“We’re going on a world of technology, it has advanced.”
That’s the exact vision four-time Grammy-winning Timbaland told students at ASU in a discussion.
Timbaland spoke at ASU on March 27 at the Music Industry Career Conference in a conversation with Tuo Clark, 1/2 of the producing group, Da Internz, and current professor for ASU’s Popular Music Program.
Timbaland reflected on his 30+ year experience in music, reflecting on what he would’ve done differently and providing insights for students.
“I think I would’ve been more, outspoken more.” Timbaland said. “Sometimes, I’ve been in rooms where I didn’t speak when I should’ve spoke up and do certain things that, you know, maybe I would’ve gotten on that record.”
Despite this, Timbaland’s style has been vocal throughout his legendary catalog, including artists like Jay Z, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, and many other major artists.
The interviewer for this discussion, Tuo Clark, has built a distinguished career in his own right as well.
Clark is famously known for producing songs for big-name artists like Justin Bieber, Chris Brown, and many more including Nicki Minaj, who Da Internz famously produced the hit song Anaconda for. He was also the former Def Jam Senior Vice President of A&R.
During this discussion, Clark spoke of a story of when he played Anaconda to Timbaland before it came out, and he recalls Timbaland being somewhat unmoved by the hit.
“He [Timbaland] didn’t move,” Clark said. “It’s one of those moments when you sat with your idol and you have one of the number two, top two record in the world. Because nobody beats ‘The Swifter’. Taylor Swift, nobody beats her.”
Timbaland didn’t realize how big sampling would become in music, which is clipping a part of a song and reinventing it. He believes this unleashed a whole new world for hip-hop.
“I didn’t know that you can be original by recreating original,” Timbaland said. “I think what they started with that record is what’s going on today—everybody is taking hits that were already hits, and redoing it their way.”
Towards the end of the discussion, Timbaland told students that he’s been steadily improving his sound, collaborating with AI to create new music. He also recently got into streaming, which is one of the more popular forms of discovering music for the newer generation.
Although, he believes that the skill of producing is becoming watered down.
“We come from an era where, even him [Clark], you know, there wasn’t no sending off a beat. It was the artist coming in the session to tailor-make the craft for the people,” Timbaland said.
For music students at ASU like Nathaniel Helpern, this discussion was the ultimate empowerment for music.
“To be honest, this is the most inspired I’ve been the whole entire year,” Helpern said. He was spitting a lot of truth, and a lot of stuff that I needed to hear too.
Leave a Reply