Timbaland has shared some details about Missy Elliott’s forthcoming album, and apparently, a few songs have a “latin feel” to them.
The super producer made the comments in an interview with Variety, shortly after being announced as the inaugural recipient of the publication’s Pioneer Award, which recognizes his massive impact on music.
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Timbo confirmed that Missy is hard at work on her long-awaited follow-up to 2005’s The Cookbook, which could be out as soon as this summer.
“We’ve got a lot of songs we’re gonna start recording soon, and my dream is to have it out around her birthday in July,” he said. “I want it to sound how she looks — she looks incredible right now. We both look like we 19 again. I know how Missy works: It’s got to be new and fun — or maybe not so much new as kind of underground, and everything is upbeat.”
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He continued: “Some of it has a kind of Latin feel to it, almost a Bad Bunny effect, some of it’s kinda like underground Brazilian funk. People gonna eat it up — and it might reach just a different demographic of people. It’s like it’s her doing… not reggaeton but Missy-ton.”
Timbaland went on to say that Missy’s influence is “global,” and that he hopes this new project can include some features from Bad Bunny and Latin artist Young Miko.
This isn’t the first time Timbaland has spoken about having new music in the works with Missy Elliott. The duo teased new tunes back in February, with Missy writing on her Instagram Story at the time: “@timbaland it’s go time.”
The Virginia natives made for one of the most dynamic and prolific duos in Hip Hop at the turn of the century. They worked closely together on Missy’s first five albums, spanning Supa Dupa Fly in 1997 to This Is Not a Test! in 2003.
Missy reflected on her boundary-pushing partnership with Timbo in a series of tweets last year, revealing that as their success grew, so did the pressure on their shoulders to deliver.
“My 1st album was stress free because I didn’t have any expectations. My label told me they would give me my own label if I did 1 album so me & @timbaland completed this album in 2 weeks not knowing this would be the beginning of many more to come,” she said of Supa Dupa Fly.
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Missy went on to say that her sophomore LP, 1999’s Da Real World, was the “hardest album to complete” due to the pressure of following up her critically acclaimed debut, but now views the project as a “masterpiece.”
When it came to 2002’s Under Construction, the “Gossip Folks” hitmaker admitted that she and Timbaland were “scratching our heads on which direction to go next” after the futuristic and experimental Miss E… So Addictive — until they looked back to their beloved old school Hip Hop for inspiration.
