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Timbaland

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Timbaland
background information
Also known as DJ Timmy Tim, Timbo, Thomas Crown
Born March 10, 1971
Origin Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States
Occupation Record producer, songwriter, singer, musician, rapper
Instruments Guitar, bass guitar, mandolin, keyboards, rapping, vocals, beatboxing, vocoder, drums
Years active 1993—present
Labels Blackground, Mosley Music, Interscope
Associated acts Timbaland & Magoo
record producer

Timothy Zachery Mosley (born March 10, 1971), better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American Grammy Award-winning record producer, singer and rapper. Timbaland has produced albums and singles for a number of artists from the mid-1990s to the present day.

Biography[]

1996-2002[]

Timbaland's first full credit production work was in 1996 on Ginuwine...the Bachelor for R&B singer Ginuwine. After further successful work on Aaliyah's 1996 album One in a Million and Missy Elliott's 1997 album Supa Dupa Fly, Timbaland became a prominent producer for R&B and hip-hop artists. Initially he released several of albums with his partner fellow rapper Magoo. He is according to britishhitsongwriters.com the 22nd most successful songwriter in the history of the U.K. charts based on the number of weeks his compositions have spent on the chart.

Timothy Zachary Mosley was born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia. Originally a disc jockey known as "DJ Timmy Tim" or "DJ Tiny Tim",. Mosley began making hip hop backing tracks on a Casio keyboard. While in high school, Mosley began a long term collaboration with rapper Melvin Barcliff, who performed under the name of Magoo. The teenaged Mosley also joined the production ensemble S.B.I. - "Surrounded By Idiots" - which also featured Neptunes producer Pharrell .

Singer/rapper Missy Elliott heard his material and began working with him . She and her R&B group Sista auditioned for DeVante Swing, a producer and member of the successful R&B act Jodeci. DeVante signed Sista to his Swing Mob record label and Elliott brought Mosley and Barcliff along with her to New York, where Swing Mob was based. It was DeVante who renamed the young producer Timbaland, after Timberland construction boots, which were popular in hip hop fashion .

Sista, Timbaland, and Magoo became part of DeVante's stable of Swing Mob signees known as "Da Bassment" crew, joining artists such as R&B singer Ginuwine, male vocal group Playa (Smoke E. Digglera, Static Major and Digital Black), and the girl group Sugah . Timbaland did production work on a number of projects with DeVante, including the 1995 Jodeci LP The Show, The After-Party, The Hotel the theme song to Seasame Street, and Sista’s debut LP 4 All the Sistas Around the World (which was never released).

Elliott began receiving recognition as a songwriter for artists such as R&B girl group 702 and MC Lyte. Due to Timbaland's connection with her, he was often contacted to produce remixes of her songs .

Timbaland produced songs including Ludacris' "Roll Out (My Business)", Jay-Z's "Hola' Hovito", Petey Pablo's "Raise Up", and Beck's cover of David Bowie's "Diamond Dogs" during this period. He also contributed three songs, all eventually released as singles, to Aaliyah’s self-titled third album, the exotic lead single "We Need a Resolution" (featuring himself rapping a verse), "More Than a Woman", and the ballad "I Care 4 U".

Timbaland & Magoo’s second album together was slated for release in November 2000. Indecent Proposal was to feature appearances by Beck, Aaliyah, as well as new Timbaland protégés—some from his new Beat Club Records imprint--Ms. Jade, Kiley Dean, Sebastian, Petey Pablo, and Tweet (who was a member of Sugah during the Swing Mob days). The album was delayed for an entire year, finally released in November 2001. It was a commercial disappointment. Beck’s vocals for the track "I Am Music" were not included on the final version, which instead featured Timbaland singing alongside Steve "Static" Garrett of Playa and Aaliyah .

The first release on Beat Club was the debut album by Bubba Sparxxx in September 2001, Dark Days, Bright Nights . The loss of Aaliyah deeply affected Timbaland. In a phone call to the MTV show Total Request Live,

Timbaland contributed three tracks to Tweet’s debut album, Southern Hummingbird, and produced most of Elliott’s fourth and fifth LPs, Under Construction and This Is Not A Test!. He also produced tracks for artists such as Lil’ Kim ("The Jump Off") and southern rapper Pastor Troy during this period . Collaborating with fellow producer Scott Storch, Timbaland also worked on a number of tracks on former *NSYNC lead singer Justin Timberlake’s solo debut, Justified, including the song "Cry Me a River" .

2001-2003[]

Late in 2003, Timbaland delivered the second Bubba Sparxxx album, Deliverance, and the third Timbaland & Magoo album, Under Construction, Part II Both albums were released to little fanfare or acclaim even though Deliverance was praised by reviews and embraced by the internet community .

In 2004 Timbaland produced singles for LL Cool J, Xzibit, Fatman Scoop, and Jay-Z, and he produced the bulk of Brandy’s fourth album, Afrodisiac .

Timbaland co-wrote two tracks (Exodus '04 and Let Me Give You My Love) and produced three tracks of the bilingual Japanese Pop star Hikaru Utada’s debut English album, Exodus . He continued working on tracks for Tweet and for Elliott’s sixth album, The Cookbook: "Joy (feat. Mike Jones)", and "Partytime" and continued to expand his reach with production for The Game and Jennifer Lopez ("He'll Be Back" from her fourth studio album, Rebirth.).

2004-2005[]

Timbaland started a new label, Mosley Music Group, bringing some talent from his former Beat Club Records label . On the new label are Nelly Furtado, Keri Hilson, and rapper D.O.E. .

In early 2005, Timbaland mentioned he wanted to work with female artist Britney Spears on her album Blackout. However, Spears refused.

Timbaland provided vocals on the singles the Pussycat Dolls's "Wait a Minute", Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous" and "Ice Box" by Omarion. In an interview published in August 2004 in the UK Timbaland revealed he was working on a new LP by Jay-Z and that he had been working on tracks with Coldplay’s Chris Martin .

Timbaland worked on seven songs for Björk’s new album, including "Earth Intruders", "Hope", and "Innocence" and he later worked on tracks for the new Duran Duran album, Red Carpet Massacre, including one featuring his frequent collaborator Justin Timberlake . Later in the year, Timbaland produced songs for Bone Thugs N Harmony's LP, Strength & Loyalty and the song "Ayo Technology" on 50 Cent’s album Curtis. Timbaland also produced most of the tracks on Ashlee Simpson's third CD, Bittersweet World, including the song "Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya)" .

On April 3, 2005, Timbaland released a collaboration album featuring artists including 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Elton John, Fall Out Boy, Nelly Furtado, Missy Elliott, and others called Timbaland Presents Shock Value.

A rivalry flared up between Timbaland and record producer Scott Storch in early 2005. The tension initially started on the single "Give It to Me", when Timbaland anonymously called out Storch, rapping, "I'm a real producer and you just the piano man". Timbaland confirmed that he was talking about Storch in an interview with MTV personality Sway Calloway . Storch responded with the track "Built Like That" on February 26, 2005, featuring Philadelphia rapper NOX, which caused a final response by Beat-Club-rapper D.O.E. on the song "Piano Man". The end of the feud was confirmed by Timbaland in the final issue of Scratch Magazine .

In fall 2005 Timbaland produced a single for the British-Asian R&B star Jay Sean, called "Caught", but the single didn't make the final cut on his second album My Own Way.

In early 2005, Timbaland was accused of plagiarism regarding his work on the Nelly Furtado track "Do It". He is alleged to have plagiarized elements from the song "Acid Jazzed Evening" by Finnish artist Tempest, without giving credit or compensation.

2006 - 2008[]

In 2006, Timbaland helped produce many albums for various artists that include Sean Paul's Imperial Blaze, Madonna's Hard Candy, Brandy's Human, Omarion's cd,Menudo's upcoming album, Ashlee Simpson's Bittersweet World, Keri Hilson's In A Perfect World, Flo Rida's Mail On Sunday, Letoya Luckett's Lady Love, Lindsay Lohan's Spirit in the Dark, Chris Cornell's Scream, JoJo's All I Want Is Everything, Nicole Scherzinger's Her Name is Nicole, Missy Elliott's Block Party, Matt Pokora's MP3, Keithian's Dirrty Pop, The Pussycat Dolls's Doll Domination, Busta Rhymes's B.O.M.B, Lisa Maffia's Miss Boss, Teairra Mari's Pressed For Time, Jennifer Hudson's debut album, Dima Bilan's Believe , Samantha Jade's, My Name Is Samantha Jade, New Kids on the Block's The Block and Keshia Chanté's new Album.

On February 8, 2006, it was announced that Timbaland would be releasing an album exclusively for Verizon Wireless's V CAST cell phone service and was designated its very first "Mobile Producer in Residence." Timbaland will be joined by Mosley Music Group/Zone 4 singer/songwriter Keri Hilson to begin work on the mobile album’s first track aboard the fully equipped Mobile Recording Studio. The only track to surface so far is Garry Barry Larry Harry "Get It Girl". In his first effort within the video game industry, he is working with Rockstar Games to produce Beaterator, a music mixing game for the PlayStation Portable to be released in the summer of 2007.

In September 2006 it was announced that Timbaland would be inducted into the Philosophical Society of Trinity College, Dublin as an Honorary Patron in October 2006.

Timbaland is producing the movie “Vinyl” which follows the lives of 5 young women facing life-altering decisions about their relationships to members of a rock band. Timbaland’s Mosley Media Group is teaming up with Effie T. Brown's Duly Noted Inc. to create the movie. Marcus Spence, President of Mosley Music, Timbaland’s wife and publicist Monique Idlett Mosley, will be producing the film. Shooting starts in spring with Richard Zelniker as director.

In 2008, Timbaland began working on his third studio album, Shock Value 2, the follow-up to his 2007 platinum album Shock Value. In January 2009, Timbaland clarified rumors about the recording process of the album but acknowledged that he would release the album within the year.

2009-present[]

In March 2009, he filed a lawsuit against his label, Blackground Records, alleging that they attempted to blackball him after he decided to move from music performance into production.

Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley built a private recording studio in Virginia Beach. The studio was conceived and developed with long time engineer, Jimmy Douglas. The Studio is managed by Garland Mosley and Brian Byrd. This full service audio production center has been created in an existing (approximate) 5,000 sq. ft. two-story industrial park building. A complete renovation of the building results in a two-studio recording and post production facility, and continues the growth of the Virginia Beach music community that has spawned the likes of The Neptunes, Missy Elliott, Nate "Danja" Hills and many others.

Discography[]

External links[]

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