Timbaland has built quite the legacy over the last couple of decades, especially as a renowned producer. He's worked with every star you could possibly imagine and over a wide range of genres. Kanye West, Justin Timberlake, Madonna, JAY-Z, Missy Elliott, the list goes on forever. But even with all of that hard work, some fans feel he's thrown all of that away just with one decision.
According to a Billboard report caught by NFR Podcast, the Virginia native just launched an AI music label called Stage Zero. It's co-founded by Rocky Mudaliar and Zayd Portillo and Timbo already has an "artist" on the imprint. She goes by TaTa and she was created by Suno AI.
What's more is that Timbaland is creating a new genre called "A-pop," which TaTa is a part of already. The hitmaker said in a statement, "I’m not just producing tracks anymore. I’m producing systems, stories, and stars from scratch. [TaTa] is not an avatar. She is not a character. TaTa is a living, learning, autonomous music artist built with AI. TaTa is the start of something bigger. She's the first artist of a new generation. A-Pop is the next cultural evolution, and TaTa is its first icon."
Timbaland AI Artist
But even though he's at the forefront of this new idea, it's sparked nothing but backlash. The negativity is extremely loud over on his Instagram page which he used to help announce this imprint. "JPEG was right all my heroes really cornballs," one commenter says. "Unc went out sad," adds another.
However, Timbaland couldn't seem to care less. Instead, he decided to have some fun with his detractors. He created an AI video of talking animals dissing those very people trashing his vision. "Autotune is AI baby, yall just didn't complain until it started writing better hooks than you... Timbo ain't the villain he's just not babysitting y'all no more... you worried about AI stealing your sound, bro you ain't got one..." they say in the clip.
He eventually got real with those who have issues with him utilizing this controversial technology. In a separate post he writes, "I know I'm trolling but let's have real conversation. I love my independent artists. This doesn't mean I'm not working with real artists anymore. And nah I don't train ai off y'all music. This just means more creativity for creators. Going Live tomorrow. Let's talk about it," he said almost 24 hours at the time of writing.
The future of music is a daunting thing to think about, but Timbo believes he's getting ahead of the curve. It's going to be interesting to see how where he takes this idea in the years ahead for sure.
