Timbaland at home in South Miami
Great songs never die. They live on forever in people’s hearts, minds and music collections. In this vein, superstar music producer Timbaland, née Tim Mosley, occupies a little place inside millions of people all over the planet with the hundreds of hits he’s created over an extremely prolific twenty-five year career. “I never count them,” he says from his sprawling South Miami home. Perhaps it is because the number of songs he’s crafted reaches well over five hundred.
The names run the gamut from Destiny’s Child to Beck to Nelly Furtado, but what helped push him over the edge was his collaboration with Justin Timberlake on his first few solo albums. Mosley’s ability to help transform the former boy-band member to a sleek, sexy solo act with a wholly original new sound was something for the ages. “Justin is my brother from another mother,” Mosley has said of Timberlake. Their work together has produced some of his most memorable, such as What Goes Around… Comes Around, Cry Me a River, Sexy Back, and Suit & Tie. When the two step into the studio together, magic happens. “Even if we have something on our minds, we’ll make two hits,” he adds. Sometimes they’re much more prolific than that—having written 20 songs in 20 days on the 20/20 Experience.
“One thing I know is how to take nothing and turn it into something. I do it all the time,” says Mosley. But despite his many hits, the industry is fickle, labeling legends as hot or not minute-to-minute. Sometimes that means they’ll fund his unique visions; sometimes not. “The [difficulty] is convincing people who have the platform to invest,” he says.
That might not be an issue much longer, given Timbaland has something in the works for his own platform—although he’s not quite ready to share the details of the venture quite yet. He explains, “I’m in a point where I [have] made all these hits for other labels: Sony, Columbia, etcetera. These companies made a lot of money off my music. Sure, I make money too, but I don’t get to keep the bulk of it. I don’t want to eat the whole pie, but I’d like to make a nice percentage because it’s my product. I’ve made over a billion dollars for [everyone else], so now I’m ready to be my own company,” he says.
“This new thing will be my own platform. Because God has awarded me with such great partners, I now have my own building and I can do my own thing with my own structure, and my own company. It’s just boom-boom-boom!”
What Mosley is hinting at sounds a bit like Tidal, the first artist-owned, high-fidelity streaming fronted by Jay-Z. The service aims to fairly compensate artists who have gotten the short end of the stick with most streaming services like Pandora or Spotify. Although star-studded, Tidal’s roll-out was vague, and failed to properly explain to the public just exactly what the product was and why people should subscribe to it.
“You just have to give it some time,” says Mosley, defending Tidal. “I can tell you [Jay-Z] is my brother, and I commend anybody who steps in the forefront to try to show something different to the world. Here’s a man who had an idea and put it out there in the universe.”
Appreciation for new ideas is what earned Timbaland his place in the limelight, but his path has been characterized more by extreme kismet—both good and bad. Mosley grew up in a poor neighborhood in Virginia, where his parents worked hard to make ends meet. His keen interest in music and budding talent became apparent to them early on, leading them to occasionally prioritize new musical equipment for Tim over house payments. This led a foreclosure that made a mark on the young musician, accelerating his drive to make it.
Early on, while still in school, he set to work making mix tapes that became popular, which led to him working as a DJ around the area. He also started a band with a young Pharrell Williams, with whom he actually had a class. Call it fate that two of the biggest hip-hop producers went to the same high school. “Tim had an amazing way of doing the drum rolls with his fingers [on the desk],” said Williams. “He taught me how to do that, and it stuck with me for the rest of my life.”
Although his career behind the turntables was budding, it didn’t quite bring in all the money he wanted to buy clothes and records, so he got a part-time job at a local Red Lobster washing dishes. The year was 1986, and he wasn’t there long before a co-worker brought a gun to work and accidently shot Mosley, hitting the young DJ in the neck, the bullet lodging under his arm. He was rushed to the hospital and doctors weren’t sure he’d make it. “My life flashed before my eyes. I thought, ‘This is it? This is how I go out?’” Fortunately, it wasn’t, but he found himself paralyzed in his right arm. All the teenager could think about was getting back behind the turntables. “When you’re young, you think you’re a robot or something, and you’re going to heal. I was just thinking, ‘Damn, how am I going to DJ?’” So he learned to DJ with his left hand. “I’m a hustler, and when you’re a hustler, you make things happen. I just don’t let anything stop me. Nobody gets in my way.”
The couple lives in a sprawling compound in South Miami with their three kids, so in between cutting tracks, cementing deals and finding the latest talent, Timbaland takes in the natural wonders. One of his favorite places to be is his own backyard. “One of my partners got me onto that. [He said] let’s walk outside man, lets go smell the green grass, let’s smell the trees, and enjoy what God gave us, you know? I like the lizards and iguanas—and just smelling a certain flower might help you create the text of a love song.”
If this doesn’t sound like a hard-living hip-hop producer, you’re right. Mosley, 43, has evolved into the best version of himself, a happy husband and family man. “In my 40s, I’m not living life like I did in my 30s. I’m much wiser, more in tune to what I’m doing,” he says. “I have a great group of friends and partners who make me see life in a different way.”
Despite his new take on life, Timbaland is still married to his music. “It will always be my first love. Because I am a creator, music is different for me. I’m different,” he says.
Labels: Aaliyah, Aaliyah Haughton, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Miami, Miami Beach, Missy Elliott, Monique Mosley, Nelly Furtado, Pharrell Williams, Timbaland
