Da Real World

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Tim 'Timbaland' Mosley has pretty much done to hip hop production what Teddy 'Blackstreet' Riley did to RnB production a half-decade back: stripped it back to its skeleton, re-arranged a few key bones then built a whole new body on top. He's also had as wide an influence, in an incredibly short time. From the NYC underground hip-hop scene to the overly self-conscious re-invention of the odd Spice Girl, you just can't get away from the skewed, kinda spastic drum machine rhythms and chopped-up orchestral samples.But Timbaland does it best, and here he is again in the company of his most tuned-in compatriot, Missy 'Misdemeanor' Elliott. It was Timbaland and Missy's collaboration on her multi-million-selling Supa Dupa Fly that did the real damage, alerting the world overnight to a whole new hip hop sound and an extraordinary songwriter (Missy's subsequently been asked to supply material for, among others, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey). So given the impact Missy and Timba have had by now, you'd be forgiven for expecting the album to sound run of the mill; it certainly wouldn't be the first time that genuine innovators have had the shock of their own work ironically lessened by the breadth of their influence. But that ain't the case here. Da Real World sounds so damn FRESH. Some of that's down to the speed with which these guys work. The bulk of work on Da Real World was done in just three weeks. You just can't overwork something when you work that quickly. Sure, there are the usual expected guest contributions to set up some kinda dialogue: MC Solaar, Beyonce from Destiny's Child, Eminem, Redman, Lil' Mo, Aaliyah, Big Boi from Outkast et al. But you can guess whose show this is. In a recent Source magazine interview both Missy and Timbaland talk at some length about Andy and Larry Wachowski's hi-tech, hi-concept cyber-flick The Matrix (Timbaland actually refers to himself as Morpheus - The Matrix's Larry Fishburne character - in the album prologue) and they plainly believe themselves to be making genuinely futuristic music. I can't argue with em. I get to hear plenty of music claiming to become kind of dystopian sci-fi soundtrack, most of which already sounds twenty years out of date. Da Real World, on the other hand, with its bare-bones minimalism and is real future-funk. That Missy's raps - both their lyrical content and their abrasive intonation - keep the mood properly edgy and appropriately 21st Century is testament to her skill and her vision.