the battle: timbaland vs the neptunes

In the early 2000's, both Timbaland and The Neptunes were the ones to go to if you wanted a commercial top charter and have some type of commercial respect at the same time. When it came to the Hip Hop community, both Timbaland and The Neptunes got their respect from the heads. Timbaland got his props for making some beats for creditable emcee's as Missy, Ludacris, and Jay-Z. Speaking of Jigga, The Neptunes had the Jigga one to use his rhyming skills to be on their album, also. However, the true success came for the duo when they helped Justin Timberlake break out of the boy-band mold and be respected as a true singing talent. However, Timbaland also helped the boy wonder with a two tracks (SexyBack and My Love) that made the music nerds take another look at this once marketed creation.

So which one was better in my eyes? Before we decide a winner let's rundown some of beats from both teams.


Timbaland

To My - Timbaland feat Nas, Madd Skillz
Best Friend - Timbaland feat. Aaliyah, Missy Elliot
Cry Me A River - Justin Timberlake feat. Timbaland
If We Ever Meet Again - Timbaland feat Katy Perry



VS




The Neptunes


Drop It Like It's Hot - Snoop Dogg feat. Pharell
Frontin' - Pharell feat. Jay-Z
Señorita - Justin Timberlake
Announcement - Common feat. Pharell


Whenever I think of the Neptunes I think of the skinny suburban dudes with skateboards who ended up creating their own niche with trucker hats, hot looking girls in their videos and top names to give them props. Their beats were futuristic assembling funk with Middle Eastern and Asian music including woodwind and percussion. No one really thinks of Chad as part of the team, as Pharrell took his cue from Dre and Puff and started to be part of the track he was producing which later made him a heartthrob to teenage girls. But back to the beats. The Neptunes took the production game to the next level and made it more commercially known. They made commercial sensations more acceptable among true school Hip Hop fans. The united two types of music fans into one and all along, having fun doing it.


On the other hand, however. Timbaland had been progressing the regular Hip Hop beat for a while and created his whole new type of sound. When Aaliyah and Missy first stepped on the scene, no one ever heard the types of beats Timbo was producing. It reminded me of some funky type of beat boxing with un-tuned instruments complimented by some cool procession sounds. They were head-nodding-futuristic-slamming-tracks. He did the same thing The 'Tunes did with Justin but flipped the script when Timberlake released Future Sex Sounds and totally changed up the artists sound. Made JT sound even more credible and showed us that Justin can change over time and progress as an musician.

The Winner: Timbaland

It came close, but I have to go with Timbo with this one. He gets extra points with the sounds he created for two of the top diva's in the last twenty years. Furthermore, the work he did with Canadian Nelly Furtado and of course, with JT.