COOKIN UP w/ Timbaland & Scott Storch in The Studio
Two of the most legendary hip hop producers in the game, Timbaland & Scoot Storch, chop it up in the studio together for the latest episode of #COOKINUPw /Timbaland.
Timbaland Interview with Scratch Magazine 🗞 (2007)
It's not that Timbaland Thinks hip-hop is dead, it just bores the shit out of him. See, the curse (or the gift, depending on who you ask) of rap music is that the best production generally has a certain sparse simplicity, giving Mc's room to be breathe. But when a producer like Timothy Mosley comes along with a bottomless pit of ambition and imagination hip-hop as a genre hasn't always been ready. Don't expect him to wait around.
Once again, you seem to have changed the sound of Pop music with the big 80s synth sound... Yeah, but I'm getting tired of it because everybody's doing it, I was telling nate. Like "yo man everybody's biting our sound". He was like "I know". "Now it's the true test. I've changed up my sound several times in my life, so now what we gon do?" I already know how I'm gonna change up. I like to see what (Nate) comes up with Cause now, he got a great head on his shoulders toss me an idea. Let me infuse that idea with what I got. Put that together, and here we are baby--we back on top again. Even T-Pain got hip to what we're doing and now he doing it, especially on that new Chris Brown single "kiss kiss". That's when you know it's time to switch it up. Then I'm getting other people whose songs are not out yet. I heard some just blaze records too. People are really biting our style, so now I gotta go back into Timbaland mode and keep em guessing again.
How would you compare your mentorship with Danja to the relationship you had with DeVante Swing back in the mob days? Nate, now he's shinning and doing some stuff on his own. But for me it took me some years to really learn how to do it, I taught him he didn't have a clue. But I believed in his talent. He didn't know nothing about music, about the studio, or about how to make hit records. But I took him under my wing and it only took two, three years. With DeVante swing I just watched him.. He didn't really put me under his wing. I was doing my thing. He was doing his thing.
Do you feel like having Danja around has helped your career? Yeah, he showed me some things maybe he gave me my snap back. He kinda kept me on my toes. He's a little better than me at certain things. I don't play like he plays. He got potential to be a great producer.
Do you think he's ready to step out on his own? I wanna see him out there. I'm trying to deal with my company, so maybe there are certain things that I don't wanna do that he should do on his own. He should venture out and do some new things. Like he did the Britney stuff, which is great. Back when we all tried to work with her, me, Justin and all of us - - she had her little problems at the time, and she kinda said that she wasn't ready or whatever. And Justin was my friend, my loyalty, my alliance I had to ask him permission to work with her. She's not the enemy, but that's someone he was Close to, so I wanted to get his blessing. So we were both going to work on it together but if he ain't doing it. Then I ain't doing it. That left Danja in the clear to do it, and God bless him on the project -- I think it'll be good for his career, it's not gonna hurt him.
So you're Supportive of him doing outside work to get his chops up? I think he should, but I don't think he should do a whole bunch. My thing is we created a sound together and you can't give it to everybody. And I don't wanna all eyes to be on Nate, cause I don't want people to critique him,. I'm starting to hear critiques now, and I don't like that. That means I gotta pull my guns out and go to war. I don't like negative comments because people want to divide and conquer. They might say something bad about me or they might say something bad about him, but either way it's just not what we need right now, because we've got a winning team. I heard negative comments all my life in this music game. I don't want him to experience that right away, I want him to experience that with me, not by himself. I wanna be his crutches for a minute.
Also, Justin produced a song on the new Talib Kweli album. You running a school down there? Yeah, Justin a great producer. I'm teaching him stuff. I'm a great teacher when it comes to producing. I got a whole team. The next person I'm doing is two guys named Royal Court and Hannon. Hannon is like my next protégé. Really he's been a monster since day one, but he was going through some issues at the time. I couldn't focus on him so I went straight to nate and groomed him. I'm like that guy in the wheelchair ♿ in X-Men. I find all the new hot producers. I can only do it by myself for so long. So I'm all about sharing the wealth and building a compound instead of me being egotistical Timbaland. I will sign up everybody -- that way I can corner the whole market.
50 Cent's a big Rapper who dosen't really work with big producers, why do you think he made an exception? I think he respects my ear and what I can bring to the table. 50's great player, like a basketball player, but with a great coach, it makes you even better, but I really respected him when he said he didn't need the big name producers to make him hot.
have you been working with Jay-Z on his next album? Yeah, he's calling. Imma do it, but I tell Jay like I tell everybody, '' if you're not trying to go to the planet Mars, then I can't work with you". Cause I'm on some other stuff. I'm in a worldwide league. And Jay is too advanced for hip-hop, the way it is today. He knows that anything that he does has to be bigger than life. Hip-hop people. Might criticize him like "Nah, that's wack" or like "he sold out, doing pop" but his Album was a big pop record. The biggest record, worldwide. That's what we need right now.
it was really frustrating to a lot of people that you weren't on Kingdom Come, what happened? Oh we did a song, but he used it for "Make me Better" the fabulous record. That's was Jay's record. He rapped to it and everything. It was dope. He also did a song on my album, but he was to critical and wanted to change it up. I still have it though -- it's dope.
Did Jay give you his reason for not using "Make Me Better" on his Album? I think Jay.. He's thinking too much.
Enough said. When you made your comment about Scott Storch being "Just a piano man, were you trying to spark beef with him? I never had a beef with Scott Storch, he knows what was going on. I hang out with the dude.
So you still hang out with him? Yeah, Scott is my man, but people flip out, at the time I felt like, damn, you just got mad. He took it too far and he admits it. I wasn't mad at Scott, I was mad at that clown dude he had on the track, Now I was like, "you don't know me, don't put my name in your mouth, like... Scott can do it. I can handle Scott. But you? You don't know me. Don't get your feelings hurt".
What was the conversation you had with Scott like after? We never brought it up. I'm more concerned about how he's doing. Ain't childish like that. I'm grown man Things. A grown man would go up to Scott like, "we both 30-something men. Come on now."
Are you working on the Missy Album? Yeah, I been working on it. Danja I think he did a couple tracks so far. I think She got a joint with T-Pain and some other people. She asked me to oversee it as executive producer but I really can not oversee the whole project. I just can't do the same thing because it's like.. The last time, as you can see, most of it didn't work out because I only got a few records. I just can't put all my energy into it. I have my own stress, I got a new ship to build I can't set up Atlantic Records and make them hot. I gotta make Mosley music and Jimmy Iovine hot, that's my partner, And also, Missy's nominated for an honor on VH1. That Scares me, because to me, when they give you an honor like that, they only trying to say that you over. I don't like that. I don't know if it's good or bad.
business aside, do you think you would still mesh with her in the Studio 🎹? I don't know if we can do the same thing like before. Because musically, I'm somewhere else. I'm trying to take her there, and.. We seeing eye to eye on certain things we not, it's taking longer. And the longer it takes, the more I gotta work on Mosley music. It's our statements, we made a great mark in the music business. And sometimes you can't keep doing the same thing.
where is she at musically? You know what? I don't know. I think she's trying to make another great album, but I don't know. She's too advanced for hip-hop, look at hip-hop is terrible. If you not making terrible music. It ain't gon work?.
Not a fan of the so-called ringtone rap? It's killing, the ringtone rap is not fading away. "A Bay Bay" none of its fading away. If you ask me, it's getting stronger.. Nowadays, I think the way hip-hop is going. Rappers don't know nothing. They just put an 808 behind it and then they got a Song.
it's not going anywhere innovative? Oh, the new hip-hop is pop. Justin, Nelly, Fergie, Will iam. It got harder beats!. Any of these pop acts that's trying new things -- that's hip-hop. Cause that's what hip-hop used to be -- new material, I went to Harvard, took the rich kid and brought him to the hood, got him jammin'. Those are real, hard Hip hop beats. It's no different just with melody.
What gear are you using in the Studio Now? I'm not gonna tell everybody TIMBO's secrets! The stuff I use, you can't even find in the country. You got to go to Iraq. I go around the world like a scientist to find sounds. I go into tsunamis, I go into tidal waves, I put my life on the line, get bit by their mosquitoes, to search for this stuff.
So what's the next Sound? The next sound is... I think African. That's where I wanna go. More tribal. I try to think worldwide. I just came from St. Tropez, Monaco and Cannes on vacation. And I'm big, I'm like a God over there. That's how I know I got to stay worldwide.
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.
