longish SFJ piece on Timba and Neps in NY Times Magazine

You have considered that SFJ might not believe he's fallen off?

The ennui of a couple of burned-out multimillionaires as expressed in a couple of offhand quotes does not=rap's self-loathing reembrace of rock

Through the magic that is Babelfish, I bring you:

OLIVER TWIST: TO ITALY AND BACK
Between other public constructions in one determined city, from that for many reasons he will be prudent to abstain pointing out and which I will assign to no fictitious name, there is an ancient communal land to the greater part of the cities, large or small: to spirit, a workhouse; and in this workhouse it has been sopportato; a day and date that I do not have to disturb same in order to repeat, on since it can be of no possible consequence to the reader, in this phase of the commerce to all the events; the mortality article of which the name it is premised to the head of this understood it.

It's not just Tim who's checking for Coldplay. Virtually everyone was on Coldplay's dick at the MTV Music Awards - at the risk of sounding repetitive, it's basically the pop equivalent of rock bands worshipping Massive Attack right through the nineties. Bigging up someone who makes music entirely outside your own brief still allows you to be considered (and consider yourself) the best at what you do.

Point taken -- but oh, the pain in my head to even slightly consider "Unfinished Sympathy" and "In My Place" to be in the same universe, no matter how indirectly.

where is the comparable 2003 list?

bugged out: i did say 'supposed', i dont buy the reembrace of rock thing either. dunno if u were talking to me

yeah? bring it, mr 'best of b-boy records' comp

I recommend heartily the above mentioned double CD, anyone with access to Fopp. £3!!

what are we even talking about again?

Has Godard fallen off? HELL YEAH!

Not the Co-Ed remix featuring Pharrell from Goldmember, that was summer '02.

I remember there was a week in '02 when the Neps had 4 of the UK top 20 with "Rock Star", "Work It Out", "Boys" and "Hot In Herre". Has that ever been done before, or even close to that?

I'm still surprised that, "Pass That Dutch" aside (and it's such a measely malnourished example) Diwali hasn't had more influence on what the big-name producers are doing. More polyrhythmic percussive stuff would sound great right now (cf. "Pass That Dutch" - a bass pulse with some perfunctory handclaps - and no, the fact that it's minimalist does not automatically make it good!).

"Be r*al! If somebody else stepped up with the beat from Cee-Lo's "I'll Be Around" or Missy's "Wake Up" or Timbaland and Magoo's own "Indian Flute," you'd have a heart attack and start pitching features."

that should read "discussing how" rather than "about how"

But anyway do the math:

- in 2001 Tim had Miss E, "Hola Hovito", his & Magoo's "Roll Out" and "Drop", and his tracks on the first Bubba album and the last Aaliyah album to keep his stocks afloat.
- in 2002 there was the virtually all-killer no-filler Under Construction, "Oops Oh My", "2 Many Hoes", "Cry Me A River" and the best bits of the Ms Jade album
- in 2003 there was, um, a track or two from This Is Not A Test, some (admittedly brilliant) work on Deliverance and "I'll Be Around". That's like 8 great tracks, half as many as the previous year and about a third as many as 2001.

This suggests to me a steady tapering off - although between Bubba and Cee-Lo he's left room for a new regeneration.

Anybody feel like doing up a list of Timbaland's productions from year to year - or is that just to much work.

Still nice to see Finney writing regularly on a thread again.

The Neptunes, on the hand, seem pretty good at absorbing all sorts of neat ideas and even though I would agree that this was sort of a slow year for them they did release quite a few insane/inspired singles ("Bellydancer", "Milkshake", "Light Your Ass on Fire") and they seem to have their hands in more pies (even if their dancehall stuff is pretty hit or miss.) The N.E.R.D. album is probably gonna suck though, so they're gonna have to do a lot of neat stuff for other folks this year for it not to be called a slump.

The thing that depresses me the most is not the decline in quality by the Neptunes and Timbaland (they've had an increbile run), it's the noticeable lack of new talent. Where are new puppies everybody should be comparing Timbalands/Neptune's work with, in order to show how tired sounding the T&N's productions are sounding. Don't mention Kanye or Just Blaze, as while they might be in the DJ Premier league, I can't imagine them dominating like T&N did.

Well, there's no accounting for taste, but I'd add the rest of Test (it really does amuse me how overhyped "Work It" was compared to how underhyped Test is), "Dirt Off Your Shoulder," some of the stuff off Under Construction II, "Jump Off," etc. Shit, you might as well throw "Cry Me A River" in too given how that dominated 03.

I just think the guy's been too good for too long, and was good enough in 03, for anyone to be shouting "fell off"! Respect!

I ain't even gonna bother defending the Neptunes from all the hataz around here...

P.S. Patrick P. im lookin for u man. we wont meet na but we surely will man