Give it to Me (w/Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake)

Song: Give it to Me (w/Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake)
Artist: Timbaland
Album: Timbaland Presents: Shock Value



2006 was the year Timbaland came back. After being at the forefront of the R & B/Hip Hop movement in the early (and late) 90’s, Tim had a bit of slip early this decade with tracks from Mya, Lil’ Kim, Brandy, and Xzibit not taking hold on radio. I suppose you can’t have one hit after another, even the Neptunes don’t always serve up a “Milkshake” each time. But last year he did the majority of the production on two of the biggest pop records of the year, Nelly Furtado’s “Loose” and Justin Timberlake’s “Future Sex/Lovesounds.” And with Nelly’s “Promiscuous Girl,” he took center stage and proved a great foil for Nelly’s back and forth hit.

This month sees the release of his “album” “Timbaland Presents: Shock Value.” It’s more of a collection, with Tim calling in his famous friends for a track here and there and concocting a pretty cool collection of tunes. As always the beats are fresh and all over the place, though at seventeen tracks it is WAY too long, but in the MP3 age, it’s not really about making a cohesive album, you pick which you like and remove the others. So if you’re not really a rock fan, you can delete the Hives, She Wants Revenge, and Fall Out Boy collaborations and keep the 50 Cent, Tony Yayo, etc. Nelly and Justin return the favor of keeping their careers on track by being on lead single “Give it to Me” which is infectious, fun, and utterly stupid. “You see us in the club we’ll be actin’ real nice” is about as deep as it gets. There are rumored disses by Justin to Janet and Prince (Uh… why?) and Timbaland basically just boasts about how great he is as a producer, but it’s fun. I dig it.

Timbaland has done better, his groundbreaking work with Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot is some of the most important work that has been done in the world of hip hop to date, and he basically created Aaliyah and made her the star she was.

If nothing else, this is some dumb fun to keep you boppin’ into the weekend.

Enjoy.

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