Timbaland

Timbaland pioneered the technique of custom-creating the beat via digital keyboards instead of adding a break-beat to a sample. Timbaland's strategy of musical estrangement (stuttering beats in alien timbres, unstable melodies that warp the conventions of singing along) was first experimented on Aaliyah's second album One In A Million (1996), and even more in the single Are You That Somebody (1998), whose arrangement bordered on glitch music; and blossomed on Missy Elliott's Supa Dupa Fly (1997) and So Addictive (2001), albums that were canvases on which the producer laid ever more creative beat patterns. Timbaland was, in fact, the first major hip-hop producer to cross over successfully into pop, crafting two million sellers: Nelly Furtado's Loose (2006) and Justin Timberlake's second album Future Sex/ Love Sounds (2006), albums credited to mediocre singers that the producer turned into sonic extravaganzas.

His solo album Shock Value (Interscope, 2007) featured Justin Timberlake, 50 Cent, Fall Out Boy, Elton John, Dr. Dre, Missy Elliott, Nelly Furtado, etc.