Is Timbaland a con artist?

Until about a week ago, I would’ve considered Timbaland, hip-hop producer notorious for creating infectious beats for artists from Ginuwine to Aliyah to Nelly Furtado, one of the best in the business. Most of us probably jammed out to tracks from his two major productions of 2006: Nelly Furtado’s “Loose” and Justin Timberlake’s “FutureSex/LoveSounds.”

However, the legions of Internet users from around the world have uncovered a serious incidence of plagiarism and fraud: It seems that Timbaland not only yanked a sample from someone, but used entire portions of their song in two separate but very profitable incidences, the first being an “exclusive” ringtone, the other being a track named “Do It” from Furtado’s album.

Janne Suni, who goes by the alias of “Tempest”, is a “demoscener” who, among other things, programs songs using older styles of effects and arrangements that achieve a unique and old school sound that would remind many of playing a video game back in the ’80s. In this case, Suni had programmed a song called “Acid Jazzed Evening” that would sound as if it were played on an Amiga computer system for a competition, which he won, back in 2000. Several years later, another demoscener, Glenn Rune Gallefoss, remixed the song, with Suni’s blessing, to sound as if it were played on a Commodore 64 computer.

Several YouTube videos and user-created sites on ytmnd.com have surfaced connecting an eerie similarity between those two arrangements and a ringtone that Timbaland released two years ago called “Block Party” that sounds as if Timbaland merely added louder drums over the original song. To the average person, this initial connection is undeniable. If one proceeds further into the controversy, one can play portions of Suni’s work and see that Timbaland took large portions of his song and merely laid more effects over it – it’s nearly the same song with a few changes, and it would be na’ve to deny that notion.

Some people may say that it is not a big deal, that many artists emulate or sample songs to be used in creative works, but in this case, they would be wrong. This is not the creative and innovative use of a sample, as we can see in some instances by artists such as Kanye West, but rather, taking most of a song, adding effects, and calling it his own. This would be the equivalent of copying a finished painting, giving someone in the painting a mustache, and then claiming I made it. This, in and of itself, is despicable, as credit was never given to Suni, who almost certainly would’ve been thrilled to be approached by a major producer and asked permission to use his song.

What makes it worse is that Timbaland has made money off both the ringtone and the Furtado song. The Recording Industry Association of America is suing students for downloading music freely, claiming the artists work hard and that we pay a justified price for the fruits of their labor. Any one of us could be sued for several thousand dollars for downloading a song, which I am sure most students do. There’s a huge case of hypocrisy evident in this case. What right would a thief have to sue for stealing music when he does the same to other artists? Until Timbaland apologizes or gives Suni his due, I strongly advocate that nobody purchase a Timbaland album or anything else he produces – Who knows what else he has taken from others? I am in no mood to finance his possible thievery and his apparent willingness to hurt other less-known artists.