Timbaland has worked with Jay-Z for more than a decade, producing some of Hova’s biggest singles, including “Big Pimpin'” and “Dirt Off Your Shoulder.” The Virginia producer says that Jigga’s new Magna Carta Holy Grail album is the Brooklyn rapper’s finest artistic statement. “This is the best Jay-Z album,” Timbaland says in an interview with REVOLT. “I told him, I said, ‘All The Blueprint, those were good. But this is your first, first big album for the new millennium.”
Even though Timbaland produced several Magna Carta Holy Grail songs, he discusses in the REVOLT interview that he and Jay-Z had to reconcile after falling out. Timbaland says he flew to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York last year during Jay-Z’s eight-show run to open the arena in order to move past their differences. “It was over petty stuff,” Timbaland says of the former friction between them. “It was more personal stuff, disagreements. It was not no industry-related. It was more personal and I was wrong. I was wrong. When I was working with Justin [Timberlake on his The 20/20 Experience album], he sent me a text. ‘We need to talk. We need to hook back up.'”
When the two met, Timbaland says the problems were quickly resolved. “We looked at each other and just gave each other a hug,” he says. “He was like, ‘What you been doing, man?’ ‘Man,’ I said, ‘I’m right. I’m back. I got my mind right.’ He said, ‘You look totally different.’ I was like, ‘I get it now. I understand life a little more.'”
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Timbaland also discusses his addictive personality during the interview, as well as his former addiction to oxycontin. “I was popping pills,” he says.
Once Timbaland got past his addiction and repaired his relationship with Jay-Z, the two started recording new material that is featured on Magna Carta Holy Grail. “The first song that we did that sparked everything off, we did the song called ‘Picasso [Baby],’ which is the hardest song on that record,” he says. “That sound set the tone for how the whole album was going to be.
“It’s a good album, man,” Timbaland adds. “It’s a great Hip Hop album…It’s going to change Hip Hop.”
