C. F. Earl - Timbaland

C.F. Earl is a writer living and working in Binghamton, New York. Earl writes mostly on social and historical topics, including health, the military, and finances. An avid student of the world around him, and particularly fascinated with almost any current issue, C.F. Earl hopes to continue to write for books, websites, and other publications for as long as he is able.

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Hip-Hop lingo

Producers are the people in charge of putting together songs. A producer makes the big decisions about the music.

R&B stands for rhythm and blues. Its a kind of music that African Americans made popular in the 1940s. It has a very strong beat. Today, its a style of music thats a lot like hip-hop.

Pop is short for popular. Pop music is usually light and happy, with a good beat.

Beats are the basic rhythms or pulse of a piece of music.

DJ is short for disc jockey. A DJ plays music on the radio or at a party and announces the songs.

A drum machine creates different types of drum sounds and also records beats to be played back later.

A rapper is someone who chants rhymes, often off the top of his head, sometimes with music in the background.

A record label is a company that produces music for singers and groups and puts out CDs.

An album is a group of songs collected together on a CD.

A single is a song that is sold by itself.

The charts are lists of the best-selling songs and albums for a week.

Timbalands
Beginnings

as much as Timbaland. Hes been at the top of the game for more than ten years. Hes had success across many types of music. For years, hes been making hits with some of the biggest names in music.

Timbalands worked hard to get where he is today. He started making when he was just a kid, far away from the heights hes reached now.

Early Life

Timbalands real name is Timothy Zakar Mosely. He was born on March 10, 1971. He lived in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Tims father was Garland Mosley. He worked for Amtrak. His mother was Latrice Mosley. Latrice ran a homeless shelter. Tim had a little brother, too. Like Tims father, his brother was named Garland.

Growing up, there was one thing Timothy loved more than anything else. He loved music. More than any other kind of music, he loved hip-hop. From the time Tim was young, he wanted to be a He loved music and wanted to make his own. He also wanted to entertain people.

When he was thirteen, Tim got his first . As soon as he got his hands on it, he started making beats. He even started to DJ at Virginia Beach clubs. He used the name DJ Tiny Tim when he performed.

Tim went to Salem High School in Virginia Beach. There, he met other young people who loved hip-hop as much as he did. Two of his friends were Terrance and Gene Thorton. The two brothers would grow up to be Pusha T and Malice from the rap group Clipse.

Tim was also friends with Melvin Barcliff. Melvin was a . He rapped under the name Magoo. Together, Tim and Magoo started working on songs.

Another of Tims high school friends was Missy Elliott. Shed soon be one of raps biggest stars. Even in high school, Missy sang and rapped. She worked with an R&B group called Sista.

Then Tim met a student from another school named Pharrell Williams. Like Tim, Pharrell loved to make beats. Pharrell was in a group called The Neptunes. The Neptunes was a group of young producers.

Soon, Tim and Pharrell started their own production group. They called the group S.B.I. It stood for Surrounded By Idiots. They started working on music together, making songs and beats.

When Tim was 17, he was working as a dishwasher in a restaurant. One of the other workers at the restaurant was always picking on him. The two didnt like each other at all. One night, as Tim was washing dishes, the other worker shot him. The bullet hit Tim in the neck and shoulder. Tim had to learn to DJ with his left hand after being shot. But it didnt keep him from following his dreams of making music.

Timbaland met Pharrell Williams when they were both in high school. The two friends started out together in the music world. Like Timbaland, Pharrell would also go on to make a big name for himself in hip-hop.

Breaking Into Music

After high schoolin the early 1990sTim got a chance to chase his dreams of being a star DJ. Hed been working on songs with Magoo and Missy Elliott for a while. So when Missys group Sista got the chance to go to New York to talk with a , she brought Tim and Magoo along.

The record label was called Swing Mob. DeVante Swing owned the label. Hed been a singer and producer in the R&B group Jodeci. Swing saw talent in Missy, Magoo, and Tim. He knew they could be something special. He signed Sista and made Missy, Magoo, and Tim part of his Swing Mob Crew.

Missy Elliott is another high school friend of Timbalandsand she too has gone on to make it big in the hip-hop world. The two friends continue to perform together, and they have each helped the others career.

Swing had produced lots of music. He understood how to record and how to write songs. Hed been making music with Jodeci and other artists for years. Tim wanted to learn all he could from Swing. And Swing wanted to teach everything he knew to the young DJ. Tim started working with Swing more and more to learn about being a producer.

DeVante Swing also gave Tim a new name. He called Tim Timbaland after Timberland boots. Now, Tim had a new name.

Early Music

Timbaland started producing some songs for DeVante Swings group Jodeci. He also rapped on a song called In the Meanwhile. It was the first time Timbaland had rapped on a recorded song. The song was on Jodecis 1993 Diary of a Mad Band.

In 1994, Timbaland also produced all the songs on Sistas album 4 All the Sistas Around da World. The album never came out, although one for a little while. Even though the album didnt come out, Timbalands work on it still helped him get better as a producer.

The next year, Timbaland produced a song for Jodecis album The Show, The After-Party, The Hotel. The song was called Bring On Da Funk. He was also featured on the song. Also, he co-wrote a song called Time & Place with Jodeci for the same album.

Timbaland was living his dream. Hed gone from DJing to producing songs for a famous R&B group. DeVante Swing had given Tim the chance he needed. And he wasnt going to blow it. DeVante knew Tim had talent. But even he didnt know how far Timbaland would go.

Timbaland was starting to be known for his R&B production. He left the Swing Mob crew in 1995. Hed learned a lot. By the mid 1990s, Timbaland was starting to work with more artists to make big hit songs.