Timbaland is in hot waters after advising Justin Timberlake against Britney Spears.
The record producer claimed during a recent panel that the singer of Toxic has been “going crazy” after being questioned about how his and Justin Timberlake’s song Cry Me a River was “making headlines again” due to the best-selling book.
Timbaland added that once The Woman in Me was released on October 24, he was inclined to get in touch with the Mirrors singer.
“I wanted to call and say, ‘JT, you gotta put a muzzle on that,’” he quipped at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, for Sounds Architects: A Producer Conversation on Oct. 30.
Timbaland’s remark was met with laughter from many in the audience, but the viral interview tape caused some controversy on Twitter.
“Timbaland saying that Justin Timberlake should have put a ‘muzzle’ on Britney is actually INSANE considering Britney has been treated like a caged animal for the past 13 years,” one fan complained, recalling Spears’ conservatorship.
“damn Timbo, we were all rooting for you,” another added, while a third joined, “In light of her life’s events, this screams misogyny and is so malicious and nasty.”
In the interview, 51-year-old Timbaland persisted in attacking Spears’ memoir, stating that the 41-year-old Crossroads actress wanted to “do something to get people’s attention.”
“You know what? We live in the age of social media and … everybody want[s] to go viral. I get it because that’s the way you make money [is to] go viral,” he said.
