Timbaland stopped by Power 105.1's The Breakfast Club to talk about his disappointment with the poorly received Aaliyah biopic, which Wendy Williams recently defended. Timbaland doesn't do many interviews, but he took this opportunity to speak on the film about his former collaborator and friend. That wasn't all he spoke about, however. He also touched on what his standards are for working with other artists, the current state of music, and a new artist named Tink who has "saved my life."
The Virgina producer started by explaining that the actress who played Aaliyah, Alexandra Shipp, DM'd him on Twitter.
"You should do research before entering into something," he said he told her. "It's nothing against you, I just felt like whoever suggested that decision wasn't a wise decision, that's all."
However, Timbaland then admitted he hadn't actually watched the made for TV film.
"I'm kind of like the donkey because I gave it attention [on social media]. I felt like I knew what they were gonna say the next morning. For [Lifetime] business is business. I never watched it so people were telling me and I'm like, 'that didn't happen. That didn't happen.'"
He then addressed a scene in the film where Aaliyah was talking to her label head looking to work with Timbaland and Missy Elliott, but the label head was against it.
This is how Timbaland says it really went down:
"She told her uncle, Barry Hankerson, my lawywer at the time Louise West, sent her a demo of a song called 'Sugar and Spice.' She liked the track but she didn't like the lyrics because she was older at the time. Then she said, 'Can I work with [Timbaland and Elliott,' because there's something about them that I like. So we went down to Detroit, and that's when it all started. We did 'One in a Million.' ... the first record we did was 'Hot Like Fire.'"
He went on to talk about the light-skinned casting of the film and the fact that no one asked permission to do the film in the first place.
"I just think you're tampering, man," he said. "You gotta ask permission. You just don't put things out without consulting the mother, Diane, you just don't do that."
He said that when Aaliyah died there was "a shift in our music. "It was like, 'Uh oh, what am I gonna do now?' I feel like we don't talk about great music enough. And I felt like the good thing about that movie it brought up awareness of what we have done and feeling that we don't have [it] today. And I felt like, you go back and listen to Aaliyah music it makes you realize what today's music is...or isn't."
For people trying to follow in her footsteps, all Timbo has to say about that is "Just give it up to Aaliyah."
When asked why he is particular about who he works with, he said, "I feel like you gotta protect your legacy, like when I did all of my hit records, every one was different. Everyone hit you by surprise cause it wasn't like the last one. But you got to love Timbaland because of that. Maybe you didn't like the song when it first came out, but you grew to love it. Then you're like, 'Wow, he gave me a variety of different choices. ...I just feel like I look for greatness and special. Special don't come around every day. It can take 10 years. If it takes 10 years, I'm cool."
Speaking about great and special, Timbo spent the remainder of the interview singing the praises of his new artist, 19-year-old Chicago rapper/singer Tink, who is being compared to Lauryn Hill.
"God just put her into my lap," he told them about how he found her. "I'm gunna be honest with you. I was in L.A. and The Interns was playing their music right? And then they played this one last song... and me and Jaycen Joshua was like who is that? From that point, everything lined up perfect. I got on the phone with her...and now we here."
He described the discovery as being a miracle.
"It was like at the time [God] knew what I needed," he explained. "And I was looking like I don't want to do music because there's nothing out here to do. So she was music and she saved my life. She got me looking like this because she's so young, and I feel like she got it. Like you can't believe someone 19 got it. We don't see that no more. Tink is like the really real deal. To see somebody of this caliber do it so [well]."
He explained that he gave her the song "Movin' Bass" to work on and that he was amazed by what she came back with.
"I went in there and just fell to the floor cause I had never heard nobody do this," he recalled. "Nobody do this — in life. And I played it for Jay [Z] on the plane, and he was like where you find this girl, she's smart. Artistry is about being smart. The stuff she talk about on her album, I'm just blown away. She made me realize who I am as a person like, Tim, you don't need to be rappin. Sit down. ...She put me in perspective."
He said that Tink is currently signed to only him and L.A. Reid, who he convinced to come onboard.
"I will put my whole entire money in my account on her. She is a superstar. In today's music, she's probably going to be the only one to me that resonates sales because she got it."
The accolades didn't stop there. Apparently this young woman really changed Timbaland and the direction he wants to go in his career.
"She got me sounding young," he said with a smile. "Like my music sound young. That's what I was looking for. I'm like what brings something out of me like what's going to bring the new Timbaland out of me. And I felt like my role this time around in life is to be not Timbaland the producer but Timbaland the mentor."
Right now he says he has four "hit men" that are young and going to be hot.
"They like 16, 19, one is 25. ...I see the future. Sometimes being the man is standing next to the man. That's what I want to do [open doors]. I call it Team Timbo: Jay Buck Mouth, Millie [Reid], Just A Kid, Anonymous. ...I feel like I'm doing the same thing [as Puff Daddy] over again for the new generation, building the 2015 empire of music."
Timbaland then shared a new cut of "Movin' Bass" and a few snippets of other track she has worked on. However, he says that the best has yet to come.
"What you hearing that's nothing compared to what I did," he boasts. "Her album is probably one of the best album's I did since One in A Million. It's so big that I will play you something but we got to shut these cameras off though."
We're now dying to hear what they heard. Release it Timbo! You're killing us!
Check out the full interview below, and let us know what you think in the comments section!
