Timbaland Is The Best Producer Ever

I reckon the best producer ever would have more than one sound - being able to morph like that blue lass in XMEN to enhance whateva style, artist they r doin

I think he's a multi-trick pony, and developing too. And yes his popularity is important because he incorporates these neat production ideas - whether ripped-off or not - in a pop context. Got any Bhangra recommendations? I need to know whether to file this one under wow- good-insight or Budgie-sound-like-Braz-psych hipster-baiting (both worthwhile additions, naturally).

Geordie's best comment - "perhaps he needs a muse". I think so too. How romantic.

Won't write a WIRE primer or Geordie Racer's Rough Guide TO bHANGRA !!!! - get out there and mingle - no sitting in a ivory tower and rippin me off , nish bob compadre !!!

i LIKE tIMBALANDS STUFF BUT eTHAN'S RIGHT.

WORST PRODUCER/INFLUENCE ON MUSIC = aLAN MOULDER

and doesn't tim already have a muse, a little miss named aaliyah? (i say miss only because her kentucky marriage to r.kelly was annulled)

I think the needs-a-muse thing meant, works best when he has a muse. That leaves the Jay-Z stuff out in the cold a bit but I bet Jay looks grate in a dress.

tim the best producer ever? too early to say. i still give my vote to spector, but does anyone find it quite difficult comparing producers from different genres like, say, brian wilson, giorgio moroder, glyn johns, lee perry, dj premier, etc?

that said, missy's album, based on what i've heard, will be his bid for immortality and should likely solidify his position as the top producer of the current day.

Went into Reflex (record shop) this morning - assistant is singing 'Young Hearts Run Free' - world seems a better place.

or maybe thats coz I've phoned my brief - that NME guide to NYC may come in handy soon .

Interesting qn though and possibly thread-deserving: do you/should you hoard discoveries or do you like to tell people about them?

(I'd like to think one day my writing would be good enough to rip off -impotent delusions fill my day.)

some great producers who haven't been mentioned: kevin shields, stephin merritt, martin hannett, rza. i'm on the fence about albini.

Ginuwine - Pony

Aaliyah - One In A Million

Aaliyah - If Your Girl Only Knew

SWV - Can We

Missy Elliot - The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)

Missy Elliot - Sock It 2 Me

Missy Elliot - Pass Da Blunt

Timbaland and Magoo - Up Jumps Da Boogie

Nicole - Make It Hot

Aaliyah - Are You That Somebody?

Jay-Z - Nigga What, Nigga Who?

Ginuwine - What's So Different?

Missy Elliot - All In My Grill

Missy Elliot - Hot Boys

Missy Elliot - Smooth Chick

Jay-Z - Come And Get Me

Jay-Z - It's Hot (Some Like It Hot)

Jay-Z (if you can find the original, otherwise it's Memphis Bleek) - Is That Yo Bitch?

Aaliyah - Try Again

Missy Elliot - Get Ur Freak On

Missy Elliot - Lick Shots

Timbaland & Magoo - Drop

Timbaland & Magoo - Roll Out

Aaliyah - We Need A Resolution

...But nearly everything he's done has been pretty fab, and if Missy's album is as good overall as every track I've heard so far, it's gonna be the definitive Timbaland (and Missy, for that matter) album.

the first song i heard that featured what we now would call the timbaland style was da bassment's cover of ready for the world's "love you down." it's credited to jodeci producer devante swing, who was responsible for putting both missy and tim on in the first place, but listen to that drum pattern and tell me that's not tim.

re-reading your list, tim, and thinking back, it strikes me as interesting how much his style changed from the time he did the original aaliyah tracks -- "if your girl only knew," which is probably the most conventional thing he ever did -- to when he did the remixes ("one in a million," "hot like fire"). and then how he went from the whimsy of productions like "are you that somebody?" and ginuwine's "what's so different?" to his quite-sophisticated current day work. one can only imagine what the future holds, particularly when it involves collaborations with beck and papa roach (!).

All that said, 2001 has been as strong a year for Timbaland is any other - "Get Ur Freak On", "Lick Shots", "Roll Out", "Drop", "Ugly", "Bubba Talk", "We Need A Resolution", "I Care 4 U", Petey Pablo's "I Told Y'all", "Hola Hovito"... that's a pretty good collection methinks. Of course there's been duds too, but I can't think of any producers who don't make duds regularly.

Also compare the neptunes who just sort of came from nowhere allovasudden then WHAM within the year.

I guess it just sort of bugs me when I hear a whole set of nothing but tim tracks on the radio -- I just want more variety in my pop listening habits. He should probably pace himself better, two albums & five other tracks a year, maybe?

I must admit that "I'm Real (Murder Mix)" and "Livin' It Up" are two of my favourite songs this year, though on the other hand so is Bubba's groove-to-beat-all-grooves monolith "Twerk A Little".

Personally I'd love to see more work done in the reggae style of Foxy's "Oh Yeah" - I like that track a lot, but I reckon it can be done a lot better too if done by the right people.

Plus, realising that the chorus of "It Wasn't Me" could be replaced with "Son of a bitch!" is one of those simple strokes of genius that come along but once in a lifetime. Any other specific "answers" that I should look for.

Garcia & Molina, Baker & Robie, Tony Butler, Andrew Loog Oldham, Tom Wilson, Timbaland, Swizz Beatz, C.S. Dodd, Leslie Kong, Duke Reid, Ish Ledesma, Zero Mostel, Giorgio Moroder, Frank Farian, Leonard Chess.

The list was off the top of my head, no real thought put into it, few questions asked. But to ask some questions now: who in the hell is Duke Reid? He's the name on some U Roy records; I have no idea if he's someone who was responsible for the sound, just the guy who financed it, or someone who got his name on records while other people had to work around him. Someone like Timbaland gets credit because he's obviously responsible for notes and timbres. I love his sound, but I've never been deeply emotionally moved by a Missy Elliott record in the way I've been moved by Roxanne Shante or Trina or many others; I credit their achievement to themselves rather than the producers, but why is that? In fact, I've probably liked as much stuff from Slip N Slide (Trina and Trick Daddy) as from Timbaland, but I never bothered even to find out who does the producing down there.

Andrew Loog Oldham? He insisted that Jagger and Richard write songs. How do you factor that in? But it's something that made him great. Tom Wilson? Was there method at work in "Like a Rolling Stone" and White Light, White Heat, or was he just someone with the sense (or sense of weakness) to lay low and let others make the noise? Chas Chandler: saw Hendrix and told him to come to England. Saw Slade and told them to pretend to be skinheads.

Like asking the question: What makes a good editor? My answer: someone who prints good pieces. That simple. But maybe that person was just lucky; happened to be hired at a place with good writers. I'm reading the Christgau tribute anthology, and there are so many people there saying "Christgau was the best editor I ever had" that I'm ready to scream. Christgau was good - for some people - at helping them say better what they were trying to say for him. I'm sure I couldn't do as well. But you know, the best editor I had was ME, the best editor Chuck had was Phil Dellio, etc., and Phil and I weren't taking things and making them better, we were just guys who found a format and asked questions that inspired people to send in good stuff. ILM is better than Rolling Stone. Does that mean that Tom and Mark and DG and whoever (apologies to "whoever" for not knowing your name) are better editors than Wenner and Levy (Joe did great work on my Dial MTV piece)? Yes it does! (Take that as a long explanation for my listing Tony Butler, a guy who did two classic songs ["When I Hear Music" and "Lookout Weekend"], cheap accompaniment, sweet singer, chintzy sound effects, and they were great. And I know nothing else about him.)

Who produced "Cars with the Boom," "Ice Ice Baby," "They're Comin' To Take Me Away," "Achy Breaky Heart"? (Rhetorical question, since I can find out easily enough.)

I havent seen pop music that innovative since David Bowie and Brian Eno in the 70s, it lands hip hop in a completely different artistic landscape. its just brilliant. hats off timbaland-

Lookout Weekend is one of the most amazing songs ever, and I wish they still made em like that.

>bBRRr<

Don't know if this has already been posted, and I realize it's old news, though I hadn't heard some of these examples. I'm ambivalent but Timbaland's arrogance about the whole thing definitely is offputting. (I recognize the Warda song and probably still own a copy in some form. The Hennawy song also sounds familiar although I was never particularly into her.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X58UPPKDsY

Looks like I was listening to Timbaland before there was Timbaland.

Diamanda Galas goes off about it (which is what triggered this post)--scroll down:

http://www.diamandagalas.com/letters.htm

damn, mia got nothing on her

"I can take it anyway, HAHA so give it up, bitch. This is a RAPE. RAPE MUSIC, you know. HAHA HAHAHA. Split that beaver and the butthole, too."

k

wait...an R&B producer used samples??~ my world is shaken

isnt this like the oldest news of all time? no shit timbaland's appropriation has been easily shrugged off before and diamanda is awesome but quite obv a headcase

this -- is -- an -- outrage

maybe sampling would help him out of the current state of wackness he's been in for the past few years. used to worship the guy as a producer but he fell off...hard.

how long ago was 'the way i are'?? thats the last one that really was A++ i think.

saying he 'fell off' is kinda ridic, he had one of the longest hot streaks of any artists ever, its like ... what artists that u listen to keep upending shit more than a decade deep??

recent discussion here: I AM STILL SO FUCKING APPALLED: Rolling Worst Songs of 2010

it's not ridiculous. have you even heard Shock Value?

the first one, which had 'the way i area' which is one of his best songs ever?

his new album might be a total piece of shit for all i care -- i didnt even check it because lol ppl still talking about him in 2010 -- im just saying its not like ppl go "man isaac hayes sure fell off" just because he wasnt dropping classic records in the 90s. artists get old! creative arcs are called 'arcs' for a reason. its not like he dropped a couple hot records & starting making bullshit, he had a decade+ creative hot streak

...in your opinion. different strokes and all that.

you dont think he had a decade+ hot streak?

deej obv otm

just that dudes most visible period seems to be his creative nadir, but like ive said before i still go in for a lot of what this guy is shitting out these days and dont get the hate

I'm not arguing he had a good run, but I think his hits became pretty spotty around the time he and Missy went their separate ways. I think Futuresex was the end of his era. I can still appreciate the guy when he's good, don't get me wrong. Oh, and hey J0rdan! I see you :)

I'm not arguing he had a good run, but I think his hits became pretty spotty around the time he and Missy went their separate ways. I think Futuresex was the end of his era.

i think most everyone would agree with you on this, so i'm not even sure what is being argued

i guess deej & everyone else is saying that it's barely even notable that the shock values aren't good

i really didn't think that canon timba even went as far as the jt/nelly era really

I think Futuresex was the end of his era

that is about a decade tho!

the 06 timba "resurgence" is odd cuz i instinctively think of it more as the start of the danja "era"

where's he gone tho really?

2009 was hardly a banner year and his upcoming projects involve a lot of constantly delayed maybe-not-gonna-happens (missy/cassie)

Huh. I like that Timbaland/Timberlake/food jam a good deal. Beat's cool, and it bears "Weird" Al to the punch.

xp youtube- seems like a pretty inspired use and choice of samples

"Luv 2 Luv U" is such an underrated jam

the remix, more specifically

maybe underrated in the sense that it doesn't get mentioned enough alongside his other early hits, but yes, total classic, real heads know the deal. Welcome To Our World might be my fav full length Timbo production.

seriously, this timbo beat is one o my favourite of the year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cMiBVUQSqo

total motherlode of rare/unreleased swing mob/bassment stuff here

http://confessionsofacurlymind.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/da-bassment-crew-aka-swing-mob-the-rise-fall-rise-of-one-of-the-baddest-motherfucking-crews-in-modern-music-history-the-recently-unearthed-77min-cassette-demo-tape-you-must-hear/

that's a long url

And given all the songs therein it is worth its length.