Timothy Zachery Mosley, born March 10, 1971, is better known by his stage name Timbaland. The Virginia native is known for his producing, songwriting, and rapping abilities.
While in high school Timbaland developed a career in music where he was known as Dj Tim or Dj Timmy Tim. He began a long-term collaboration with rapper Melvin Barcliff, who is better known by his performance name Magoo. He joined production team S.B.I (Surrounded By Idiots) which featured member was Neptunes producer Pharrell Williams.
Timbaland met singer/rapper/songwriter/producer Missy Elliott in the early 90s after she heard his material. Timbaland began producing records for strictly R&B acts such as Ginuwine. In the early 1990s he produced a few songs for Jodeci and Sista. In 1996 he made his mainstream breakthrough by producing the majority of both Aaliyah‘s sophomore album One in a million and Ginuwine’s debut album Ginuwine…The Bachelor. In 1997, he fully produced Missy Elliott’s debut album Supa Dupa Fly. Timbaland went on to producing major hip-hop records for Jay-Z, Nas, The Lox. In 1999 he produced major hit “Big Pimpin” with Jay-Z and rap group UGK.
In the early 2000s Timbaland became even more high profiled and went on to producing Ludacris‘ “Roll Out (My Business)”, Petey Pablo‘s “Raise Up”, and Jay-Z’s “Hola Hovito”. He also contributed three songs to Aaliyah’s last studio self-titled album including, “We Need A Resolution”, “More Than A Woman”, and “I care 4 U”.
He then went on to starting his own label Beat Club Records – signing Ms. Jade, Kiley Dean, Tweet, Petey Pablo, Bubba Sparxxx, and Sebastian (his brother). Timbaland contributed to a number of albums during 2003-2005 including Tweet‘s Southern Hummingbird, Missy’s Under Construction, and even produced Lil’Kim’s “The Jump Off” hit single.
In 2006, he started a second label, Mosely Music Group. Signing the likes of Nelly Furtado, Keri Hilson, and rapper D.O.E. He produced Justin Timberlake‘s second studio album FutureSex/LoveSounds. Timbaland provided his vocals to several radio savvy hits such as, The Pussycat Dolls‘ “Wait A Minute”, Omarion‘s “Ice Box”, and Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous”.
On April 3, 2007, Timbaland relased a collaboration album featuring artists including 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Elton John, Fall Out Boy, Nelly Furtado, and Missy Elliott called Timbaland Presents: Shock Value.
In 2008, he helped produce many albums including Madonna‘s Hard Candy, Ashlee Simpson‘s Bittersweet World, Keri Hilson‘s In A Perfect World, Flo-Rida‘s Mail On Sunday, LeToya Luckett‘s Lady Love, JoJo‘s All I Want Is Everything, Nicole Scherzinger‘s Her Name is Nicole, Missy Elliott’s Block Party, The Pussycat Dolls’ Doll Domination, Busta Rhymes‘ B.O.M.B., Teairra Mari‘s Pressed For Time, and Jennifer Hudson‘s debut album Jennifer Hudson.
In 2009 he released the follow up to his first collaborative album entitled Timbaland Presents: Shock Value II. In 2010, Timbaland went on to releasing a new song every Thursday, calling it Timo Thursday. Joining Kanye West who had G.O.O.D. Firdays and Swizz Beatz who claimed Monster Mondays.
Timbaland is also known for his work on Drake‘s “Say Something” and his single “Apologize” featured and covered by One Republic. The favored producer is currently gearing up to release his third Shock Value installment later this year.
Happy Birthday Timbo!
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