(Sound Design by Author)

*This essay series charts the development of, late 20th century, sonic migration. With the chief focus on regional musical topography as an analogous window into the fabric of the African American experience.*

Something In the Water: a recurring phrase. If another small section of the country could claim the call of this baptismal anointing, it would be Virginia. A collection of equidistant small towns housed some of modern music's strongest stalwarts. They were far, far, and away from the bright lights of New York City and the beginnings of New Jack Swing. Laborious train rides and long carpools away from the Go-Go Swing of the nation’s capital. Virginia would find its own unique ecosystem of sound and fury within its own all-stars. Similar to the smaller scenes within neighboring counties of Maryland, these close-knit places like Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach courted a collection of characters who would carry out one of the most groundbreaking transitional periods of music. Taking light-year leaps from the traditional progression of black popular music, into the mainstream’s final form. Through the constant collaboration of its new bevy of artists, Virginia would find itself emblazoned on the map of music history, and boldly solidify the bridge between the many musical movements which came before it.

THE NEW GUYS

New Jack Swing’s final hurrah came with its own renaissance. In its respective time, it helped to synthesize club music with hip hop and R&B in a fashion unfamiliar to those still entrenched in the styles of the 1970s. It fully floated the progression of 1980’s music into the 90’s with a meteoric bang. However, when rap music fully flooded the market, the sound and trajectory of the genre stalled. When Riley moved his studio to Virginia Beach, it caused a ripple effect that washed a treasure of talent ashore. What Riley did with his breakout group, Guy, and his solo production work, caught both the ears and eyes of Devante Swing, the founding member of Jodeci. As the new group signed with Uptown Records and released their breakout debut album, Forever My Lady (1991), Swing began to branch out and form the Swing Mob, a collective of local talent. He was from Hampton, VA, a mere 30 minutes across the bridge from Portsmouth. A place where he’d find one of his next proteges, Melissa “Missy” Elliot, the head honcho of a high school quartet called Fayze. Already a prolific writer and arranger, she was winning talent shows and local competitions with her self penned songs. She wrote and arranged the music and lyrics for the group, a skill that landed them a deal with Elektra Records in 1993. In her own time, Elliot was also busy constructing a new take on Hip-Hop/R&B. Investigating her devotion to heavier syncopated melodies and less predictable harmony stacks. She also possessed a command for compelling narratives which arguably gave femme perspectives more control and complexity within the male-dominated world of mainstream and underground rap. All of these things were bold and new, breakways from the legato swing of the Toni Braxtons, Latifahs or Mary J Blige contemporaries. For Elliot, this work began back home within her inner sanctum, with the close friends she’d later connect Jodeci with. This posse included her cartoon sidekick, the rapper Melvin “Magoo'' Barcliff. It also included Timothy Mosley, then known as DJ Timmy Tim. When Elliot was invited to a Jodeci show and given a personal backstage guest list, she brought along the members of Fayze (now called Sista) and her DJ Tim too. Once Devante and Mosley met, the young budding producer was dubbed, Timbaland, after the popular shoe of the time.

10 years prior to Mosley becoming Timbaland and his work with Elliot, the budding musician’s mother gifted him a Casio keyboard. The Casiotone series was one of the first of its kind: a premier line of medium size synthesizers, jam-packed with versatility for the more adventurous user. Stocked with traditional keyboard patches and drum patterns, it broke the mold by allowing a depth of sound programming for otherwise home-studio novices. Taking cues from big-time studio synths, like the Fairlight before it, a user could sequence stock sounds of their choosing to the rhythm and swing of their liking. However, the main attribute of Casiotone’s 701 and mt-500, were their sampling capability. Coming either with built-in stereo inputs (like a speakerphone) or designated microphone jacks for folk to record and assemble their own arrangements. For kids like Mosley, already adept at beatboxing and rhyming, the Casio keyboard provided a platform for their own productions. A home studio keyboard but not yet a home computer, the short tape recording limit only allowed small clips for respectively assigned keys. So starting with vocal rhythmic percussion recorded directly into the board, he would manipulate the sound bite to the perfect pitch and pace and then print it. From there, adding more and more mouth-made parts, he arranged a sequence of kicks and snare replicas into one beat. Marveling at his newfound ability to recreate his own improvised beatboxing into looped tracks, Mosley dug into his craft of sound collage.

A few years later, a freak accident shootout left him hospitalized at 14 years old, nursing a nagging right arm injury that continues to this day. However, he decided to take that time in the hospital to hone his DJ skills. Armed with a plastic Fisher-Price record player, he used his left arm to master beat drops, relays, and other traditional mixmaster maneuvers of the time. Perhaps it was here, in the hospital, using a similar household music device like the Casio, that a monk-like-Mosley would develop his signatures: a mastery of melodic/rhythmic composition matched with an uncanny knack for samples and crate digging. 10 seconds of Al Green’s “I’m Glad You’re Mine” contained the cornerstone of his new sound. This breakbeat was the basis for some of his earlier songs with Swing Mob members Magoo, singer Ginuwine, and the collective group, Playa. Staying true to his nascent days using toy box turntables and at-home Casios, Timbaland would record breaks like these into an Ensoniq Sampler or Korg Triton Pro, manipulate the texture of each sound and then resequence them in an off-kilter way . When he started to work with Missy Elliot, his style of production finally found a context, and a place to call home. Linking her songwriting and music production expertise with Timbaland’s insatiable tenacity for textured soundscapes, the two forged a duo that would continue to shapeshift music for the next 20 years and more.

THE SUPA DUPA FLY

By 1996, the work being made between Missy Elliot and Timbaland was beginning to break. As a production & writing team, the duo began constructing unique debut singles and albums with groups like SWV, 702, and Crucial Conflict. These were notable groups, from different pockets of the country with their own unique fanbase and style. The new superproducers were able to create crossover hits while maintaining their own homegrown sound. This was foolproof for the two. The period between 1996-1998 saw an explosion of Elliot-Mosley productions. Ginuwine, a singer, and local DC native came under their wing with his debut The Bachelor. “Pony” the breakout hit, was a collage of Timbaland’s trademarks: heavily distorted beatboxing, warped bass synths, and heavily-heavily hard-hitting kicks and crack snares. Using an under-utilized vocoder box, Timbaland recorded the opening sounds of the song and re-tracked them into the session. Working with Static Major (the creator of Lil Wayne’s smash hit “Lollipop”) on the song, took the album to the top of the charts and gave him his first double-platinum production credit. If Ginuwine was to be the Bobby Brown to their Teddy Riley, then Aaliyah would be the Janet Jackson to their Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. The same year, Elliot wrote and co-produced the sophomore album, One In A Million, with Timbaland. For Aaliyah, it would be career and genre-defying. Creating nine songs together, four of which were chart-topping singles including the title track, Elliot and Timbaland perfected the sonic union of their work with the breakout singer. The median marker for the career of one of the most influential artists of her time also became the bar for everything else that followed. The album's omnipresence in today's music is unquantifiable. Nearly every single sub-genre of our Spotify era can be traced from the intimate, genreless soul music birthed here.

From here, each member of the now-defunct Swing Mob would continue to branch out the sound to their respective parties and projects, much like the dissolution of The Minneapolis Sound factory. Timbaland continued to collaborate closely with Missy on her solo material into the millennium; a prolific run of platinum-selling albums including her debut Supa Dupa Fly (1997), Da Real World (1999), …So Addictive (2001). Featuring the Grammy award-winning “Get Your Freak On”, the song highlighted Timbaland’s newly unearthed obsession for Punjabi instrumentation like tablas and the tumbi. Whether through extensive Bollywood soundtrack samples, south Asian crate digging, and the occasional middle eastern synthesizer recreations, Timbaland’s sound would from here become more and more infused with this particular influence. His reliance on these textures and samples provided another unique brushstroke to his ever-expanding musical tag. His breakout hit for Jay-Z “Big Pimpin” which was based on a highly coveted Egyptian sample, was a strong precursor for this pivot. So strong a pivot, that it birthed an entire niche of beatmakers like Scott Storch, who would lean heavily into this ubiquitous (and sometimes appropriative) sound.

Her fourth release, Under Construction (2002) brought Elliot and Timbaland yet another Grammy with “Work It.” A magnum opus of a song that exemplified some of the surviving tenets of the Virginia sound they created together as kids. Highlighted by playfully warped and reversed vocal textures reminiscent of their earlier hits, matched with an endearing ode to the music which predated them. The album was also dedicated to Aaliyah, their friend who had tragically passed away the year prior. Missy would continue to compose for proteges like Ciara and Tweet and also revive catalogs for contemporaries like Monica. Timbaland, on the other hand, found himself deeply invested in the career of Justin Timberlake, N-Sync’s brash budding breakout pop-star-to-be. For the next decade, Timbaland and Timberlake would be engaged in a musical ping pong match versus some formidable opponents: two worthy adversaries from the same town of Virginia Beach: Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of The Neptunes.

THE SUPER PRODUCER

Surrounded By Idiots, was a short-lived Virginia Beach ensemble with Hugo, Williams, his older cousin Timbaland, and Magoo. A rap collective heavily influenced by A Tribe Called Quest, fiending over their latest drop, The Low End Theory. SBI members even had aliases: Timbaland was still DJ Timmy Tim, Williams was called Magnum The Verb Lord, and Magoo was still Magoo, doing his best Q-Tip impersonation. The Thornton Brothers were proximal rap prodigies. Led by the eldest, Gene and Terrence, then known as Malicious and Terrar, were sharp cultural critics and a hot commodity in the underground rap scene of Virginia Beach. By 1992, they would form The Clipse and become No Malice and Pusha T, with the help of both Timbaland and Williams. The brotherly duo was perhaps the first rap group the two producers used to test out their respective sounds.

After SBI splintered up into their major label apprenticeships with Devante Swing, Williams was swept up by the tide of Teddy Riley as a writer/producer, protege, and apprentice, all in one. He and Hugo made their ascension into sonic sovereignty in synchronicity with Timbaland and Missy. Both duos branched out from their collective nests around the same time, becoming independent hit-makers for bubbling domestic hotspots across the 50 states. While Timbaland and Missy honed in on developing their relatively new acts, The Neptunes, hit big in 1998 with “Lookin’ At Me” on Mase’s quadruple-platinum debut, Harlem World and “Superthug” from N.O.R.E.’s self-titled debut. Both songs shot to the top of the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart for their respective quarters and helped to slather a year-long visitation from the Star Trak label producers. These songs were the beginning of a decade-long war campaign, where the Neptune sound took over. Comparatively a lighter sound to Timbaland’s explosive approach: The Neptunes were closer musically to Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall, while Timbaland was more akin to the Dangerous album.

Justin Timberlake’s debut album, Justified, was a digestible display of Timbaland and Pharrell’s approach to production. Similar to Bobby Brown’s Don’t Be Cruel, the two super-producers would share playing time on the megastar’s tracklist, just like Teddy Riley and Babyface had done in 1988. The Timbaland productions were heavy-hitting and relentless tapestries of multi-layered tracks and arrangements. Coming off the heels of The Blueprint 2, and some major hits from folk within his own camp, Timbaland was looking for more crossover success with different flavored artists, like Timberlake, to help expand his sound. Inspired by the commercial success of NSync's sendoff “Gone” and its ability to bring Timberlake into the Black world of music, the producer sought to double up on that same cadence with “Cry Me River.” Arguably one of the biggest songs in their respective catalogs, the song is a cascading portfolio of all that the artists have to offer. A collision course of Timbaland’s headstrong maximalism and Timberlake’s chameleon-like crooning charisma. It was the penthouse floor of the extravagant Hip-Hop/R&B sound he found and Missy Elliot had accomplished with “Oops” by Tweet the same year. If the songs provided by Timbaland & Missy were the show closing songs for stadium sets, then The Neptunes were responsible for everything in between.

The Williams & Hugo contributions to Timberlake’s debut were sparse, minimalist and tableaus like a tasting menu for the different hues of their muse. With their input, it would be the first time we hear Timberlake on acoustically recorded instruments. On songs like “Senorita” it’s the Electric Rhodes piano, with “Like I Love You” it’s the heavy acoustic guitar and live drum kit, and on “Rock Your Body” it is ironically The Neptunes (not Timbaland) who unlock the beatbox machine within the heart of Timberlake and the white-chocolate youth of yesterday. Each composition carried these elements as core blocks within their tight construction. Surrounding them is very little more than Williams’ adept rhythmic cadences and Hugo’s ability to create dynamic sonic moments (the beep-boop breakdown in “Like I Love You”). These were trademarks the two carried back and forth between their more intimate projects, like The Clipse and Kelis, and into these bigger commercial pop acts. It is part of the reason that by the next year, The Neptunes would produce and/or write nearly 43% of the music played on UK airwaves, and performed with presumably similar stats within the states.

In 2008, it would be the mighty arms of Timbaland that Timberlake would take to. Together, they constructed a Frankenstein project that sought to take the singer even further out of his box, deeper into the nooks of black music. While the two split the pie on his debut, this sophomore album was assigned to Timbaland and his new partner, Danja, exclusively. If Justified was a case study on how to repurpose Michael Jackson templates, then FutureSex/LoveSoundswas a deep dive into Prince and repurposing the Minneapolis Sound. Songs like the title track “SexyBack”, and “Until The End of Time” used Linn Drums and other notable Prince-era playbook materials in its conception to build upon. With it, Timbaland constructed another sole-produced, Grammy award-winning, multi-platinum mothership. Instead of narrowing down his sound to a swatch of immediately recognizable traits like The Neptunes, Timbaland was able to delineate himself by his own mercurial and shape-shifting nature.

THE NEW AGE

Community is oftentimes constructed from necessity. Music is made the same way, according to Pharrell. You use and take to what is around you, not seeking what is not. Taking the tools and keys which already provide the love needed, not by chasing ghosts. Virginia was marked by a monsoon of talent, a wave of burgeoning beatmakers raised under the tutelage of their monolithic mentors and predecessors of the past. The stream of work that flooded into popular music from these very small tight-knit squads directed the waters of music to the shores we stand on now. An entire section of our songbook’s canon comes from the collectives of creative minds that not only thought alike but just so happened to actually find each other.