Some people thought Timberlake was talking about Kevin Federline, which is fun to think about. There were other theories at the time, too. Justin Timberlake never says Prince’s name on his friend Timbaland’s #1 hit “Give It To Me,” and he’s never confirmed that he had Prince in mind with those lines. The song where Timberlake talked dissed Prince went to #1, confirming that the public was on JT’s side in this essentially-nonexistent beef. Evidently, this was not how Justin Timberlake saw things. Timberlake also threw his imperial-phase numbers in Prince’s face: “Now, I saw you tryna act cute on TV, just let me clear the air/ We missed you on the charts last week - damn, that’s right, you wasn’t there.” It’s true that Prince hadn’t had a charting single since 2006, when “Black Sweat” peaked at #60. This wasn’t just Justin Timberlake getting defensive in the face of perceived disrespect. Nevertheless, Timberlake went into a recording studio, and he sent some stuttering singsong shit-talk back in Prince’s direction: “If s-sexy never left, then why’s everybody on my shi-i-it? Don’t hate on me just because you didn’t come up with it.”
The big point of contention: Prince played an Emmy Awards afterparty in 2006, and he reportedly said this to the crowd: “For whoever is claiming that they are bringing sexy back, sexy never left!” That’s not too mean, right? Maybe it’s dismissive, but it’s also some variation on what everyone was saying in 2006, when the world had to grapple with the idea that Justin Timberlake was somehow bringing sexy back. One day, though, Prince said something vaguely sassy about “ SexyBack,” and Timberlake decided that he had to clap back. Without Prince, there’s no Justin Timberlake Prince was one of JT’s main reference points when he was recording FutureSex/LoveSounds. Prince has appeared in this column many times, and his influence hangs over the past 40 years of popular music. Here’s something that will always blow me away: One morning, at the peak of his success, Justin Timberlake woke up and decided that he’d go talk some shit about Prince. In The Number Ones, I’m reviewing every single #1 single in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, starting with the chart’s beginning, in 1958, and working my way up into the present.
0 kommentar(er)
