and introduced them. Dev was super giddy, because he's a huge Timbaland fan. But before that, when Timbaland was working on Magna Carta with Jay Z in New York, I came by. I hadn’t seen him in a long time and we hadn't really hugged it out, or made peace with each other. I would never tell anybody this even three years ago, but because it's in retrospect, I figure it's nice to share these stories because they're real. We're humans, it's a real relationship. People ask every day when we’re going to make music. People are obsessed with him, and they loved us together on Loose. I do believe that we might make music together again.
The 25 Greatest Timbaland Instrumentals Of All Time
In honor of Timbaland and his induction into the VHI Hip Hop Hall of Fame, Complex Magazine gave it's top 25 Timbaland tracks/Instrumentals of all time. They are:
#25: Cee-Lo f/ Timbaland "I'll Be Around"
Released: 2004 In between Goodie acclaim and Gnarls stardom, Cee-Lo spent the first half of the past decade pursuing a solo career to mostly deaf ears. It wasn't fot for a lack of great records, though, as his sole Timbo collabo demonstrates. Tim brings Lo a brass-band bounce, and the chorus hints at both acts' gospel influence. As a rapper, Tim is easily out-styled by Cee-Lo's ridiculous flow, but compensates with a certain goofball charm.
#: Nelly Furtado "Say It Right"
Released: 2006
Nelly Furtado tapped Timbaland and Danja for the bulk of production on 2006’s Loose, whose international Top 10 smash “Say It Right”
#24: SWV f/ Missy Elliott "Can We"
Released: 1997 The lead single from SWV's final album (and the Booty Call soundtrack!) embodied the changing of the guard in modern R&B. Out went the sample-based hip-hop-informed sound that made them stars, in came Tim's space funk. You can hear Mr. Mosley trying to lace them with a more traditional-sounding beat, but it's bursting at the seams, his ticks and twitches seeping out from behind the lead guitar.
#23: Young Jeezy "3 A.M."
Released: 2006 By the middle of the ’00s, it seemed like Timbaland had all but put hip-hop behind him. His rap collaborations were infrequent and usually leaned towards the pop side of the spectrum. "3 AM" served as a reminder that he could still get down on the grimy side of things, playing in frequent Jeezy producer Shawty Redd's sandbox and blending his trademark twitchy programming with Atlanta's then-standard of darkened d-boy drama synths.
Released: 1999 For the most part, when Timbaland used samples they accounted for just a small element in a larger blueprint but Missy's "Hot Boyz" is entirely sample-driven, hinging on the stop-and-go chops of an unidentifiable string sample. Eve and Nas tear this down with ease, while Q-Tip just confuses with an surrealistically uncharacteristic verse about how much heat he holds and how he intends to "hit it ’til it's numbness."
#21: Ginuwine "What's So Different?"
Released: 1999 Ginuwine presents his theory on the transitive properties of cheating lovers: "If you cheated on him, you'll do it to me." Simple enough. Tim tempers this logical lament with a jittery bassline, harpsichords, and the roars of an enraged Godzilla. Which would seemingly make the nameless love interest...Rodan?
#20: Aaliyah "We Need A Resolution"
Released: 2001 To say Aaliyah and Timbaland found a formula and ran with it would be an understatement. "Resolution," of clanging bottles and blame games, bears quite a few of structural similarities to both "Are You That Somebody" and "Try Again" before it, right down to the half-adlib half-rap Timbaland vocals. But the template was so close to perfect that you can hardly blame the duo for not deviating more.
#19: Fabolous f/ Ne-Yo "Make Me Better"
Released: 2007 Ne-yo and Fab's smash collaboration about collaboration. Tim interpolates the same eerie string sample that RZA used for Raekwon's "Rainy Dayz." It's his most restrained production; all the requisite Timbo-isms are absent. No skittering drums, no vocal samples, just bubbling kicks, claps, and strings. But it works.
#18: Bubba Sparxxx "Deliverance"
Released: 2003
Though Bubba and Timbaland had already scored a minor hillbilly rap hit with "Ugly," it was Bubba's sophomore record Deliverance that found both artists presenting the most mature work of their career. Tim's heavily blues-influenced beats basically forced Bubba to grow up...or maybe it was the other way around.
#17: The Game "Put You On The Game"
Released: 2005 Another infrequent Timbaland track that maintains a street vibe, "Put You On The Game" puts The Game onto spastic chipmunk chants and perilous G-Unit style pianos. And Timbo is just showing off when he starts chopping up his own beat in the closing bars. But the track might have seen its most memorable life as a mixtape favorite, with everyone from The Clipse to Chamillionaire claiming it as their own.
#16: Playa "Cheers 2 U"
Released: 1998 Playa were perhaps the most underrated of Timbaland's R&B collaborators. The "Cheers" beat bears a striking similarity to Jay-Z's "Nigga What, Nigga Who" (released the same year), but Timbaland's sound was so adaptable that even the same track could be used for multiple purposes. A few changes here and there, and a heartfelt ballad is suddenly a fast rap battle track.
#15: Nelly Furtado f/ Timbaland "Promiscuous"
Released: 2006Nelly Furtado came into the game in 2000 as a fairly wholesome pop singer who logged a few thoughtful, if dry hits over two solo albums. The third time around she felt like shaking up the formula, so she tapped Timbaland and Danja for the bulk of production on 2006’s Loose, whose international Top 10 smash “Promiscuous” rang in her sultry new hip-hop persona with production full of brashly artificial flutes and outsized marching band drums.
#14: Timbaland & Magoo "Luv 2 Luv U (Remix)"
Released: 1997 Timbaland's longtime rhyme partner Magoo—often pronounced "Mag-ah-noo" if he needed to fill out a bar—has never been mistaken for a lyrical monster. He stumbles in a Q-Tip falsetto at any tempo, and it's not like Tim was that brilliant of a spitter himself ("I'm the man with the power / I get booty calls fifteen after every hour"). But their production was always more than strong enough to carry the both of them across three albums. Here, Timbo rocks Donna Summers through a musical fisheye lens.
#13: Tweet f/ Missy Elliot "Oops (Oh My)"
Released: 2002 Easily the best Timbaland song about taking off all your clothes, "Oops" is an ode to the playful fake accident. Tweet, generally a more commanding vocalist, falls back to Tim's haunting strings and stop-and-go drum sequences of an indiscriminate ethnicity, all while Missy plays hypeman.
#12: Aaliyah "Try Again"
Released: 2000 There's no doubt that if any human was born to ride Timbaland's beats, it was Aaliyah. Perhaps only she could truly tame a track like this, giving life to its sub-bass synths. Tim does his part on the ad-lib tip, turning wisdom-soaked Rakim boasts into goofy jewels.
#11: Nicole f/ Missy Elliott & Mocha "Make It Hot"
Released: 1998 "Make It Hot" is one of those Timbaland cuts that gives off a haunted aura (and not only for the horror-score scream samples either). The track feels hollow and ominous, even when bookended by Missy's ridiculously cheesy rhymes ("I don't know / if y'all heard / I can fly / like a bird!") and the rightfully forgotten Mocha ("it's a pity that / y'all look like id-iats!").
#10: Justin Timberlake f/ T.I. "My Love"
Released: 2006 One of the more ambitious cuts from Timberlake's second record, "My Love" is driven by an arpeggiating trance synth and, like the best of Tim's work, is densely packed with sounds and layers that reveal themselves on further listens. One such understated element in the track: the dismembered and distant female in the background of the hook. Dismembered and distant female vocals are certainly not uncommon in a Timbo beat, but these might be the most dismembered and distant of them all. Also, T.I. raps well.
#9: Petey Pablo "Raise Up"
Released: 2001 Though there's no question that deep Virginia is southern in mentality, Timbaland's own sound has always seemed more tangentially attached to the Southern rap movement, invoking a more otherworldly feel than any specific American locale. But "Raise Up," a high energy collabo with North Carolinian Mystikal biter Petey Pablo, found Tim making a more explicit nod to the then-bubbling crunk movement.
#8: Jay-Z f/ Big Jaz & Amil "Nigga What, Nigga Who (Originator 99)"
Released: 1998 More often than not, when Timbaland makes your beat, the beat is the star. This might be why so many great rappers either floundered on his production or never worked with him in the first place. And why his own stable often seemed so mediocre—a rapper with dead fish presence like Magoo was straight-up trampled by the sound. Jay-Z, of course, was the main exception. "Nigga What" is Jay and his old mentor Jaz staring directly into Tim's headlights and effortlessly fast-rapping their way around the impending collision.
#7: Aaliyah "One In A Million"
Released: 1996 Aaliyah's sophomore record saw a dramatic shift in sound, thanks in part to the inclusion of Timbaland (then an up-and-comer). "One In A Million" was the producer's coming out party, and came out firing, hi-hats exploding in every direction and mindfucking the squares who were expecting another "Age Ain't Nothin But A Number" from Aaliyah.
#6: Missy Elliott "Get Ur Freak On"
Released: 2001 Arguably Missy's most memorable hit, "Get Ur Freak On" found the two collaborators bouncing off each other's oddness in the best way possible. Nobody changes a beat up like Tim, and all that upbeat tabla madness feels like a necessary tightening before the release that comes with the "QUIET!" breakdown on Missy's third verse.
#5: Justin Timberlake "Cry Me A River"
Released: 2002 The beat-box has always been one of the most valuable weapons in Timbaland's arsenal; it's stunning how much flexibility he's gotten out of manipulated samples of his own voice. With "Cry Me A River," Timberlake makes Timbaland's voice box squelches and fakey scratches that line the track seem absolutely emotive and—vice versa—those elements give Justin just enough of an edge to outgrow his boy-band image.
#4: Ginuwine "Pony"
Released: 1996 Despite its mechanical nature, Timbaland's work has always dripped with a certain sexuality. Not robot-sexy, either—human sexy. Android ballads, perhaps. "Pony" is a great example of this, as Ginuwine lays down absurd equestrian innuendo over sheet-metal beats and croaking frogs.
#3: Jay-Z f/ UGK "Big Pimpin'"
Released: 1999 "Big Pimpin'" not only introduced the mainstream rap world to Port Arthur's finest rap group, it was also the most visible of Timbaland's tracks to be built around Arabic music, flipping Egyptian star Abdel Halim Hafez's "Khosara." Tim would continue to draw on that part of the world as an influence throughout his career, and many other hip-hop producers picked up on the trend in the decade that followed.
#2: Missy Elliott "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)"
Released: 1997 "The Rain," complete with its bugged-out Hype Williams video, attached a visual—and more importantly, an appropriately quirky personality—to Tim's music. His earlier work's oddness was often to the detriment of his vocal collaborators, but Missy and her trash-bag-in-a-tunnel aesthetic was the perfect vehicle for Timbo's weirdness.
#1: Aaliyah "Are You That Somebody?"
Released: 1998 Timbaland's true crossover moment. "Are You That Somebody" was such a hit that it forced the moment where "The Timbaland Sound" stopped being a curiosity and became the norm. Suddenly, urban radio rolled out the welcome mat for hiccuping drums and crying baby samples, Aaliyah was thrust to superstar status, and Timbaland became the most important producer of his generation.
