Today we’re going to talk about Give It to Me. This is one of the best diss tracks. I
mentioned wanting to do a diss track video, but it’s so clear a lot of these songs need their
own video to unpack them. Give It to Me was trending all over tiktok a little while ago,
so was the promiscuous mashup, and personally ive just been in a little timbaland renaissance
the past couple weeks and listening to all his songs from this era, so
I was like now’s the time to do this video. Give It To Me is just iconic. It’s not the most
scathing diss track out there, but I think the fact that it’s not just a diss track, but also a
club banger helped make it so big. And that’s what Timabalnd used to do. He used to have a vision for
a song, then spend time in the clubs to figure out what people were listening to. So he could
put his own spin on a song’s production, but it’s still in line with what people are enjoying. Also,
the fact that three separate artists address their beefs one song makes Give It To
Me it even better. So it’s like three diss tracks in one. They really said assemble. Assemble meme
So how I’m going to break this down is by talking about each of the beefs for nelly, justin
individually. But first, I want to give some context on the background of the song. Give
it to Me came out in 2007, as the lead single on Timbaland’s album Shock Value. By this time,
he had already produced for both Nelly and Justin. With Nelly, Timbaland helped produce
her album Loose, which had hits like Promiscuous, Maneater, and Say It Right. With Justin, Timbaland
helped produce Justified, as well as his following album, Future Sex Love Sounds. At the time, their
most popular collaborations were Cry Me A River, and SexyBack. It was well known that Timbaland
worked with Nelly and Justin, and was kind of a dynamic duo with both of them individually.
Timbaland was one of the top producers in the game, and also worked with artists like
MIA, One Republic, Jay-Z, and Rihanna. Justin, Nelly, and Timbaland all cowrote
their verses on Give It To Me. Of course, Timbaland produced it,
along with his protege Danja. Danja also helped Timbaland produce on Loose and FutureSex Love
sounds. So when it came time to address the criticism of their songs (And their success),
it only made sense they all teamed back up. Timbaland/ Scott Storch: In his verse,
Timabaland addressed fellow producer Scott Storch. They both produced on Justin’s 2002
album Justified, along with the Neptunes, The Underdogs, and Brian McKnight. Scott
and Timbaland co-wrote Cry Me A River, which is still one of Justin’s most popular songs.
Timbaland was credited as the only producer, but Storch says he helped produce the song too. Scott
Storch was also a prominent producer at the time, having produced hits like naughty girl,
in da club, lean back, and Let Me Love You. In his verse, Timbaland disses Scott saying,
"I get a half a mil for my beats/You get a couple grand. Never gonna see the day that I
ain't got the upper hand. I'm respected from Californ-i-a way down to Japan. I'm a real
producer and you just a piano man. Your songs don't top the charts, I heard 'em,
I'm not a fan Niggas talkin' greasy, I'm the one that gave them they chance. Somebody need
to tell 'em that they can't do it like I can.” A couple weeks later, Storch released his own
diss track, called Built Like That. One of his verses about Timbaland reads, "Your boy
Danja got to hate you with a passion, man/He makes the hits while you taking all the credit,
damn! I know the feeling, I'm with ya/Won't you tell them how I made 'Cry Me a River. "
According to Storch, Timbaland approached him to work on 2 songs on Justified and framed this as a
50/50 collaboration. Storch claims he came up with the bridge and melody on Cry Me A River, but he’s
only credited for key-playing and composing, which makes Tim calling him a piano man even
more of an insult. I did notice that Wikipedia credits him as a producer on Cry Me A River,
so I’m not sure when that was changed. Scott told MTV about his diss track,
“I just felt like enough was enough. I heard the song playing, and I knew it was about me. People
were calling me saying, 'This dude is taking shots at you,' then interviews popped up. So enough was
enough. I needed to defend myself like a man is supposed to do. I'm not gonna take it to the
streets or hurt somebody or do any BS like that. But I just had to speak up. I'm not a rapper,
but I wasn't about to have somebody else fight my battle for me. So I said, 'Lemme put this down.'
I been making rap records long enough. I just got in the booth and spit what was on my mind."
Scott also claimed that Timbaland took all the credit for a song they worked on together that
was featured in an And1 commercial. Though his reps initially denied it,
Timbaland confirmed his Give It to Me verse was about Scott Storch. In a live performance of
Give It To Me with Justin, Timbaland changed the lyrics in his verse to, "Scott Storch,
I'm a real producer and you just a piano man." He also called Scott Storch a bitch. Storch believes
Timbaland was prompted to make the diss track after a rumor got back to him that he had been
talking about him. But, he said that he felt that still wasn’t a good enough reason to make
a diss track. Storch said, "I'm not taking away the fact that Timbaland has had a lot of hits
and done some fly shit in his career. Just keep my name out your mouth, and I'll do the same."
In her verse on Give It to Me, Nelly Furtado addresses Fergie potentially taking a shot at
her son Promiscuous. She also sings the chorus, which ties the song together. Aside from producing
Promiscuous, Timbaland and Danja helped write it. The song was critically acclaimed and went number
one, and earned Nelly a grammy nomination. Justin Timberlake actually made a cameo in the video.
In her song Fergalicious, Fergie says “But I ain't promiscuous.” The song came out just a
couple months after promiscuous and too was extremely popular. This is why some thought
it was a diss at Nelly’s song. On her album the Dutchess, which contains Fergalicious, Fergie was
accused of changing up her style to copy Nelly. In her verse, Nelly says, "I'm the type of girl
that'll look you dead in the eye/ I'm real as they come if you don't know why I'm fly.
I seen you try to switch it up, but girl, you ain't that dope I'm the Wonder Woman,
let me go get my rope" and "You love my ass and my abs and the video called 'Promiscuous'/my style
is ridiculous." Nelly denied these lyrics were about Fergie, saying, “I think Timbaland and I
just got a little cheeky and we were like, let's do a song about how great we are."
It’s possible that Fergie wasn’t talking about Nelly at all, and was just addressing rumors
about herself in Fergalicious. It’s also possible that Fergalicious was recorded before promiscuous
was even released, since they came out so close together. However, there was also speculation that
since both girls’ labels were under Universal. Apparently, Promiscuous had been sent to Will I
Am before its release, so it was possible Fergie heard it. As for Fergie jacking Nelly’s style,
I found a forum from 2007 where people were saying Nelly herself had copied Gwen Stefani’s style.
Fergie responded to Nelly’s Jab in her song with Daddy Yankee called impacto. In it, Fergie says,
“I'm Fergalicious, brothers want to get a taste/ But they know I ain't promiscuous,
the realest chick up in this/ The ladies know the real from the fake,
got a problem come and say it to my face/ fergie ferg make an impact ima pull your wig back.”
It seems Nelly didn’t respond, at least publicly after that. I saw in the forum I mentioned
earlier that the two ran into each other at a club but didn’t settle their differences,
but I didn’t see that confirmed anywhere else. So the origins of this beef were a little murkier,
but It became real once Nelly addressed Fergie in Give It To Me. Maybe it’s really not about Fergie,
but it’s pretty clear that it is, and I hate when artists diss someone and then act like it’s not
about that person. Nelly has since said that she regrets airing out whatever tensions she did have
with Fergie. So I guess this is roundabout confirmation Give It To Me was aimed at her.
Justin’s verse was inspired by Prince’s criticism of his song sexyback. Prince
said at an Emmys after party, “For whoever is claiming that they are bringing sexy back,
sexy never left!” Timberlake’s 2006 song, which was produced by timbaland, was his first #1,
and won a Grammy for Best Dance Recording. Several publications, including Billboard, claimed
Timberlake was indeed bringing back sexy with the critically acclaimed sensual electo r&b song.
At that year’s Golden Globes, Justin accepted an award on Prince’s behalf
because he was stuck in traffic. Some claimed that Justin was mocking Prince’s
voice and height during his impromptu acceptance speech. This was a little
over a month before Give It To Me dropped, so the negative feelings were likely still there.
Timberlake addressed Prince in his Give It To Me verse saying, “Could you speak up and stop
mu-mumbling? I don't think you came in clear/ When you're sittin' on the top, it's hard to
hear you from way up here/ Now I saw you tryna act cute on TV, "Just let me clear the air"/ We
missed you on the charts last week / Damn, that’s right you wasn’t there / Now if sexy never left,
then why is everybody on my sh*t / Don’t hate on me just because you didn’t come up with it.”
Justin was criticized for taking a swipe at an icon in black music, and music in general,
despite basing a lot of his artistry off the work of other black musicians. In addition,
this was only a couple years after he left Janet Jackson out to dry after he accidentally exposed
her during their SuperBowl performance. In their criticism of Justin’s verse,
PopDust said, “Justin Timberlake's diss track is an extreme example of his cognitive dissonance,
exemplifying the way his career was influenced profoundly by Black culture,
Black artists, and Black music, but he fails to acknowledge its impact.”
The situation is even more confusing when you remember that Justin paid
tribute to Prince during his halftime show in 2018. This obviously upset Prince fans,
as he and Justin didn’t like each other, and still didn’t when Prince passed in 2016. For
Justin’s part, he said Prince’s friend QuestLove gave him his blessing to perform the tribute.
Despite the drama that inspired it and the fallout it caused, Give It To Me was a
success. Selling 248,000 copies, The song had the second best first week digital sales at the time,
just behind SexyBack. The surge in sales is what helped Give To Me soar from #42 on the charts to
#1. While some critics praised the song for having cheeky lyrics and catchy production,
others felt it was repetitive and fell flat. Still, the reviews were mostly positive,
and some considered it was the best song on Shock Value. I don’t know if i would personally go that
far, considering The Way I Are, Apologize, and Bounce are also on the album. AllMusic
said in their review of Give it To Me, “it is immediate enough to connect on the first listen,
while Tim also sneaks in enough subtle layers to make it increasingly insidious with each play."
Give It to Me holds up, and still sounds current, just like the rest of Timbaland's discography
honestly. It’s fondly remembered as a standout from that era of mid 2000s music. This is in part
evidenced by its viral run on tiktok that started a few months ago, and seems to just recently be
ending. Give It to Me inspired a dance trend, as well as a trend one inspired by the movie
Zoolander. It’s been remixed and mashed up with several other songs, like Promiscuous
which I mentioned earlier, as well as Coi Leray’s players. There are also several tiktoks expressing
nostalgia for this era of music in general, where Timbaland was basically running music.
This past November, Timbaland reflected on the song’s 15th Anniversary. He said,
“Timing is everything, but God gives us a sense of urgency and an overjoy that shines and people say,
'Yo, you look different, you got a glow.' So sometimes that glow at that time is your moment
and I felt like when I made 'Give It to Me,' it was at a time when I did 'Sexy Back,' 'Promiscuous
Girl,' all those in a row and it was like... It's like Barry Bonds hitting the baseball,
hitting all those home runs. It's like you just know it's those moments and it comes
in spurts and then it phased down and I knew I had a run at that time and when I did 'Give It
to Me,' I had the world open to listening to what Timbaland is bringing, what he wants to present."
Though Timbaland had produced #1s for other artists, Give It To Me was his first #1 as a
lead artist, so the song is still special to him. He and Justin went on to collaborate on
projects like 4 Minutes (which is one of my all time favorite songs), Carryout, and Justin’s 2013
album the 20/20 experience. Nelly and Timbaland’s music relationship took a brief pause due to
mental health issues Nelly faced while touring for Loose. She had a nervous breakdown on stage,
and it caused her to take a break from music for a couple years. When she returned to music,
she worked with Timbaland again and featured on his song Morning After Dark.
Despite all the drama that caused it, Give It To me earned its place in pop culture history.
It’s hard to overlook the power of a producer making a diss song and having artists jump on it,
and address getting dissed for songs he produced. And not only did he produce both those songs,
he features on them too. I can’t describe the genius of that. There’s so many layers.
So yes, just wanted to discuss another piece of music history with you guys. That’s why I
sometimes love when older songs trend on tiktok, because then you remember with some of them,
there's a whole interesting history behind it. If you’re interested in hearing me talk about
Timabalnd’s work with Aaliyah, I actually have a video on it, so you can check it out if you want.
Down in the comments let me know your thoughts on Give It To Me, and also let me know
some of your favorite Timbaland collaborations.