Timbaland

Timbaland is a famous hip hop producer whos style was highly influential in the second half of the nineties and beyond. Although as yet unclassified, his early work with Missy Elliott and Magoo spawned a new style of beat (a general term meaning the music which accompanies the rapping in rap music). The main feature of this style is the "short snare", a snaredrum sound with as quick a release as possible, possibly even a snare sample which is cut off before it is finished. This is in marked contrast to the "long snare" sound in New Wave music in the 80's, which featured a heavily amplified, almost white noise snare drum put through reverb. This sound was combined with a producer composed samba rythem in a non 4/4 time signature, which was rare up untill this point in rap music (which previously heavily used an entire sampled 4/4 drum loop as the main percussion rythem).

Towards the end of the nineties and into the 21st century, Timbaland began incorperating Bhangra elements into his compositions, specifically the thumri sound (a plucked string instrument playing a single note in a rythmic way). This was very influential and culminated in a real Bhangra music video (by Panjabi MC) being played sometimes on MTV.

Besides producing music for other rap artists, Timbaland also has his own project with a rapper named Magoo. His lyrical delivery was usually through an echo effect, and very soft spoken. This lyrical style, similar to Timbaland's contemporary Puff Daddy's style of accompinament (that of soft spoken phrases interjected between the verses of other rappers) also was often copied throughout the 90's.