Timbaland

Olivia's post inspired me to watch Madonna's new video, and one of my first reactions (other than why do they have only four minutes and what are they saving the world from??) was about Timbaland. He has been working behind the scenes for over a decade as a producer but has been much more visible in the music scene for the past two years. In the past couple years he has served to lend some sort or gravitas or maybe even street-cred to white artists looking to cross over into hip-hop infused pop. I looked into his career a bit and saw that until the past few years he had been working exclusively as a producer for mostly black hip-hop artists, most notably Jay-Z, Nas, and Aaliyah. But if you thought of Timbaland today you would probably think of white stars like Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado (actually Canadian-Portuguese), or now Madonna. He has also recently worked on tracks by such bastions of whiteness like Ashlee Simpson, Fall Out Boy, and Coldplay. What does it mean that this black producer is helping these white superstars appropriate elements of black culture and music, turning JT from boyband to hip-hip or Nelly Furtado from ballads like “I’m Like a Bird” to “Promiscuous.” When these artists want to take what they want from black music, Timbaland is there to lend the talent in his producing, and now his name as a brand and a symbol of legitimacy.