Timothy Zachery Mosley is the real name behind one of the most iconic producers of the last 20 years, someone that raised the bar over and over again and developed the pop music genre in many ways. Constantly evolving the synthesis in the genre and trying new things out he set the standards and pop would probably never reach the complexity he invented.
Timothy Zachery Mosley better known as Timbaland, was born on March 10, 1972 in Norfolk, Virginia. Timothy went to Salem High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia. In the early ages he got interested to be a DJ, so he started with ‘DJ Tim’. He was deeply influenced by the local Virginia Beach hip hop scene which got him into listening to music and trying himself out as a DJ. He started making
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Breaking into the mainstream happened in 1996. He produced almost all tracks from Aaliyahs two albums ‘One in a Million’ and Ginuwines debut album ‘Ginuwine…the Bachelor’. What separated Timbaland from other producers is that he always left his trademark in his tracks and his sound was mostly routed to hip-hop and implementing those elements in the pop productions, with fast-paced nature and clear drums breaks. He fully produced the debut album of Missy Elliott called ‘Supa Dupa Fly’ and it was kind of experimental since it Timbaland variously added “grimey” sounds and used a lot of samples. In 1997 he released his first album with his long time partner Magoo called ‘Welcome To Our World’ also a hip-hop album. It was a game changer and it caught the ear of the biggest artist at that time. In the late 1990s, his hip-hop production sound was something very influential and common as he produced for the biggest superstars such as Jay-Z, Nas and The LOX. Even though he produced a major hit with Jay Z and rap group UGK called ‘Big Pimpin’ and the second studio album of Missy Elliott called ‘Da Real World’, Timbaland was still mainly focused on R&B productions. He kept working for Ginuwine, Aaliyah, Xscape, Nicole, Playa, Usher, Ludacris, Jay-Z, Petey Pablo and many