Aaliyah – Are You That Somebody?
A lot has been made of Timbaland lately. His new album sucks but he’s been everywhere lately, working with Nelly Furtado last year and Justin Timberlake and now Bjork. And to be fair, his slinky collaboration with M.I.A. is really great, if it’s only on European imports of his new disc. It’s not worth buying though for just that, find an mp3… But anyway, this is like when it was a few years ago, before he went away to lose weight, when he was everywhere on radio like the Neptunes, producing crazy songs that no one else could imitate. Crazy? His best productions had you listening on repeat, just to hear if he really used that odd sample. They were fascinating, but also so good that you could switch attention to the song itself, and not really notice the bits and pieces working together. For example, it may not be so surprising nowadays, but a few years ago bhangra samples were really earcatching, before people knew about bollywood and other wonders of the indic continent. But in the end, the flawlessness of his productions were really what had you listening again and again. They were just damn good songs.
Now, if it seems like I’m basing a song’s worth on Timbaland being the producer, and not the singer’s part, it’s because Tim makes and breaks a song. While his collaborators are talented people, they are usually not especially outstanding within thier own material, but a part of the whole, like the bass or the guitar and such. The only artist I can think of that holds her own with Tim is Missy Elliott, and her work with Tim is unique in that you can hear the results of two brilliant equals working together. He’s like the modern genesis of Phil Spector. Innovative and dominant in the creative process.
This song by Aaliyah is a perfect example of his involvement. For the first 28 seconds it’s just Timbaland. He then gets out of the way and lets Aaliyah be enchanting while she smooths and glides her way through his snappy, staccato production, sort of like motorik driven by a babe, stuck in stop and go traffic, with a baby in the backseat. Tim comes back around eventually to throw down some rhymes. While Aaliyah is undoubtedly the star of the show, it’s really Timbaland’s show. But as good as he is, he needs his stars, something to work around other than himself, as his solo albums show.