Timbaland is like Marmite. It's something you either love or hate. You either find his production so majestic it should be in the Tower of London with the crown jewels. Or - you think it is over-priced and over-produced.

As a long-time fan of Timbaland's work, especially the quality of his songs as instrumentals, I was surprised to hear that he (apparently) shunned helping to promote a song he produced for former co-worker, Ginuwine.

The blogs have been buzzing with this, as Ginuwine has publicly made the claims in an interview with VIBE.

This got me thinking that Timbaland is basically like Super Mario but back in the days of the old cartridge games of Nintendo. Bear with me...

World 1:

The Aaliyah, Ginuwine and Missy Elliot magic - Timbaland found his unique touch on the back catalogue of the aforementioned artists back in the 1990s. Songs included:

Ginuwine

- 'Pony', Ginuwine's lead song from the album 'Bachelor', was ground-breaking in how it used sonically ripped emu sounds in the background.

- 'Are you that somebody' incorporated baby gurgles over Aaliyah's soft voice, which was unheard of when it came out.

- Timbaland's work with Missy Elliot was and is still unforgettable. Listen to 'Sock it 2 me' as a prime example.

World 2: New Beginnings

Working with Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado changed the perception of Timbaland from being a hip hop player to a mainstream pop producer. It undoubtedly made him more successful, and he used this pop sound with interesting results.

Take 'The way I are'. This was a monster hit on his album, 'Shock Value'. It powered through your ears with the sound effects of a plane taking off, and it did through the charts worldwide. This is the only song of Timbaland's - I think - that had the old-magic sprinkled on it, because he took control of the song more and did not allow guest features to over take the song. Keri Hilson, D.O.E and Sebastian (Timbaland's brother) added flourish to the song. But this is not what has happened in the next world.

Drake

World 3: No 1Ups?
Remember the days of playing Super Nintendo and getting 1ups when your playing game was stellar?? Timbaland's follow up to 2007's critical success was 'Shock Value II'. There are some sharply cut tracks on the album that include 'Morning After Dark', 'Carry Out' and 'Say Something'.

But when listening to 'Say Something', I realised something. The reason why Timbaland is missing 1ups is he is making his music complicated. Rap's newest star, Drake, is on the track 'Say Something' and he was a fantastic choice for it. The song itself is efficient and catchy. But it proves the point that Timbaland is only using big stars and big names for songs these days because he may want to seem in vogue. T-Pain was actually on the original version of 'Say Something' instead of Drake. It was called 'Say', and is a melancholic paean for the loss of a relationship. It shows sparks of that World 1 sparkle that Timbaland used to make.

I have come to the conclusion that Timbaland wants to be the biggest producer in music and by proxy, feels that using the biggest or current names is the way. I think this is a myopic way to look at his music. When he was cooking up beats in the beginning, there was an introspective nature to his songs which is what made them so captivating. To get to the next world, looking inside may be the way.