First emerging and becoming heavily submerged into the music scene back around 1996, Timbaland has been known as the go-to guy when it came to having a producer on an album.
His track record speaks for itself as he has worked with artists such as Lil Kim, Jay-Z, the L.O.X., LL Cool and Xzibit, along with staying loyal to his own click with Missy Elliot and introducing the world to Bubba Sparxx.
Now feeling that the generation he came from has now left, Timbo has decided to pack his bags as well and leave Hip Hop in the past.
His past release, Shock Value I and the newly released sequel has shown him working extensively with acts outside of the rap regime and enlisting the help of Katy Perry, Daughtry and even Miley Cyrus to create a pulse for his beats.
While with MTV, the producer spoke on making the transition and how he realized that the consumer isn’t really looking out for Hip Hop music anymore or willing to actually go out and make a purchase.
“I know 75 percent [of the people who buy my album] are women who love Timbaland and most are the women who watch Desperate Housewives and all those others. I did this research. It’s the women who watch Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives — all the real go-to-the-bar women like Timbaland, and mostly European women. It lets me know that my fanbase is mostly women and they are from all cultures. So it’s not a person who loves mostly Hip Hop. It’s a person who loves everything besides Hip Hop.”
He also adds that this new mentality is nothing that was spur of the moment and that his time with the genre had come to a close quite some time ago.
“I was done with Hip Hop a long time ago. Once my generation left, I left. I do it, but there’s nobody from my generation besides Jay who’s doing it. I look at Lil Wayne as being from my generation. Some people are still acceptable. Kanye is acceptable from my generation.
So it seems now that some rappers might have to look for a special invitation to be granted permission to work with Timbaland. Drake was privileged enough to receive such an honor with “Say Something”, but in all honesty, who really helped who with that feature?
As the pages continue to turn and the landscape of Hip Hop remains ever-changing, who else from the old day will finally bow out and let the curtains close?
