Justin Timberlake - Oh No (She didn't! Just keep reading, suckas)

Yes, yes...I am going to talk about JT. Before you roll your eyes so far in the back of your head your roommate/co-worker/friend calls an ambulance because you look like you just died, hear me out. I'm not gonna talk about how hot he is or how sexy he may or may not be. (Bitch please.) I want to talk about him as an artist and the semi-recent series of epiphanies I've had about him. I know his most recent album is not exactly NEW, but I did hear a couple of tracks very recently that made me start thinking about the album again, predominantly "She Wants It", the collabo he did with 50, and the remix of "Give it to Me" with Jay.

Check those out here. No official videos out yet though.
She Wants It:


Give It To Me:


So a few days ago I was sitting at work, kind of slacking off because I was ahead on the work I had to do. I decided to look at my coworker's shared iTunes libraries. I LIKE to think I have a fairly eclectic taste in music, but I seriously doubted that I would like anything my coworkers had in their libraries. The first one belongs to this girl who I'm sure shops almost exclusively at Hot Topic and really likes the emo boys. I was scrolling through her library and found just about what I expected - AFI, Depeche Mode, Fall Out Boy, Gwen Stefani...then I saw the entire FutureSex/LoveSounds album. I did a double take. The rest of the library consists of no other surprises, Led Zeppelin, Linkin Park, Morrissey, and so on and so forth. My supervisor had a lot of stuff I hadn't heard of before in her library, along with some a lot of Tool and NIN. She ALSO had the FutureSex/LoveSounds album as well, and she's not friends at all with this other girl...for that matter I don't think I've ever seen them speak to each other.

Continuing the trend of people I never thought would like this album or even admit to liking Justin Timberlake, my one homie who's my brother from another mother and is VERY into underground hip hop hates all things mainstream. And yet a few weeks ago he grudgingly admitted the very same things I just stated - kid's got talent, he's got soul, and the album was hot from beginning to end.

I sat there and thought about this for a minute. My roommate/best friend had been telling me about the JT album for months before it came out, and after it did was always telling me I really needed to cop it. I refused, simply because, well, I AM a purist and like to think I'm a REAL hip hop fan and wasn't about this poppy mainstream shit. Plus I had already heard Sexy Back and wasn't too impressed. I was in serious denial. So I downloaded the whole album and listened to it...I swear I was blown away. Obviously Timbaland is the driving force behind this album, but I'll be damned if ol' JT doesn't on half the album sound like early Prince and/or early MJ. The kid's got talent...and most important to ME, he's got SOUL. And even though it was Tim primarily producing, after a little research I discovered that Justin apparently co-produced with Will I Am. Futhermore, he had to have signed off on who he's work with on the album, and he made some excellent choices to establish his street cred - Three Six Mafia (which I am fairly positive that they did pre-Academy Award), Clipse, T.I., and Will I Am.

So I initially wrote him off, yeah. So I was anti-JT from the very beginning because I didn't want to feel like I was jumping on the bandwagon, yeah. But one cannot deny the heat that he brings on each and every song he does. He's making a statement to the hip hop world much like Em did. "Yeah I'm white, but who gives a fuck?" Justin has got THE most crossover appeal out of any current artist. In LA, you hear him played on all the Top 40 and easy listening stations, but you also hear him played on all the hip hop stations, too. With his female friendly crooning and love oriented songs he appeals to the ladies, and coming all grown and sexy with a lot of his lyrics on FutureSex/LoveSounds didn't hurt. I do believe that the production he's got on the album plus the featured artists definitely causes him to appeal to those of us "purists".

If you STILL haven't heard the album, or any of his new shit, I seriously recommend giving it a shot. At the very least you can play it in the background while you're sexin' your chick and you know she'll be happy. Even IF she's really imagining it was JT.