Timbaland Says Britney Spears Dissed Him And Justin Timberlake; Tells Her To Apologize

Super-producer says a collabo between the three could happen — if Spears says sorry.


Say what you will about the outcome, Britney Spears' VMA performance was one of the most-anticipated ones in years. But think how much bigger it would have been had it been billed as Spears taking the stage with former flame Justin Timberlake to perform together. Huge, right? Well, Timbaland — who claims to have nearly collaborated with the singer in the past — says Brit has quashed any chance of a JT collabo taking place anytime soon.

The super-producer told MTV News during VMA weekend that a prospective team-up between the two would be "the best thing that ever happened" and would "help her out a whole lot." But he then dismissed the possibility, saying in so many words that Brit has become big-headed and had dissed him and Justin. "It'll never happen. Nah. It could've, but it won't."

Timbaland previously said he got close to working with the singer, telling Entertainment Weekly in March, "I just want to take her away, go overseas and work [it] out. ... I asked Justin, 'How would you feel about me working with Britney?' ... 'Would you do it with me?' " Timbaland told the magazine that JT was willing to get involved at the time. "She's just gotta be serious."

Now Timbo has even more advice to give her about getting her career back on track. "She needs a story," he said. "She has no comeback story. That's the problem. She has to have a team. She needs to come back with Justin doing records; [then we'd see headlines like,] 'She went back to her ex and she's making smashes.' [But instead she got] so big-headed and [was] like, 'Screw you, screw you, I don't need nobody.' "

So is there any chance for Spears to rectify the situation and possibly work with Timberlake and Timbaland? Yes, says the super-producer — if she apologizes.

"She should humble herself and make a phone call and say, 'I'm sorry.' She knows what she's sorry about," Tim said. "She needs to say, 'I was wrong,' and it'll definitely move forward. ... That's all she has to say."

Wait — don't cash out on the VMAs just yet! From Britney's sultry comeback performance to the big winners, you saw it all — well, almost everything! Get yourself even richer with our wall-to-wall show coverage, party reports, videos and loads more at www.VMA.MTV.com. For reports, photos, video and much, much more from previous VMAs, dive into the VMA archives.

Rivalry with Scott Storch

Recently, a rivalry has flared up between Timbaland and famed record producer Scott Storch. 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". He went on to rap that "I get a half a mill fo' my beats, you get a couple grand". Timbaland confirmed that he was talking about Storch in an interview with MTV personality Sway Calloway. He said that he would go after the trash talkers on his new album Timbaland Presents Shock Value.[6].

Storch responded with the track "Built Like That" on February 26, 2007, which features Philadelphia rapper NOX. On the track, Storch claims to have been solely responsible for the production of the 2002 Justin Timberlake hit "Cry Me a River," for which he received a basket of fruit. He also claims that Timbaland’s production partner Danja has been responsible for his recent string of hits with Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake, and mocks the commercial failure of Timbaland’s former Beat Club label.[7]

Timbaland responded with the song Piano Man by Mosley Music Group artist D.O.E.. The story behind the title is that Scott Storch uses a piano to make his beats.

Plagiarism controversy

In early 2007, there was controversy surrounding Timbaland because of allegations of plagiarism that surfaced concerning his work on the Nelly Furtado track "Do It". He is alleged to have plagiarized several elements (both motifs and samples) in the song without giving credit or compensation. [4][5]

The claimed original track, entitled "Acidjazzed Evening", is a chiptune-style 4-channel Amiga module composed by Finnish demoscener Janne Suni (a.k.a. Tempest). The song won first place in the Oldskool Music competition at Assembly 2000, a demoparty held in Helsinki, Finland in the year 2000. According to Scene.org, the song was uploaded to their servers the same year, long before the release of the song by Furtado. The song was later remixed (with Suni’s permission) by Norwegian Glenn Rune Gallefoss (a.k.a. GRG) for the Commodore 64 in SID format - this is the version which was later allegedly sampled for "Do It". It was added to the High Voltage SID Collection on December 21, 2002.

A video which claims to show proof of the theft was posted to YouTube on January 12, 2007. Another video was posted to YouTube on January 14, 2007, claiming Timbaland also stole the tune a year earlier for the ringtone Block Party, one of several that were sold in the United States in 2005. A YouTube video comparing all the related songs was posted in February 13.

On April 1, the track for "Do It" (without vocals) was used as theme music for the 2007 Juno Awards broadcast, which Furtado hosted. The track was played during the show’s opening and before commercial breaks. The controversial samples could be clearly heard throughout.

Timbaland, while admitting the sampling, has called the issue "ridiculous" but also says he is "in legal discussions" and therefore can't say much about it.

Timbaland's "New" Sound

In 2006, Timbaland began to work frequently with his protege Nate "Danjahandz" Hills, which began his new rejuvenation in music. With Danja in by his side co-producing several tracks for many artists, "The Timbaland Sound" started to come to a sudden change. Songs like Promiscuous by Nelly Furtado, and SexyBack by Justin Timberlake featured more synth lines and more percussion added to the flavor of this new sound. Even Nelly Furtado's Loose had a little rock flavor to it with tracks like Afraid, featuring an Electric guitar riff, and with Justin Timberlake's interlude to LoveStoned, I Think that She Knows, with an electric guitar riff.

2005–present

In 2005, Timbaland produced a song on Tweet and The Game’s albums ("Steer" and "Put You on the Game" respectively). He also produced two songs on Missy Elliott’s sixth album, The Cookbook: "Joy (feat. Mike Jones)" & "Partytime", as well as "He'll Be Back" on Jennifer Lopez’s fifth studio album, Rebirth.

Timbaland started a new label, Mosley Music Group, once again under Interscope out of the former Beat Club Records label he had previously managed. On the label are singers Nelly Furtado and Keri Hilson, and rapper D.O.E. Timbaland’s parternship and mentorship of upcoming producer Nate "Danjahandz" Hills is evident in Timbaland’s rejuvenation in music. Furtado’s third album, Loose, was released under MMG in June 2006, debuting at number one in U.S. Timbaland has also worked with Whitney Houston, JC Chasez, Missy Elliott, Diddy, Young Jeezy, Chingy, The Game, Chilli of TLC, Tweet, Björk, 50 Cent, Rich Boy, UGK, Stat Quo, Snoop Dogg, rapper Eve and more.

During 2006, Timbaland had seven singles receiving massive airplay worldwide: "Promiscuous", "Maneater", "All Good Things (Come to an End)" and "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado, and Justin Timberlake’s "SexyBack", "My Love" and "What Goes Around.../...Comes Around Interlude", (Timbaland produced Timberlake’s U.S. number-one album FutureSex/LoveSounds along with protege Danja and Timberlake himself,) and also appears in most of the videos for these songs. He provides vocals on the singles "Wait a Minute" by The Pussycat Dolls, "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado and "Ice Box" by Omarion, all of which climbed the charts in the U.S., and he appears in the videos for these three songs as well. Timbaland is rumored to have future singles put out by Tweet, Chingy, and the first single off Redman’s long anticipated album Red Gone Wild. In an interview published in August 2006 in the UK,[2] 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 has also recently worked with UK record producer "SK." Both parties have delayed plans for further collaborations due to school commitments from the latter. In January 2007, SK was mentioned in a radio interview by Timbaland who remarked he was a rising star.

On April 3, 2007, Timbaland released a collaboration album featuring artists such as Dr. Dre, Elton John, Fall Out Boy, Nelly Furtado, Missy Elliott, and others called Timbaland Presents Shock Value. The first single, "Give It to Me" featuring Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake, topped Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. The album’s second single, titled "The Way I Are," features Mosley labelmates Keri Hilson and D.O.E. and features a beat resembling the recent Justin Timberlake single "Sexyback".

In an interview published in August, he declared that he had worked on seven songs for Björk’s new album (three of which, "Earth Intruders", "Hope" and "Innocence" will appear on the album), and in another he was later reportedly working on tracks for the next Duran Duran album, due in 2007, including one song featuring Justin Timberlake. Also in 2007, Timbaland will be producing songs for Bone Thugs upcoming new LP, Strength & Loyalty and 50 Cent’s new album and Curtis. Surprisingly, Timbaland has invited help from outside of the US industry and called upon Quang Chou from the label chou*star to co-produce many tracks and work along side him. chou*star is a label currently based in the UK soon to venture with Timbaland.

Timbaland and Madonna are working together on her new album due in late 2007. He is also working with Rockstar Games to produce Beaterator, a music mixing game for the PlayStation Portable to be released in the Summer of 2007.

In April 2007, he appeared on WWE programming in segments with several WWE Divas. In late April, he filmed a music video for the song "Throw It On Me," starring Ashley Massaro, Kelly Kelly, Brooke, Torrie Wilson, Layla El, and Maryse. [3]

Most recently, Timbaland produced "Come Around" by British experimental electronica and rap artist M.I.A., which features Timbaland. It appears on her second album Kala and was also included as an international bonus track on Timbaland Presents Shock Value.

Timbaland made a guest appearance at Justin Timberlake’s concert at The o2 in London on July 4th - July 10th 2007.

On July 7, 2007 Timbaland performed at Live Earth.

2002–2005

The first release on Beat Club was the debut album by Bubba Sparxxx in September 2001, Dark Days, Bright Nights. Timbaland contributed three tracks to Tweet’s debut album, Southern Hummingbird, and produced most of Missy Elliott’s fourth and fifth LPs, Under Construction and This Is Not A Test! He also produced hit singles and album tracks for artists such as Lil’ Kim ("The Jump Off") and Pastor Troy during this period. Collaborating with Scott Storch, Timbaland also produced a number of tracks on former *NSYNC lead singer Justin Timberlake’s solo debut, Justified, including the hit single "Cry Me a River." This would eventually lead to a fallout between the two producers, as Storch would claim that he was not given proper production credit for "Cry Me a River." While Storch is credited as a co-writer and pianist on the song, production is credited solely to Timbaland.

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.

Timbaland continued to produce hit singles and albums for artists; in 2004 Timbaland-produced singles by LL Cool J, Xzibit, Fatman Scoop and Jay-Z became staples on urban radio, and he produced the bulk of Brandy’s fourth album, Afrodisiac. The Timbaland-produced song "I'm So Fly" on Lloyd Banks’s 2004 debut album The Hunger for More is significant in that it was the first official Timbaland production bearing a co-production credit from Danja, who would go on to become a requisite collaborator with Timbaland in the future. Timbaland also lent a hand to three tracks off bilingual Japanese Pop star Utada’s debut English album, Exodus. New songs from artists such as Tweet and The Game were released in 2005

2000–2002

Timbaland-produced songs such as 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" that were recorded and released during this period, and he contributed to Limp Bizkit’s 2001 remix album, New Old Songs. He also contributed three songs--all eventually released as singles--to Aaliyah’s self-titled third album, "We Need a Resolution" featuring himself, "More Than a Woman," and the ballad "I Care 4 U".

Timbaland & Magoo’s second album together, Indecent Proposal, had been scheduled for release in November 2000, and was to feature appearances by Beck, Aaliyah, and new Timbaland protégés -- some of whom were signed to 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 being released the following November. It was a commercial disappointment. Beck’s vocals for the track "I Am Music" were not included on the final released version, which instead featured Timbaland singing alongside Static (Steven Garrett) of Playa and Aaliyah, who had been killed in a plane crash three months before the release of the album. The loss of Aaliyah deeply affected Timbaland, whose work was less omnipresent after 2001.