Seems that the celebrated but contentious producer Timbaland just can’t quite hit his groove these days. After flying in the face of more conventional thought regarding the use of AI in music, his latest beatmaking efforts have fallen somewhat short of fans' expectations.
Introducing himself as “Timbo the king,” the man, the myth and the producer of more dope beats than a beetroot farm appears live and direct on the latest episode of Mass Appeal’s excellent Rhythm Roulette YouTube series.
In the show, star producers visit their favourite record stores and are blindfolded. They’re then asked to pick out three records and are invited to make a beat with samples from them. “We picked out some records. Guess what we gonna do? We’re gonna chop up some records,” Timbo explains for anyone unfamiliar with the format.
So what did Mr Baland go for? Well, it appears that Tim might not be too keen on the dark, choosing to quickly grab three records from the F and G section of the (upmarket, definitely non-rare groove) store rather than explore or fling his musical choice (or indeed his arms) any wider.
And back in the studio, first pick, Future Islands by The Far Field, is quickly dismissed. “I don’t know if that’s attractive enough,” he opines without even taking it out of the sleeve.
Meanwhile Jerry Garcia Acoustic Band, Recorded live at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, similarly stays in its cellophane. “This seems like something I want to listen to, instead of sampling,” he says.
Fortunately, Gil Scott-Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised finds more favour. “This right here. I think this speaks to my soul,” Timbo nods, and begins to stare at it as it spins before choosing to sample the very first track he listens to.
Look, he’s a busy guy, ok?
Timbo, in fact, plumps for track one, side two, Home Is Where The Hatred is, suggesting that his vinyl skills are so dope that he even put the wrong side on first. Plus, seasoned beat detectors will know it as the beat from My Way Home from Kanye West’s Late Registration, which kinda defeats the whole random rare record ploy from the outset. Sigh.
Nevertheless, it’s time to get (fairly) busy.
Using a Universal Audio Apollo interface to get the track into his Apple MacBook and Ableton Live, he works his Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol M32 mini keyboard (complete with Timbo-endorsed Beatclub camo-branding) and Ableton Push 2 controller.
“The value of production has depreciated so much that you have to figure out other ways to make it a business,” he says, perhaps making his excuses as to why he’s off form, while heavily quantising his finger drumming skills and leaning on Ableton’s famous time stretching to inject… anything at all.
And all too soon the magic is made.
“There you have it,” he boasts, rocking back in his chair after creating a four-bar loop that literally took him one minute to put together. And sounds like it.
And let’s just say that the comments on YouTube and Reddit haven’t been great:
“Was not good,” wrote one user, succinctly summing up the thoughts of everyone watching.
“I knew it was going to be real bad when the record store was full of new mainstream vinyl hahahahahahahahahaha. What a joke. I dug up Britney Spears, Harry Styles and Taylor Swift!! Let's cook!! Ffs lol,” wrote another.
And it just goes downhill from there…
“This was like having a Michelin star chef serve you a frozen pizza.”
“Bro took the easy route and just wanted to get this over with Lol.”
“This dude took the 'Don't Overthink' talk way too seriously.”
“To barely chop the sample and use some generic kit that sounds like the majority of mainstream producers was so disappointing. They say never meet your heroes.”
“This was by far the worst episode ever.”
Ouch…
And the sickest burn of all?
“He had the blindfold on when he got dressed.”
Man, that’s gotta hurt.
