this is weird to think about now just cuz if I'm comparing old Timbaland to old pre-superstar Neptunes, Timbaland wins no question, but now I'd say Neptunes/Pharrell overall. Used to be more into the "quirky" aspects of Timbo's beats and ignored that with some of the tracks there's not much else there, especially sometime in the early-mid '00s/before his pop comeback his beats ring kinda hollow for me. Also this sounds purist or w/e but Pharrell can (could?) do stripped-down straight hip-hop tracks better than Timbo, although he's not generally aiming for that anyway.
Timbaland's most popular stuff & his best stuff overlaps for me in a way the Neptunes don't though, I think they got more interesting after '02 even though some bad ideas crept in too
― nova, Monday, 28 July 2014 13:22 (nine years ago) link