In a nod to her Afrodisiac days, R&B veteran Brandy has delivered some of the best news of the year by revealing that Timbaland will produce the bulk of her upcoming sixth studio album, which will reportedly have a more “Hip-Hop orientated” sound. {source}

Word is that the album will drop via the hit-and-miss Def Jam Records, after Brandy supposedly inked a new deal with the label earlier this year.

As I mentioned before, Timbaland produced more than half of Brandy’s severely underrated — but critically acclaimed — 2004 LP Afrodisiac. The Timbo tracks on the album were arguably the best on the album — In fact, ‘Afrodisiac’ is my personal favorite Brandy album ever, and “I Tried” is one of my favorite R&B songs of all time.

‘Afrodisiac’ was the kind of stuff that Aaliyah would’ve done at the time if she was still with us, so a reunion between Timbo and Brandy is major.

Previous reports have also indicated that B-Rocka will embrace her Hip-Hop alter ego Brand’Nu and rap on the album, which should make for a nice twist.

Brandy’s last LP ‘Human’ was released back in 2008 and performed poorly on the charts, debuting at #15 before vanishing shortly after, but remains a fan favorite.

Pop-rock/country singer-songwriter Michelle Branch has teamed up with super producer Timbaland to record a new duet titled “Getaway”, which will be used in the campaign for the brand new MINI car, the Countryman.

“Getaway” blends together urban sounds with the pop-country of Michelle’s most recent musical efforts, making for an exciting collaboration that draws from the strengths of both artists and their respective genres.

It’s also a painful reminder of just how amazing Michelle Branch really is, and how the industry has been lacking something since she disappeared a few years back.

Michelle addressed the status of her upcoming third solo album back in March in a blog entry directed at her fans, blaming label problems for the reason that her record has yet to see the light of day. She assures us though that the label working on rectifying the situation, and in the meantime she’s working on some side projects and continually recording new music for the album.

At least we now have “Getaway” to give us a much needed Michelle Branch fix. The song will be released as an official single through Warner Bros Records, so it would be pretty cool if it actually managed to chart on the Billboard.

Check out the music video below.

Last week I did a post about the current status of Michelle Branch’s third album Everything Comes and Goes, and I also mentioned that she’s been in the studio with super producer Timbaland. Well after Michelle’s big announcement it didn’t take long for her to give us a preview of one of her new songs, premiering a 15 second clip of what clearly sounds like her Timbo collabo.

Accompanying the amazing preview was a description by Michelle: “It’s not quite what you think. More info to come soon but first I get to film the rest in Milan!”

She’s obviously filming something, but whatever it is she’s keeping it a total mystery. What exactly do these two have hidden up their sleeves?

A few years back after releasing two successful solo albums, singer-songwriter Michelle Branch decided to take a little time off. She got married, had a kid, opened a bakery and a released a hit album as one half of the successful country music duo The Wreckers. Finally in late 2007 she began working on her third studio album Everything Comes and Goes. Now it’s two singles and over two years later and the album is still nowhere to be found, so what’s going on?

Label drama, that’s what, as Michelle will tell you in a recent blog entry she wrote to clarify the whole situation. It’s pretty long so I’ve highlighted the important parts.

Hey everyone.

Wow. Talk about gathering cobwebs. This place needs a dusting. It’s partially my fault that I don’t update here anymore. In all honesty I was getting tired of coming on here and proclaiming “Album news coming soon…” over and over again.

There are a handful of people out there that think for some reason that I have control over my album being released. Yes, I have a large say but sometimes things happen that are out of my hands. My record label has been through the ringer as of late. I know you’ve heard it before but a lot of key people in my world were let go. Warner Nashville just finally hired their new head of promo after almost 4 months of waiting. I literally haven’t been able to even make a move because the staff to work the album hasn’t been planned yet. There is a lot of restructuring going on and now would be the worst time to release an album. I have to wait until everything gets settled.

That being said, in the interim I have been writing, writing, writing and trying to stay creative. There are a few new songs that I might add to the album to keep it fresh. It won’t be pushing it back any further. I’m working on a few different projects, some musical, some not. I’m dying to get on the road and I have some dates that I’ll be releasing soon. I know you are all frustrated. Believe me, I am too but this is all for the best. We’re gonna have some fantastic new people on board to work this record and I am so excited about that.

I know that an unfortunate stigma the album has received because it’s been delayed is that the label isn’t supportive of it. That statement couldn’t be further from the truth. I sat down recently with the label President and he said, “The only reason we’re holding your record is because we care and love and believe in this album. If we didn’t, we would have released it already but we want this to be right.”

It’s tough but I need you to stay positive. I need your support more now than ever. I have my good days when I’m excited and creative and looking forward to what this album can accomplish and I have my bad when I feel like I’m being held hostage by WB and I wanna give up. I’m only human and it’s hard when you work your butt off and sit around over analyzing everything.

I promise you, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and it’s getting closer and closer.

xoxo, M

P.S. I have something super exciting going on as we speak but I’m not able to give the info out just yet. I’m going to be in the studio starting tonight with this person and I can’t wait for you to hear it. Follow me at http://www.twitter.com/michellebranch for up to the minute info.

The super exciting something that Michelle is referring to is a collaboration with Timbaland. She revealed the news on Twitter yesterday saying that they were in the studio together, but didn’t specify what it was for. Whatever it is though I don’t think it’s for her album.

Anyways I hope Michelle’s label get it together soon because I’m really keen to get my hands on Everything Comes and Goes, which sounds like it’ll have a lot of the country music influences that she picked up from my faves The Wreckers.

She’s already released a buzz single from the album called “This Way”, but you can check out the fantastic first official single “Sooner or Later” below, which came out last October.

Justin Timberlake, Timbaland and JoJo drew in a whopping 80,000 fans this weekend when they performed a benefit concert Manila to raise funds for last years floods.

JoJo kicked things off by opening the show, and then things really heated up when Timbaland performed material from his Shock Value II album and JT went through all the hits from his first two studio albums.

Check out Timbo and JT performing their hit “Carry Out” below. There weren’t watchable videos of JoJo uploaded so I didn’t include any of her, but she did say in a new interview that she’s just about to wrap up the recording of her new album All I Want is Everything, and that the first single will be out this summer.

Below the cut you can see some amazing videos of Justin performing “What Goes Around…”, “My Love”, “Cry Me a River”, “Sexy Back” and one of my personal faves “Until the End of Time”.

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Nelly Furtado may have already hit the studio with Timbaland to record her upcoming fourth album Lifestyle, but in a brand new Brazilian interview with the singer has announced Timbo’s been pushed to the side won’t be appearing on her new album.

“We’ve been friends for over ten years, we have that type of cosmic connection. I don’t have him on my new album, but we’ll surely work together again.”

Besides revealing that she’d given Timbo the boot, Nelly also found time to talk about the direction of her new album.

“I can say is that its a combination of my other four albums. It has hip-hop, reggae, love songs. The funny thing is, after recording and making tours in spanish, my vocals are stronger.”

Not having Timbaland on her new album is surprising since the hitmaker, along with Danja, helped Nelly return to the top of the charts by selling 10 million copies of her uber-successful third album Loose, which included two US No. 1 singles “Promiscuous” and “Say It Right”.

If you look back at all of Nelly’s album though you’d see that she’s changed and evolved her sound with each one, so jumping right back in with Timbaland could stunt her musical growth so I’m relieved that we’re going to hear something fresh and new.

Nelly’s Lifestyle is currently due out on May 25, and will feature production from Ryan Tedder, Salaam Remi and DJ Tiesto.

If you’re like me and you’ve felt your life force rapidly depleting due to lack of Justin Timberlake then you can breathe a sigh of relief because the Prince of Pop has managed to tear himself away from playing golf and making mediocre movies to film the music video for “Carry Out”, which is the latest single from Timbaland’s Shock Value II.

The previous videos from Shock Value II haven’t been anything to write home about so I’m pleased to say that Timbo has finally gotten it right this time around with the stylish late night drive-thru theme of “Carry Out”.

So far the song has reached #11 on the Hot 100 making it the biggest hit from timbo’s under-performing Shock Value II, once again proving that in most cases anything involving Justin Timberlake is destined to reach the top end of the charts.

Now when will JT give the musical charity a rest and start making hits of his own again! The wait for his next album is excruciating, but I appreciate that he takes time out and picks his projects carefully because it really reflects in the quality of his music.

The Pepsi Super Bowl Fan Jam concert brought out all the big names in pop today, with Rihanna, Timbaland, JoJo and Justin Bieber (who I refuse to post) all taking the stage for the annual concert.

The show really marked a major milestone in JoJo’s comeback, with her performance of “Lose Control” with Timbaland being one of the first major performances that she’s done in years.

Timbo also performed his hit single “Carry Out”, but Justin Timberlake wasn’t there so really, who cares? *refuses to post*

As for Rihanna she made sure to give her stans their money’s worth by singing “Mad House”, “Wait Your Turn”, “Live Your Life”, “Disturbia”, “Russian Roulette”, “Hard” with Young Jeezy, and her new single “Rude Boy”.

For RiRi’s performances she just did her usual thing of sitting in a big chair, strutting around and rocking out, so I’m sure that fans of the Bajan bombshell won’t be disappointed, but Rihanna’s non-believers will probably remain unimpressed. Personally I’m neither here nor there about her. I can take her or leave her, no skin off my nose.

I’m having a little trouble keeping up with the singles from Timbaland’s poorly selling Shock Value II (#36 Billboard 200), but supposedly the latest one is “If We Ever Meet Again” featuring Katy Perry, and now we have the video for it.

I don’t really understand what’s going on in this clip, but I’m just relieved to see that Timbaland has toned down his crazy facial gymnastics a little.

Honestly though what is going on here? What do Katy Perry and Timbaland have to do with the two thieves? Why did the old lady remove her expensive diamond necklace in the middle of a party?

SMH.

I hope that the upcoming “Carry Out” video with Justin Timberlake makes more sense, especially since it’s the only song from the album that’s managed to make a noticeable dent on the Hot 100.

[Spotted by Ash Jones]

After a heated and public beef that started over Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River” and escalated from there, producer Scott Storch has finally buried the hatchet with Timbaland after getting clean in rehab and re-evaluating his life.

“We’re friends. He talks with me. He cares about me. We had a pretty serious friendship too that the world doesn’t really realize. That outweighs that lil’ bulls**t that we went through. Ultimately, I think we had a lot of people in our ear that were trying to create animosity between us and that’s how everything got started. We both started spewing out [ill] feelings and whatever. We both admitted to being wrong in that situation. That’s history though.”

I never thought that someone with an ego as big as Timbalands could forgive Scott who accused him of taking credit for not only his beats, but also Danja’s, but I guess it’s all water under the bridge now.

In other news Storch confirmed that he’s just finished working with Jennifer Hudson, which unfortunately will appear on a Quincy Jones tribute album and not Jennifer’s next record. Ne-Yo is one of the only confirmed collaborators so far for Jennifer’s sophomore album. Who else would you like to see her work with?

Despite only just releasing “Carry Out” featuring Justin Timberlake as the next single from his struggling Shock Value II album, it has now been confirmed that Timbaland has shot a video for “If We Ever Meet Again” which features Katy Perry.

Earlier this month Timbo contemplated on what the video would potentially look like, revealing that he wants Katy to save his life.

“I wanna make something deep,” he said. “I don’t know if I wanna make it like a relationship. I wanna make it like she saved my life with whatever depression I was going through, whether it be drug depression, weight-loss depression — something. … Will she be around if I go through this again?”

Shock Value II just debuted at #36 on the Billboard 200. Will Katy Perry and JT be able to save the day?

Timbo is already working on the albums re-release with Kanye West, Kings of Leon, and potentially Lady GaGa, so we’ll see how that pans out for him.

The increasingly crazy Timbaland was on the Ed Lover show last week to promote his new album Shock Value II, where he somehow ended up accusing pop singer Lady GaGa of stealing his style *blank stare*.

“What’s her name GaGa b-bla-bla? Yeah I wanna work with Lady GaGa, me and her are kinda the same style. I feel like she took my style [pauses] and ran with it which is smart. I would do the same thing. I’ll put her on the repackage coz I’m a do a repackage. “

So what that I can gather two things:

1. Timbaland is re-releasing Shock Value II.
2. Timbaland is delusional.

The super producer then went on to say that R&B is dead, but he’s impressed with Ciara whom he’s dubbed “the next Aaliyah“.

“There’s no more R&B, so all I listen to is baby girl [Aaliyah]. I was excited about Ciara. I gave her my blessings because she was in the right footpath, the right footsteps as I would say. I think that she was going in the right direction and I love her to death. People would say “Ciara’s the next Aaliyah” – yes she is. She keeps my girl alive, so when I hear Ciara a tear come out my eye, coz I’m like “wow, she ain’t forgotten”.”

That sound is still gon’ be heard… These kids who don’t know [and know] Ciara will go “Who she sound like? Baby girl Aaliyah” and then they go back and buy the Aaliyah stuff and be like “Aaliyah sound better than her” or somethin’. The point is Aaliyah won’t be forgotten”.

Did anybody notice Timbo using the past tense in that? Was he not a fan of Fantasy Ride? Anyway say what you will about Ciara and Aaliyah, but you can’t deny that what Timbo said is a pretty major compliment when coming from the man who crafted the classic Aaliyah sound.

Now let me use this post as an excuse to post some old Aaliyah. Check out one of my personal faves “Loose Rap” below.