The album’s biggest hit, Cry Me a River, a brilliantly bitter kiss-off augmented by Gregorian chants, Timbaland’s elasticated beatbox and dramatic strings, feels tarnished now. It’s not the only song on Justified that carries extra weight 19 years later. Sister Janet – who Timberlake would later throw under the bus following 2004’s Super Bowl’s Nipplegate scandal – even appears on the low-slung, Timbaland-produced (And She Said) Take Me Now. They would later channel that pristine disco-pop sound into Justified’s third single Rock Your Body, a studied approximation of an alternate young, carefree Jackson. According to Hugo, hours were spent in the studio listening to Thriller and Off the Wall. The Neptunes, were originally written for and rejected by Jackson (they were later tweaked alongside Timberlake). Six of the seven songs co-created by Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, a.k.a. If you’re going to be compared to any male popstar it might as well be the self-titled King of Pop, right? Besides, Jackson was all over Justified. Rather than deny any of the Jackson connections, Timberlake – a media savvy entertainment veteran following his early career as a 12-year-old Disney Mouseketeer – revelled in them. Also, in Timberlake, pop had someone who could pull off both the swagger and vulnerability of imperial phase Jackson without looking hopelessly out of their depth. In a world still emerging from the late 90s pure-pop bubble, it felt dangerous. It wasn’t so much as a baton being passed as a wholesale theft.īut it worked because Like I Love You, all airy guitar riffs, spacious funk drums (plus: “… drums”) and gliding melodies, felt and still feels fresh as a daisy. Later, 21-year-old Timberlake emerge from a giant stereo system for his first ever solo performance dressed in full Jackson cosplay – black fedora, billowing shirt over a plain tee, the gloves – to debut Justified’s lithe, falsetto-heavy Like I Love You. It’s Michael Jackson’s 44th birthday and he’s just accepted the non-existent Artist of the Millennium Award from a bemused Britney Spears. The scene was finally set for a new icon to emerge.Ĭut to the MTV Video Music Awards in August 2002. Later that year, Timberlake appeared stripped to the waist and covered in blood on the cover of style bible Arena Homme Plus. *NSYNC’s final album, 2001’s Celebrity, laid the foundations: Timberlake finally lost that tight noodle perm in favour of a much cooler buzzcut, while the band’s final single, laid-back R&B banger Girlfriend, airlifted in trailblazing production duo The Neptunes and rapper Nelly. Justin Timberlake’s early noughties metamorphosis from perma-smiling boy band leader to tabloid-baiting solo superstar was a test case in immaculate repositioning.
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