Timbaland: “GaGa Copied Me” // “Ciara Is The Next Aaliyah”

Producer Timbaland stopped by the Ed Lover Show late last week to promote his current effort ‘Shock Value II’. In perhaps staying true to the album’s title, the 38 year old star voiced many a eyebrow raising comment during his banter on the show – the most interesting coming in the form of his opinions of Pop phenomenon Lady GaGa, as well as Ciara:

On Lady GaGa:

“What’s her name GaGa b-bla-bla? Yeah I wanna work with Lady GaGa, me and her are kinda the same style. I feel like she took my style (pauses) and ran with it… which is smart. I would do the same thing. I’ll put her on the re-package cos I’m a do a re-package”.

On Ciara:

There’s no more R&B, so all I listen to is “baby girl” (Aaliyah). I was excited about Ciara. I gave her my blessings because she was in the right footpath, the right footsteps as I would say. I think that she was going in the right direction and I love her to death. People would say “Oh Ciara is the next Aaliyah” – yes she is. She keeps my girl alive, so when I hear Ciara a tear come out my eye, coz I’m like “wow, she ain’t forgotten”.”

That sound is still gonna be heard. These kids who don’t know [and know] Ciara will go “Who she sound like? Baby girl Aaliyah” and then they go back and buy the Aaliyah stuff and be like “Aaliyah sound better than her” or somethin’. The point is Aaliyah won’t be forgotten”. {Source}

While Timbo’s comments are pretty harmless, I must say the back-handed nature of his praise for both GaGa and Ciara, make me question the legitimacy of his like for them. I mean ‘ What’s her name GaGa b-bla-bla’ for arguably the biggest star out right now, was an outright diss IMO. As for the Ciara / Aaliyah comparisons; how about Aaliyah be Aaliyah and Ciara be allowed to be Ciara. To be honest, I’ve never really seen the similarities between Ciara and Aaliyah. Yes, CiCi debuted with a similar tomboy style and swagger, but her dancing and lack of emphasis on vocals makes her an entirely different artist IMO. Surely Janet is a more fair comparison point, and even there I still see major differences. Just my 2 pence…

In any case, did anyone actually remember Timbaland has an album out?