| Product Summary | | Label: Interscope Records | | UPC: 00602517256743 | | Release Date: 4/3/2007 | | Buy.com Sku: 204169115 | | Item#: M3HQNJ | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 25050 | Format:  CD |
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(P) 2007 Blackground Records/Interscope Records
(C) 2007 Blackground Records/Interscope Records
| | Timbaland is already acknowledged as one of music's most inventive and distinctive creators. Yet the artist/producer's forthcoming album, just his second solo album, promises to shock the world. Timbaland Presents Shock Value (Mosley Music Group/Blackground/Interscope) is set for release April 3, 2007. The first single, "Give It To Me," featuring Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado. "My mission is to blow up the boundaries and tear down the limits," says Timbaland. "I'm taking my music outside of the box. I'm not getting away from what I'm known for; I'm just going to a place where it's all about the music, not about the labels on the music. That's why I call it Shock Value--from the artists to the production, it will shock the system."
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | "Bounce" is the keyword on SHOCK VALUE. Even when Timbaland isn't directly instructing listeners (and guest artists) to do so, it's implicit in his frantic bass-lines and hypnotic drum arrangements. As usual, the super-producer's undeniable talents behind the boards make a variety of unlikely collaborations jive perfectly. Timbaland goes from futuristic hip-pop ("Oh Timbaland," "Release," "Bounce") and dance floor R&B ("Fantasy," "The Way I Are") to synth-pop ("Time"), emo ("One and Only"), and sensitive rock ballads ("Apologize"). | | Tim's boy Justin Timberlake shows up on three cuts, including one of the album's tightest ("Give It to Me"), alongside Nelly Furtado. "Kill Yourself," sees Tim throwing verbal shots at rival Scott Storch as only a producer on a battle track can ("I'm number one/You ain't number sh*t/When they need a hit/I'm who they come to get"). Missy Elliot, Fall Out Boy, She Wants Revenge, 50 Cent, Tony Yayo, the Hives, Keri Hilson, Magoo, Elton John, and Dr. Dre all show up out this shockingly eclectic guest list. | | "2 Man Show," the epilogue of Timbaland Presents Shock Value, involves 24 men and women. The title refers to Timbaland and Elton John. John, despite being Elton John, doesn't sing on the song, but he does play some loose piano. Most of the vocals are left to Timbaland, who improvises with a nonstop series of directions, comments, and grunts. He participates in some nonchalant call-and-response singing as well. It's a relaxed way to close an exhausting album, and it's also an odd way to utilize Elton John and a 19-person choir. While the song is an extreme example, it does illustrate the inexplicable and intermittently unpredictable nature of an album that would be more accurately titled Timbaland Presents Slight Confusion or Timbaland Presents an Uneven Mess. | | The reigning producer of R&B and rap since 1996, the year of Ginuwine's "Pony" and Aaliyah's "If Your Girl Only Knew," Timbaland has amassed piles of ingenious and commercially successful releases. Due to his work on Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous" and Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack," two of the least-avoidable pop singles released in 2006, his profile has never been higher. Consequentially, there has never been more anticipation for one of his own albums. His three albums with sidekick Magoo, in addition to the solo-proper Tim's Bio, each had measurable amounts of hype around their release dates. A new level of visibility, combined with a lot of eclectic star power and a couple silly beefs, has turned Shock Value into a major release. | | If you haven't read any interviews with Tim from the past few years, or if you missed some of the more telling hints, such as his work on Brandy's Coldplay-sampling "Should I Go," there could be some shock involved while listening to the album for the first time. Although he has continued to contribute beats for MCs -- Young Jeezy's "3 a.m.," Snoop Dogg's "Get a Light," and Redman's "Put It Down" are a few recent examples -- Tim has frequently said that he is bored with rap and into rock, and here he takes the opportunity to reach beyond R&B, rap, and straight-up pop. "Throw It on Me," with the Hives (a good-time garage rock band from Sweden), is a frisky, careening number that must have taken all of ten minutes to put together. A remix of "Apologize," a ballad by OneRepublic (a band that might soundtrack the next season of Grey's Anatomy, or the imaginary annex between Abercrombie & Fitch and The Gap), incorporates an unobtrusive Timbaland beat and some distant vocal accents. With She Wants Revenge (a bad-time faux-British synth duo) and Fall Out Boy (you probably know about them), Tim is an interloper who takes part in songs that wouldn't be worse off without his presence. It's most jarring to hear him as a temporary member of the typically sullen She Wants Revenge, where his downcast verses give way to Justin Warfield's heavily affected drone. | | The four songs involving the rockers are the only ones that have the potential to shock, and they're bundled together during the last quarter of the album, so it's not as if they're even being emphasized. Otherwise, Shock Value is similar in setup to Diddy's certifiably flawed and maliciously (and/or unjustly) panned Press Play, a sprawling but often pleasurable album involving so many MCs, singers, and studio hands that a head count would rival that of the sessions for "We Are the World." Tim, along with super-talented associates Danja and Keri Hilson, are some of the common links between the two albums, which share a similar balance between rap tracks heavy on mostly empty grandstanding, pop-R&B songs with male-female exchanges, and a couple club-oriented surprises that go outside the norms of modern rap and R&B. So, in a number of ways, Shock Value can be viewed a sister release to the Diddy album. | | Like Press Play, many of the album's key performances come from the females. Hilson, a songwriter, arranger, and singer who has also had a hand in Mary J. Blige's "Take Me as I Am" and Omarion's "Ice Box," is central to three of the album's most memorable songs. "Miscommunication" is the greatest of the three, where she delivers one of the most advanced hooks of the last several years. She took pity on a pathetic fellow (played by a temporarily humble-ish Timbaland), was repaid with a stifling relationship that went too far, and comes up with a disarming way of saying "You're killing me." A completely unnecessary ear-sore of a closing verse from Tim's brother Sebastian does little to harm its effect. | | "Bounce," one of Tim's toughest and most sinister beats, is offset by comically over-the-top wordplay from Missy Elliott and Dr. Dre, along with an equally ridiculous appearance from Justin Timberlake ("Like your ass had the hiccups/Like we was riding in my pickup"). Missy outdoes the guys, entering with "Hold up, hell naw/Like Britney Spears, I wear no draws." The rest of the verse is Missy at her lewd best, nothing new yet still 100 percent capable of keeping the testosterone level in check. Even though it's very possible that the involved recorded their parts in different studios, you can imagine them in fits of laughter while trying to top one another's outrageousness. The track is where the blast had by Tim and company, detectable throughout the majority of the album (a saving grace), is at its most contagious. | | When the album doesn't sound like a blast is being had, Tim's rhymes are usually within close proximity. They tend to leave a stale aftertaste. As with Jay-Z's Kingdom Come, listening to unrelatable boasts about extreme commercial and financial successes can get tiresome fast, especially when self-satisfaction wipes out any sense of hunger or passion. He brags about making half a million for a beat, and then, a few tracks later, the figure is a quarter of a million. Either he makes too much money to count, or his ghostwriters didn't compare notes. And while he is a competent enough MC to hang with the guest verses -- including low-wattage turns from 50 Cent and Tony Yayo, along with relatively engaging appearances from Attitude, D.O.E., and Magoo -- he's much more effective when restricting himself to incidental goading and singing that merely glides over the beat. | | Beyond the Elton John feature, the flat-out puzzling moments are limited, yet they certainly add to the album's lack of sturdiness. Bearing a heavy resemblance to Ciara's "Promise," "Fantasy" was produced by Walter "Lil' Walt" Millsap with Boss Beats and bears no credit to Timbaland. It's also the only song on the album where vocals are provided by one person. "Release," strangely placed third on the album -- just after lead single "Give It to Me" -- is a tossed-off house track, just as much of a Basement Jaxx rip as Basement Jaxx's own "U Can't Stop Me" (off 1999's Remedy) is a rip of Tim and Missy Elliott's earlier hits together. | | Shock Value would be less of a hot-and-cold affair with a couple more songs in the vein of "Give It t |
Producer: Danja; Timbaland; Barry Hankerson |
Musical Guests | | Justin Timberlake | | Nelly Furtado | | Tony Yayo & 50 Cent | | Fall Out Boy | | Missy Elliott | | Dr. Dre | | Elton John | | The Hives |
| | Artist Overview | | It's not hyperbole to say that producer and MC Timbaland changed the face of hip-hop and R&B in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Virginia native's revolutionary work with singer/rapper Missy Elliott was unlike anything previously heard in contemporary black music at the time, and it made Timbaland one of the most sought-after producers in the game. He subsequently brought his frenetic avalanche of stuttering beats and synth samples to bear on the music of, among others, Jay-Z, Nelly Furtado, and Justin Timberlake. In addition to his work as one half of the rap duo Timbaland & Magoo, Timbaland released his first proper solo album, SHOCK VALUE, in 2007. |
| | Compilation Appearances |
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| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 04/03/2007 | | Original Release Date : 2007 | | Catalog ID : 0008594 | | Label : Interscope Records (USA) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Runtime : 61m : 56s | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00602517256743 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Entertainment Weekly (p.71)
- "[A] chance to celebrate, and consolidate, his status as global pop impresario....With lots of guest appearances by famous friends. He certainly draws an A-list crowd." -- Grade: B |
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| | Bio | | | Timbaland Super-producer Timbaland has stamped his indelible imprint on the music scene since the mid-1990s. His production has helped create career-defining hits for artists such as Jodeci, Aaliyah, Ginuwine, Missy Elliott, Destiny?s Child, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg and Jay-Z, among many others. Respected beyond the genres of urban and hip hop music, Timbaland, whose musical influences cross cultural lines, has also been sought by diverse superstars whose music similarly knows no boundaries, from pop star Justin Timberlake to avant-singer Bjork. Released April 3, 2007 is his second solo album, Timbaland Presents Shock Value (Blackground/Interscope/Mosley Music Group). That disc follows his producing of the majority of the tracks, including the single ?SexyBack,? on Timberlake?s #1 charting, multiplatinum FutureSex/LoveSounds, which followed their work together on Timberlake?s previous smash, Justified. Born Timothy Z. Mosley in Norfolk, Virginia on March 10, 1972, Timbaland, so named by Jodeci member Devante Swing after the Timberland boot, has had many reincarnations--from disc jockey DJ Timmy Tim to half of the hip hop group Timbaland & Magoo; from membership in Devante Swing?s Swing Mob crew known as Da Bassment to S.B.I. (Surrounded By Idiots), a production ensemble including Pharrell Williams, to being CEO of his own label, Mosley Music Group.
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