Could Justin Timberlake get any hotter? With his sexually provocative new record, Hollywood girlfriend and confessions of drug taking, the former child entertainer is making his play to be the world's biggest pop star. In an exclusive interview, Camilla Long finds herself seduced

 

Whether or not Justin Timberlake is the sexiest man in music, he's certainly the most elusive. It takes several weeks, hundreds of emails, endless calls to his 'team', aborted trips to Los Angeles (where he lives), Barcelona (where he's filming a video for his new single, 'SexyBack'), and, finally, two trips to Paris to meet the latest prince of pop. The explanations come thick and fast. Spain was never on the agenda. He's at a wedding in the south of France. He's back in Paris, in a studio, laying down some final tracks.

 

Finally, he's 'uh... on a boat... somewhere', celebrating the Fourth of July with a group of friends. Also, he's got his laptop with him, so no, you can't hear the new album, his hotly anticipated second solo outing, FutureSex: LoveSounds, because the master copy is on the laptop and he won't let it out of his sight and well, gee, no one can phone him because he's him. Goodness me: does Justin Timberlake even exist?

 

'I'm totally sorry,' says a very real, and an impeccably polite, Timberlake a few days later. He has eventually appeared in a cosy suite at the top of a boutique hotel in Paris, where Team Justin are basing their European operations for this campaign to cement his status as the pop world's leading male. Ever the charming Southern boy - 'well, at the core I am' - he is wide-eyed with apology. 'I think there was some kind of... ah... breakdown in communication...' he says unsurely, in his melodious, Tennessee twang, where all the 'I's are 'aaah's. As for the 'sexiest pop star' label, he's satisfyingly self-effacing. 'I think you have to take into consideration that there's the Christina Aguileras,' he smiles, rubbing a finger on the corner of a table. 'I mean, I think you should pick a female. I don't aspire to it - I'd rather they listen to whatever I've created and feel that they're the sexiest pop star in the world. But if people think I'm sexy, that's very flattering.'

 

Box-fresh in William Rast (his own label) jeans, bright white trainers, a checked shirt, and white Abercrombie & Fitch boxers - the band of which he reveals every time he stands up, needled by an awkward subject - he is certainly handsome and well-sculpted. And, sigh, yes, the 'Trousersnake' is pretty sexy. With his grade 4 buzz cut - thank God he's got rid of those nappyish bubble-curls - and trimmed nails, the 6' 1" singer has clearly grown up from his days of white ties and diamond studs on everything. He gives the impression of being clean, sharp, poised, the sort of man to press himself to perfection. Just a few days ago, in fact, he spent a whole night in the recording studio putting the finishing touches to the new record. 'I do apply pressure on myself,' he says, smiling and hooking a foot over the arm of his chair. 'Since a kid I've thought that if you apply more pressure on yourself than what's needed, you're going to get something back.'

 

And how. Whatever the truth behind the to-ing and fro-ing, the setting of schedules and the changing of plans, this particular workaholic is now ready to knuckle under as only he knows how. Once our lengthy and intimate chat over breakfast is over, Timberlake will whizz through 25 interviews with the French, Dutch and German press in a single 12-hour shift, while his team - record executives, his tour manager Andre, and his mother's friend, the ex-schoolteacher Renee, who is also his manager - face the logistical nightmare of playing as much as they can of the new, and fiercely protected, record to all of them. Outside, the paparazzi prowl. They know Justin's in town - it's pretty obvious, after all: downstairs, there's an enormous minder with a truckful of luggage, personal trainers everywhere and PR girls clip-clopping through the lobby saying, 'It's perfect. Perfect. We'll let you know about dinner. He'll probably have room service.' His girlfriend - goofily pretty Cameron Diaz - is comfortably snuggled up somewhere nearby away from prying eyes. Soon enough, pictures of the two of them, strolling along a Parisian boulevard, will pop up in the tabloids, and put paid to the rumours of a split.

 

'I really remove myself from it,' he says sanguinely of the stories, pouring himself a white coffee. 'But they never get it right. They never get it spot-on. They may get bits of it right, but it's always speculation. I don't feel the need to appease it, to respond. I grew up an only child and in a very humble environment where you had your own life and I would prefer it to be that way for the rest of my time. You have to remind yourself that all of this is promoted by money. They want to make money off you. I don't say that in a jaded way. The motive is always money.'

 

Still only 25, Timberlake has already had a lifetime's worth of experiences to form such old-headed notions. 'With the exception of the last two years, during which I've taken a break - if you call four films a break,' he says of his recent foray into Hollywood with movies including Alpha Dog, 'I've been working for 15 years now.' Famously hired, at 10, to sing and formation dance to oblivion as a Mouseketeer on the Disney Channel alongside Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, he then soared, at 14, to even greater fame as a member of boyband *Nsync, and also as Britney's first boyfriend. They dated for four years in total, getting engaged, and then very publicly unengaged. He sang about the split, at times quite savagely, in his first much-hyped solo album, 2002's multi-million-selling Justified. 'The song was pretty explanatory. It was just where I was at,' he says of this 'favourite' track, 'Cry Me a River', a bitter ballad about how Britney had off-handedly dumped him after she had an affair. The video even featured a Britney lookalike, whom the real Timberlake stalked through her apartment. 'I let it just dictate itself,' he continues. 'Those were the songs I wrote; and that's the way it came out. The video was one of those cinematic moments where we wanted to root for the bad guy: me. I broke into the house, kicked her things around, smelled her hair. It was savage. Creepy. Really, extremely dark, Kubrickian retribution. But it seems so long ago now; ancient history. Just a moment in time...just a moment in time,' he repeats. 'That's why I'll be happy when this album comes out.'

 

Ah yes, the new album. If Timberlake stood on a musical precipice last time around, trying to convince the world he was more than some Buttfuck, Tennessee boy-band soon-to-be-has-been, he stands on even more of one now with FutureSex. 'I did Justified in six weeks,' he explains. 'This one took me a year, so it's more, yeah, considered. I felt pressure, which is why it was more considered. For the first record I didn't know what to expect, I was flying by the seat of my pants. Now, I thought, I need to make an epic record, a consistent sound, a body of work. I didn't have to make an amazing record before, but now I have to. It has to be better than the last one.' He's also got a point to prove: 'Music's gone to such shit,' he says of manufactured acts. (He of all people should know.) 'Kids only need something for a minute. People don't make career records any more: this is an opportunity to say fuck that.'

 

Consequently, he's made a few tweaks to the artistic line-up. Before, he tapped into an impressive array of talent, mainly from hip hop and R&B: Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of NERD, P Diddy, Bubba Sparxxx, and Tim 'Timbaland' Mosley. Together, they created a sound that was hip, sexy and new, an unusual achievement for a star previously so closely associated with bland music. 'Justin's vocals are always immaculate and he has a remarkable ear for melody,' says Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran, who Timberlake presented with a Lifetime Achievement Brit award in 2004, coming over especially from the States. 'He is a voice of his generation, and the one that seems to have captured people's imagination on both sides of the Atlantic. He has put his finger right on the pulse of what people want - that combination of groove, melody, and soul. This is what's put him in a league of his own.'

 

With his slick, hip-popping dance routines and accomplished falsetto ad-libs, the critics' rapturous comparisons with Michael Jackson seemed well - indeed - justified. 'If the first album was characterised by Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder,' he says now, 'this record is more like Bowie and Prince.'

 

This time, Timberlake has co-written and co-produced all the tracks on the album himself. And while Williams has gone, the influence of Timbaland - the man most commonly credited with creating the modern landscape of hip hop - has been key. 'He's one of the best three hip hop producers in the world,' says Timberlake, who has also been described as a sort of R&B version of Eminem, the white man doing black music, just like Elvis (who, incidentally, knew Timberlake's granddaddy). 'But at the time [we started talking about the album], he was listening to rock music, and I was listening to rock music. The Beatles, the Stones, the Eagles and the Beach Boys, particularly the Eagles, my favourite band of all time. They fused country and rock. I love fusing things too, so we decided to take the hip hop approach to making a rock song.'

 

Small wonder then that Timberlake worked with Rick Rubin, too, the man responsible for fusing rap and rock on Run DMC and Aerosmith's 'Walk This Way'. 'I went to him,' says Timberlake. 'The person that put the bug in my ear - this is one of those name-dropping celebrity stories - was [the comedian] Chris Rock. I said, "Do you think he would work with me?" Then I saw Rick at [the music festival] Coachella, where I wanted to see Weezer and Coldplay and Nine Inch Nails. I walked up to him and said, "I'm Justin", pretty much like that. "Will you work with me?" And he said, "Sure!"'

 

Quite an array of talent, granted - but actually getting to hear much of this music is easier said than done. Despite the fact that his first single, 'SexyBack', will be hitting the airwaves in a matter of days, Timberlake appears to be having slight difficulties letting anyone near his infamous laptop. Still, after a flurry of calls and a violent zinging of lifts, management finally produce four songs on a CD, which they amusingly refer to as 'the money tracks'. The Rick Rubin number is actually played on Timberlake's laptop itself, which cutely sports a picture of Cameron Diaz smoking what looks like it might be an enormous cigar.

 

'I have trouble naming my songs,' says Timberlake, somewhat sheepishly, of 'SexyBack'. It turns out that it's 'sexy back' as in the song's chorus 'I'm bringing sexy back', rather than 'a sexy back'. 'The chorus is very James Brown-ish, call out and repeat, like "Sex Machine",' Timberlake explains, with a little rendition. He often breaks into song, clapping, beat-boxing, or improvising, even opera. 'I wrote it from top to bottom. "I'm bringing sexy back, yeah! I'm bringing..." It's a very physical song, meant to provoke... sexual dance. "Sex Machine" is the closest reference. If David Bowie were to cover "Sex Machine". "Rebel Rebel". "Got ya mother in a whirrrrl..."'

 

He's off again. 'SexyBack', an urgent, pulsing track, a cocktail of soaring, distorted vocals and heavy, electronic chords threaded together with rap, seems to be the album's mission statement. Like many of his new songs, it is musically complex; a fusion of rap, rock, funk, soul, gospel, new wave, opera, world music... everything, really. But it certainly does sexy alright: everyone's nodding their heads and mopping their brows, and it's only 8.40am. While the futuristic element looms large - 'the musical landscape of Tron', as someone rather lyrically describes it - Timberlake's familiar percussive beats and high, soulful voice are all still very much in place. 'That's the Prince influence,' he says of the vocals.

 

Another track, 'Sexy Ladies', is pure Prince. 'Of course I'm influenced by him. I also grew up five minutes from Al Green, so I've been heavily influenced by falsetto singing, the Bee Gees and Brian Wilson. I don't have a humungous belting voice - I'll leave that to other people.' Like Tom Jones? 'Like Tom Jones,' he smiles.

 

Although the song's slightly awesome lyrics - 'I'm bringing sexy back, I'll show yo'motherfuckers where it's at' - and its meaty pumping do not make 'SexyBack' an instant crowd-pleaser, it definitely grows on you. More immediate is the next single, 'My Love': a brilliantly languid love ballad, prickling with dark emotion. One of a number of expressive soul tracks - another being the Rick-Rubin-produced 'Another Song', a homage to Timberlake's favourite singer Donny Hathaway - 'My Love' is arguably the album's 'Cry Me a River'. 'It is similar. You go back to Aaliyah's biggest record, 'Are You That Somebody' - it's similar to that too because it's that percussive ballad,' says Timberlake, ever keen to reinforce his love of soul, blues and the music of his home, the Deep South. The lyrics seem very personal, too: 'There's just one thing I need from you: say "I do".' Is any of it autobiographical?

 

'No,' he says, firmly. 'The line before that is "this ring here represents my heart". It's about marriage, and love, and...' He gropes. 'It's not specifically about marriage, but about a humble approach to love. None of it is autobiographical, though obviously I have experience to draw from.'

 

Well, there's plenty to be getting on with. How different things might have been had Justin Randall Timberlake, the only son of Lynn Harless and Randy Timberlake, chosen the expected path of Midwestern anonymity. 'I'd have made nothing of myself in a normal environment,' says Timberlake, who at eight was already winning pageants. 'Now I'd have been building houses with my uncle. I might have gone to college, but I don't know if I'd have made it through, there's too many...women. Women, drugs and debauchery. I'd have gotten into trouble.'

 

Instead, he braced himself for celebrity, working constantly, auditioning endlessly. He perfected his famous dance skills in the clubs he visited across Europe with *Nsync. 'I've never taken dance training,' he says. 'Only when I did the television show when I was a kid, but it wasn't pliés. When we got signed I was 14; we came over to Europe - here you can get in the clubs when you're like nine - and that's really where I learned to dance freestyle.' Unlike Michael Jackson, Timberlake doesn't regret his 'lost' childhood. 'In my younger years - that sounds funny from a 25-year-old - my adolescence, I was so protected, [working] was really all I cared about,' he says. 'At 17, when you're around hot females all the time - you're like, "Oh my God!". You got into clubs and hung out with German and French and Swiss and Italian models, and you're like, "OK, I really don't need to be in high school".'

 

Nowadays, the constant stream of totty has become much less kid-in-a-candy-store for him. 'If someone throws themselves at me, it doesn't really have much to do with me because they don't know me,' he says. 'I'm old-fashioned. I need to spend time with someone. The most a stranger can say to me is, I like your music - the hoopla situation doesn't have anything to do with me. The hype is the hype and you have to roll it up and put it aside from your life. You have to remove yourself from it.'

 

While perfectly comfortable discussing his music, Timberlake is clearly perfectly uncomfortable discussing his private life. Still, it's all good. 'It's been pretty happy times for me lately,' he says, staring at the floor. He has been dating Diaz, the leggy star of The Mask, Charlie's Angels and Gangs of New York, for nearly three years now; at 33, she is eight years his senior. There are constant rumours of splits, but the couple remain unfazed. 'They just don't care,' says one associate. One thing is clear: Timberlake is not ready to settle down. 'I'm way too young to...to...,' he says. 'I enjoy what I do, but it's hard to have a plan when you're 25. Especially for the next couple of years, where half of my life will be devoted to what I'm promoting.'

 

Whatever: he is loath to 'fuel the fire', as he puts it, with unconsidered brushes with the press. 'What I really think is that I've never done anything that bad,' he says. 'I don't show up drunk to functions; the drugs that I do have been in my own private time. I've never been arrested - though not to say that I won't! It's just easier to write something about people who've not spent time in complete debauchery.

 

'If Courtney Love shows up to a function, then it's like, "Oh that's Courtney Love." If I show up drunk, it's like, "Oh my GOD!" And, like, Britney's an unfit mother because she put her child in the car-seat backwards,' he says, referring to the latest media storm in America in which his former girlfriend was heavily criticised. 'I feel bad for her,' he says. 'We all make mistakes. We all came from the same school, with Christina, myself, Britney. Even when Christina came out with her last record everyone was so shocked. "She's so sexual" - it's like, she's a grown woman! If Madonna had done it, no one would have cared. Madonna's shocking people now because she's so religious. She's burnt crosses and grabbed her crotch. I think that because I don't particularly show my ass everywhere... I don't aspire to that. I'd rather people get naked to my music.'

 

Funny, then, that Timberlake is apparently comfortable with a subject like drugs - if not rather enthusiastic. When asked if he'd ever want to be president of the United States - 'I've done way too many drugs already,' he responds, without missing a beat. 'I've already inhaled and I've already...who knows. I don't know if I want that responsibility.' So what's he done? 'I fear that if I said that, I'd fuel the fire, so forgive me,' he says. 'I'm just like everyone else, I get completely plastered, I've done my fair share of drugs and I've been caught places with my pants down; it's just I make sure there are no cameras around. If we get into this whole [drugs] conversation we don't have enough time. Some drugs haven't been legalised because it will ruin the other drugs, like nicotine and tobacco. Nicotine is more addictive than heroin. I'll leave the preaching to the preachers - my grandfather's a preacher - but I believe you don't do anything to excess. They always say too much of a good thing could be a bad thing. I try to live my life in a well-rounded manner. We all make mistakes.'

 

Oh, you can't help but like Timberlake. He's the whole package. Good at fashion - 'the whole album is like a fashion editorial, YSL and Gucci suits, which goes with the sonics,' he says of the record's artwork, a Terry Richardson shoot - dancing, singing, the lot. That's not to say there isn't a very interesting edge to him, too - Richardson is not a photographer for the fainthearted - a sort of nervy, exciting, don't-touch-my-car bristle about him. A bit Christian, and a bit not, a boy who has nevertheless learned that he can't please everyone so he stopped 'giving a shit about what people thought,' he says. 'Since then, I've done my best work.' Whether or not the new album is a critical triumph, it'll certainly be a commercial one. And anyway, there will always be the fans, thousands of them, as there always have been. 'I understand it means something to people to have a piece of you,' he concludes. 'It sometimes becomes tiresome, though. I don't have a problem stopping, but I've been in a gym on a bench press and people will come up and ask if I mind having a picture taken. And I'll say yeah I do. And they'll be like, "Oh well, you're an asshole". And I'll be like, "Oh OK, I'm an asshole". I'm a pretty nice guy. I'm not pretentious. But you can't be everything to everyone...'· 'SexyBack' (Jive/RCA) is released on 28 August.

 

Teenage kicks: Those other child stars

 

Timberlake is not the first pop star to have found fame at an early age. In fact, his co-stars on the Mickey Mouse Club on American TV were Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

 

Given Timberlake's fandom, the Michael Jackson comparison is inevitable. Looking rather different from the man he is today, Jackson released Thriller, one of the world's biggest-selling albums, aged 24. He was, by this point, already an industry veteran, having started out playing local clubs and bars in Gary, Indiana when he was five years-old with his brothers as the Jackson 5.

 

Then there was teen heart-throb Donny Osmond. The clean-cut singer found success with his Mormon brothers in the Osmonds, before hosting the popular variety show Donny & Marie with his sister. He said his lucky colour was purple and always wore purple socks on the show. His career suffered in the Eighties, although two years ago he did return to the UK Top 10 for the first time since 1973, with the George Benson-sampling 'Breeze On By', co-written by Gary Barlow.

 

An even more ill-fated future lay in store for the young star of boy band New Edition: Bobby Brown. Voted out of the group in 1986 when the other four members felt their careers would be jeopardized by his lewd on-stage antics, Brown found huge fame with hits like 'My Prerogative', but his prerogative turned out to involve taking a lot of cocaine and his career fell apart.

 

And from these shores? Look no further than PJ and Duncan, forced to abandon their music career completely .

:freak:

*PUKE!!*

Thom Yorke is sexier.

Thom Yorke is sexier.

True...but so is a SMURF!!! Sorry, I find nothing got about JT.

Interpol IS sex..... nuff said.

Interpol IS sex..... nuff said.

And sooner of later, someone has to mantion Chris...so it may as well be me!

And sooner of later' date=' someone has to mantion Chris...so it may as well be me![/quote']

or Jon:wink:

or Guy and Will...

And sooner of later' date=' someone has to mantion Chris...so it may as well be me![/quote']

kirkpatrick? :lol:

hes bringing back sexy??? all hes bringing back is wannabe michael jackson dancing and gayness.

Thom Yorke is sexier.

 

:laugh4: you may be joking...but i agree

Timberlake's sexy music mission

 

 

His music may not change the world, but it will change the way people see Justin Timberlake, writes CAMERON ADAMS.

 

JUSTIN Timberlake is a man with a mission. That mission: to change the face of music.

 

That's the Herculean task Timberlake has set himself on his second solo album, FutureSex/LoveSounds.

 

It's a bold goal.

 

"It is, it is," Timberlake admits. "But I have the ear of the world. I have a big, humungous podium. So I thought, 'What do I want to say? What am I tapped into that I think can influence people? How do I create a sound that starts a movement?' That was the mission.

 

"I want people to listen to this record and go, 'S---!' I want other artists to listen to this record and go, 'Dammit, I need to scrap what I'm doing here and start over again.'

 

"I want people to listen to this record and forget everything else that's happening. I want people to be driving, listening to this album and have to pull over and go, 'Holy s---, what did I just hear?' "

 

Timberlake pauses, thinking about what he's just said.

 

"I don't know that I'll change the face of music. That seems like a lot more pressure than I probably should put on myself. But I know people will listen to this record and go, 'This is not what I expected'. Just like they did on the first album."

 

Timberlake's first solo album, 2002's Justified, started life as just another solo album by just another escapee from a boy band ('N Sync, in Timberlake's case). Seven million sales later, it earned Timberlake a place in the very exclusive club of boy-band survivors who went on to solo success and musical credibility (members G. Michael and R. Williams).

 

The album threw a string of singles up charts around the world (Like I Love You, Cry Me a River, Rock Your Body) and Timberlake duly followed them on tour.

 

He started with a huge, hi-tech pop tour, complete with dance routines and stage show not unlike what he'd done with 'N Sync. By the end of the tour he'd downsized to lo-tech club gigs, playing guitar and losing himself in the music.

 

The album's success changed the way Timberlake was perceived. And other artists took note.

 

"I started to see the influence of the production (of Justified) changing the sound of pop music," he says, without a hint of ego.

 

Timberlake fashioned the bulk of Justified with producers the Neptunes (most of the songs were written for Michael Jackson, who passed on the project, then reworked for Timberlake).

 

However, after a falling out with Timberlake's label, Jive, over another of its acts, the Neptunes took no part in FutureSex/LoveSounds.

 

"That wasn't a conscious decision," he says. "We didn't work together at first because they had some kind of falling out with my label. I don't get into all that s---. If I want to get into politics I'll run for President."

 

Justin Timberlake for President of the United States of America?

 

"Oh, I've done way too many drugs to run for President!" Timberlake says. "I don't think I'd pass the bar for that."

 

He hesitates when asked about outing himself as a drug user, the same way he stops himself when talk turns to his girlfriend, actor Cameron Diaz. Later he tells British paper The Observer: "I've already inhaled and I've already, who knows? I've done my fair share of drugs and been caught places with my pants down. It's just that I make sure there are no cameras around."

 

Drugs aside, for FutureSex Timberlake teamed with super-producer Timbaland, who steered the inventive beats of Cry Me a River.

 

Together -- and Timberlake is more musically creative than many pop stars -- they aimed to create a sound no one else was making.

 

"I listened to the radio for two or three months and thought, 'All this sounds like s---, what do I want to hear?'," he says.

 

"Everything was so repetitive, everything sounds the same. I had to create something unique, otherwise there was no point putting it out. Justified changed the sound of pop music.

 

"To me there was no point putting this album out if it's not going to do that again."

 

At a June listening party for his album at LA's Chateau Marmont, there is a surprise visitor: Justin Timberlake.

 

He hasn't made a token fleeting appearance to be seen by the right people; he's genuinely excited about new people hearing the album he has been working on for months.

 

His mother is singing the lyrics to her husband; Timberlake and Timbaland are beside the bar, heads nodding to their beats.

 

B ETWEEN each song are interludes designed to make one tune flow into the next. One recalls Coldplay, another sounds a little like gloomy Goth rockers Interpol. Timberlake has come a long way since the cheesy perm he sported in 'N Sync and songs with titles such as God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on You.

 

"I love Interpol, they were definitely an influence, that androgynous guitar s---."

 

Timberlake also was inspired by the vintage '80s dance melodies of David Bowie and Prince.

 

"They made girls lose their friggin' minds," he says. "Still to this day people hear Rebel Rebel, Let's Dance, Kiss, Let's Go Crazy and they go crazy when they hear those songs. It evokes sexual feelings in people and I was fascinated by that. I thought, 'I wonder if I can do that?' "

 

Turns out, he could. FutureSex/LoveSounds is definitely an album for the bedroom -- tracks include Sexy Ladies, Love Stoned, Chop Me Up -- and the first single doesn't proclaim "I'm bringing sexy back" for nothing.

 

"There's a lot of sexual undertones on the record," he admits. "I didn't want it to be like 'Sex!' and be blatant, but I wanted the rhythm of it, the pulse of it to have that undertone. Anything with a good groove really feels sexy.

 

"I want people when they hear SexyBack to feel hot. I want girls to want to be in the middle of the club and take their clothes off and dance."

 

Nudity or otherwise, his album is brave. Timberlake fought to have SexyBack released first; its pulsating electronic groove and muffled vocals are miles away from the easily digested funk of Rock Your Body.

 

For Timberlake, that's the point.

 

"When I sent my record label SexyBack and said, 'I think this might be my first single', they said, 'You are f---ing insane!' They said, 'Your voice sounds so distorted, we can't recognise it's you'. I said, 'That's why it's gotta go first'. They didn't get it."

 

Timberlake believes music listeners, including his fans, are not given enough credit for being open-minded.

 

"I said, 'You guys act like three-year-olds are listening to my music'," he says, relaying the heated discussion that followed. "I said, 'We're not going to shut Times Square down for (teen music show) TRL with this album, we're not going for TRL, you need to realise that'.

 

"Look, I listen to music, I'm a fan of music. I know what I want to hear. I know what I wanted to hear before. With the last album a lot of people didn't know they wanted to hear it, but they liked it when they heard it. You've got to keep moving like that."

 

Like many artists, Timberlake has a self-destruct button he seems to enjoy pressing, just to see what happens.

 

He pressed it often in 'N Sync, hiring DJ BT to steer the subversive sounds of Pop. Then he wrote stark ballad Gone, which scared off young fans wanting big, shiny pop productions.

 

"And they didn't sell as well. But they sold in another way. They sold to people who listen to music. That song (Gone) became the bridge to my solo album.

 

"Stevie Wonder came up to me and sang that song back to me. That's when I knew I was tapped into something, that I should keep moving in the direction I was moving."

 

TIMBERLAKE says as soon as Wonder was introduced to him, he started singing Gone.

 

"I was like, 'Whoa, Stevie Wonder listens to my s---!' That was a big deal to me. I thought, 'Who cares about bubblegum? Who cares about sales', I want people to use my music in their lives. I want my music to be infused into people's lives."

 

Between albums, Timberlake read some of the film scripts that had long been coming his way. Most were cheese, but a few stood out. The first saw him play a journalist in Edison Force, a film that went straight to video this year. His looming roles in John Cassavettes' drug drama, Alpha Dog, and a blues biopic, Black Snake Moan, are said to be surprisingly edgy.

 

"I think maybe I enjoy being the underdog," he says. "I'd never really thought about it, but it might be true. I like to challenge myself. I never want to do something because I can do it. I want to do something because I think I can do it, but maybe I can't."

 

Timberlake seems quietly excited about the risks he's taken on FutureSex/LoveSounds.

 

"It's an important record for me," he says. "It's such a departure from the first record, and it sets me up so the third record could be whatever I want. More people might like this one, less people might like it, but you can't call me a chicken."

 

Timberlake pauses and rewinds to his claim about changing music. It has clearly been on his mind.

 

"I don't want to come across like, 'I changed the world of music'," he says, intent to make his point.

 

"I'm not cocky. Music is music at the end of the day. World leaders change the world. It's not brain surgery. It's just music. They're just movies. World leaders drop bombs on countries. I don't do that. I just want to drop bombs on the dancefloor."

 

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20069709-5006024,00.html

:clown:What a tosser. I can't stand him as far as I can throw him.

If this is his idea of sexy then he can keep it :uhoh:

Why can't he just go away and leave us alone??:rolleyes:

Why can't he just go away and leave us alone??:rolleyes:

 

He just keeps coming back. I saw the video for that song and I started laughing:laugh3: , becuase he is a super spy that gets the lady, but she dies and Justin just makes it out in time.:rolleyes:

If Justin Timberlake is selling sex, who’s buying it?

 

Welcome to the age of irony, where a Viacom sponsored girl-group outsells everybody, real artists are unnoticed by the marketplace and Mickey Mouse Club alums vow to bring sexy back.

 

I’ll admit that when I first heard Justin Timberlake’s single, “SexyBack,” I was hesitant. I thought “Justified” was great, mainly due to the Neptunes’-produced songs previously rejected by Michael Jackson. However, label issues took Justified’s main collaborator, Pharrell Williams, out of the picture. So the question was, could J Tizzle bring it without the faux-Jackson sound? The answer is an emphatic, yes.

 

With a swagger that is decidedly more Prince than Michael Jackson, Timberlake definitely caters to a more mature audience. From the album’s opening title track, “FutureSex/LoveSound,” you know this former boy bander’s grown up and he’s apparently discovered sex. The track sounds of INXS’ “I Need You Tonight” with an electrofunk kick and it rocks.

 

Another track, “Sexy Ladies,” sounds like a cross between Rick James and Prince with a synth lick that would make the purple one himself proud.

 

When he sings, “I know it sounds cocky, but is it really cocky if you know that it’s true,” Timberlake confidently pulls off his new sexy image, without looking foolish.

 

T.I. shows up on the bouncy proposal song, “My Love.” This song has the signature Timbaland sound and T.I.’s verse works well. I can see urban radio eating this one up. There is also an awkward collaboration with, Academy Award winners, Three Six Mafia. Three Six sounds good on the track, but Justin sounds a little out of place. Although, it has grown on me with repeated listening.

 

The album isn’t all about sex though. The karma-inspired tune, “What Goes Around,” finds him exploring a familiar subject, infidelity.

 

Although, the subject sounds awfully close to “Cry Me a River,” he has reportedly said it is not about Brittany. Similarities aside, the eastern-influenced song is likable in its own way.

 

The glue that holds everything together is Timbaland’s stellar production. On the track, “LoveStoned,” he manages to take Justin from quasi-disco to Coldplay without missing a step. Timbaland’s direction allows Timberlake to play with different styles, without losing the album’s focus.

 

Black Eyed Peas’ producer/rapper, Will.I.Am, pops up on the album, producing and dropping a verse on the song “Damn Girl,” a funky little ditty that finds Justin doing his best Pharrell impression.

 

Super producer, Rick Rubin (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash, Jay-Z) also contributes the beautiful “(Another Song) All Over Again.”

 

Overall, this is great pop music. I don’t know if it’ll catch on, but this is a great way to kick off the movement to bring “sexy” back. This album is the final nail in the coffin of Justin’s boy band past.

 

http://www.smudailycampus.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/08/31/44f64e4cefbed

I like justin and his music.

which do you like best, him or his music?

I think he is a **** in ******!!!!!!!!!!!

I think he is a **** in ******!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I agree with whatever that is!!:P

He just keeps coming back. I saw the video for that song and I started laughing:laugh3: ' date=' becuase he is a super spy that gets the lady, but she dies and Justin just makes it out in time.:rolleyes:[/quote']

 

That's why I generally avoid videos, as the music should be able to "speak" for itself.

Trousersnake wouldn't be able to get by without visual back-up, as his music relies far too much on image and intensively choreographed dance moves.;)

which do you like best' date=' him or his music?[/quote']

 

Him but his music is good too

Him but his music is good too

 

Are you kidding? He used to be a "Mouseketeer", for f*ck's sake!!:P