Timbaland Talks About Aaliyah

While Timbaland was Promoting for His Book 'The Emperor of Sound' At the BackStory in Highline Ballroom in NYC He Talked About His Relationship with his Late Friend Aaliyah 

                    

Timbaland Reflects On His Music Career In "The Emperor Of Sound"

If you don’t know Timbaland by name, you’ve certainly heard his music. For two decades now, Timothy Mosley, who goes by Timbaland, has been producing some of music’s biggest stars, including Missy Elliot, Jay-Z, Nelly Furtado, Madonna and both of Justin Timberlake’s solo albums.

speaks with one of popular music’s biggest producers about his life, his new memoir “The Emperor of Sound” and why he considers himself a musical genius.

Interview Highlights: Timbaland

What does it mean to be a producer on some of the most popular songs?

“It means to me I get to spread my joy to the world. Meaning I love music so I know how it makes me feel, so I wanted – when I produce for somebody else, I say ‘I wonder if the world gets the same feeling as I do.’ And evidently, it has worked for me because what I felt when I was doing it, they felt it too when I put it out.”

What did you listen to growing up that might have influenced your work?

“I listened to everything, but what influenced me? Just me. That’s a gift from God that I have. I just know music like Steve Jobs knows the computer and knows the vision of a small computer and know what he could do with it. I just know music and sound. It’s a God-given gift.”

“I just know music like Steve Jobs knows the computer.”

On his parents’ support

“I mean, when you see your child keep doing the same thing, you got to pay attention to that. I mean, you might not understand it, but you need to pay attention to it. And I thank God for them to allow me to keep doing what I’m doing and to go forward with my dreams. It was God’s blessing.”

Did you think you would make a living out of music?

“I wasn’t thinking about a living at the time. I just wanted to express my talent, and the living just came. I never looked at it ‘I’m going to make a lot of money,’ no.”

On the moment his mother lost her house

“I mean, we would just have a lot of faith, you know? It wasn’t about ‘Oh, I need to go work, and take care of my mom and move.’ Because you know at that time, my parents had gotten divorced. My mom was a hard worker and I didn’t look at it like I had to provide. I looked at it as I had to provide, just not her, but my whole family. So I knew that would come in time, but I was more focused on my craft.”

On the time he was shot in the neck in his hometown of Virginia Beach, Virginia

“I was at a football game. We used to meet at football games and any beef would happen at the football game. So he had a gun, he’s putting it up, and that’s when it went off. It went in sideways, but thank God I wasn’t facing him. I was to the side.”

Did you doubt you would move on with your music career after that?

“Yeah, because my arm was paralyzed for a while, so I didn’t know – put it this way: when it happened, no negativity was brought around me. You know what I’m saying? Like ‘oh, no, he might not be able to use his arm again,’ or ‘he might not be able to do this’ or ‘he might die.’ There was all good positive influence at that time.”

On Black Lives Matter and the events that have been unfolding around the nation

“I think I am music… I feel like I’ve birthed a lot of the sound that’s out today.”

“I think all lives matter. I mean not just black. I mean all lives matter. We’re living in a society where video games are becoming reality if you want to put it that way. So it’s like, you know, it’s a future. So I can’t predict, you know, anything or what’s going on. I just think that everything that we saw in movies and TV shows, and it’s actually happening now in real life.”

Do you think you’re a musical genius?

“That one I’m not going to be modest on: yes. I think I am music. You know, anything that’s dealing with music I feel like got to go through me, because I feel like I’ve birthed a lot of the sound that’s out today. It’s like 300 – you have me, Pharrell, Dr. Dre, Swizz, Kanye – and we all are kings in our own way. And I think that we have all changed music. It’s not saying ‘I have a hot beat.’ It’s like we came in and changed the sound, and the sound how people was listening to music. That’s more than putting out a record. That’s like captivating a culture and thus the genius part about what we do.”

How would you describe the sound you brought to the world that wasn’t there before?

“What I brought to the world is music is all around you. Animals, TV sounds, remote controls, people talking, even when you sleep – it’s a sound that can be used in a song. And now I try to show the world that. Use what’s around you. Be thankful what’s around you.Look at the flowers. Go outside and listen to the air blow. It’s a sound. It calms you.”

Book Excerpt: ‘The Emperor Of Sound’

By Timbaland with Veronica Chambers

Prelude: A Catalog of Sound

Bob Marley once said, “Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.” I would paraphrase that to say, “Some people just hear noise, but for me the world is a catalog of sound.” Rain, in particular, has been a constant for me. I was three years old when Ann Peebles recorded her classic R & B hit “I Can’t Stand the Rain.” But that song has always been a cornerstone for me. As the story goes, it was 1973 and a stormy day in Memphis. Ann, who was then twenty-six, was on her way to a concert with her producing partner Don Bryant. Ann spat out, “I can’t stand the rain,” and Bryant, who was at the time a staff writer at Hi Records, knew immediately that the simple words—uttered with such force and frustration—could be a powerful metaphor about love gone wrong. The two musicians skipped the concert and went back to the studio to work on the song. They were joined there by a DJ named Bernie Miller and by midnight, the trio had written what they felt in their bones to be a hit song:

I can’t stand the rain against my window
Bringing back sweet memories
I can’t stand the rain against my window ’
Cause he ain’t here with me
Hey, window pane, tell me, do you remember
How sweet it used to be?
When we were together
Everything was so grand
Now that we’ve parted
There’s just a one sound that I just can’t stand
I can’t stand the rain . . .

The Emperor Of Sound By @Timbaland

Nelly Furtado holding "The Emperor Of Sound" Book

Obama with His Copy of "The Emperor Of Sound"

Aaliyah got Her Copy of The Book

Jay-Z Holding his Copy "The Emperor Of Sound"

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Between the Lines: Timbaland ''The Emperor of Sound''

Watch an afternoon conversation with renown music producer, Timbaland, as he provides an inside look at his memoir 'The Emperor of Sound'. A book signing will follow the conversation. 

Timbaland spoke of his appreciation for producers like Pete Rock. But even before Rock, Timbland recalled discovering Mantronix, one of his early influences:

"Mantronix to me was the first. He had this song called 'King of Beats' and that song, I was like, 'How did he do this?' because it's like what computers do now, he kind of was starting the element back then. I didn't know how he did. I thought it was unique how he'd take Peter Piper beat and slow it down and do certain things and trick it out a little bit. I'm like, 'This dude is ill.'"

One of the most prolific artists and producers making music today, Timbaland views evolution as the key to longterm success. He subscribes to a four-year artistic cycle:

"I think every major career has like a four-year term, just like the presidency. You know, the president can be president and if you make another term it's eight years. That's it. So, you beat all the odds. It's the same thing in music. It's like you have to constantly reinvent, and as you reinvent you have to reinvent everything: your finances, everything about you. You've got to think smart, and sometimes after a while, you don't need to go back to being down eighty-thousand chains."

Just as Timbaland believes in the need for personal reinvention, he also believes in a creative reinvigoration of education. He hopes to see more creativity in the classroom:

"People need to pay attention to the kids around us. I feel like people get to thirty-five, thirty-six, they kind of get complacent, and I feel like our kids are the future. In school they need to come up with something more creative for our children instead of letting the outside create stuff for our children... That's my next calling: to do music and to teach at the same time."

10 Things We Learned From Timbaland's New Book "The Emperor of Sound"

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.

1. Timbaland loves Rod Stewart.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.

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.

5. Mosley's unique approach to sound was partially inspired by physically distorted records.Around the time Timbaland was making the beat that would ultimately become Ginuwine's "Pony" — a modern R&B classic — he developed an interest in degraded records. "If you leave a a record out in the sun, it will warp," he notes. "[I]t's going to have a strange, distorted sound. I love that sound and I started making beats with that vibe. I was thinking, Warp it a little, when I added belching synthesizers to the beat I was working on."

6. After Aaliyah's death, Timbaland went through a serious bout of depression.Timbaland and his partner in rhyme, Missy Elliott, played a crucial role on Aaliyah's second and third albums — Timbo produced roughly half of 1996's One in a Million, which went triple platinum, and three songs from 2001's Aaliyah, which won a Grammy for Best R&B Album. He was very close to the singer, and when she died in a plane crash in 2001, he went into a downward spiral. "I drank, as early as seemed social acceptable," he recalls. "Then I drank until the finish, to pass out. ... I kept the shades drawn and banned all guests. I gave up on grooming myself."

7. He disagrees with Jay Z about "Big Pimpin'."In his own memoir, Decoded, Jay Z disavowed "Big Pimpin'" due to its lyrical content. "Some [lyrics] become really profound when you see them in writing," the MC explained. "Not 'Big Pimpin'.'" It was like, I can't believe I said that. And kept saying it. What kind of animal would say this sort of thing?" Timbo does not share his regrets. "Making records is all about the moment," he counters. "You capture that moment in time and it's a letter in a bottle. Sometimes, years later, you go back and you play a track and it's like reading the diary of a you that you can barely remember. Doesn't mean that the old you was bad or something to be ashamed of."

8. Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around ... Comes Around" came out of a "Cry Me a River"–inspired jam.When Timberlake headed back into the studio with Timbaland to craft the follow-up to his breakout album, Justified, the singer was creatively frustrated, crippled by the pressure of matching his solo debut's impressive commercial performance. In an attempt to break out of the gridlock, Timbaland and his partner Nate "Danja" Hill started "fooling around and freestyling with some of the sounds from 'Cry Me a River,'" the Timbaland-crafted hit from Justified. The result became "What Goes Around ... Comes Around," yet another Number One smash for Timberlake. Another interesting tidbit: The singer was apparently bumping INXS and Bowie constantly during theFutureSex recording process, though you wouldn't be able to tell that from listening to the finished product.

9. Timbaland actively reads his own press.At least the good press. He gleefully quotes The New York Times' Kelefa Sanneh on two separate occasions, touting his bold production on Aaliyah's "Try Me" single and the success of Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveSounds album.

10. He's just getting started.

Timbaland isn't interested in resting on his laurels. "Do I feel like I've hit my ceiling yet?" he asks. "By no means." He holds himself to a high standard: "My goal is to achieve a body of work that can sit in comparison with the work of the one and only Quincy Jones."

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