Timbaland's answer to this "controversy"

[sayitright]

Woe Is You I understand what your saying, and I agree with you. Although I do think that it was unintentional and that Tempest and his demoscener friends, went the wrong way about the situation. Unless Tim was lying and there were credits listed then it wasn't unintentional, but I think he was telling the truth.

[8-Bit]

HI Everyone,

This is a great forum and I like how the responses are very civilized compared to other forums I've read following this story.

I'd like to clear up some misconception and miss understood information.

- "Acid Jazzed Evening" is not from a Video Game music.

- Street Fighter Alpha does not have Acid Jazzed Evening as one of its tunes. I own the arcade machine and I can tell you its not there.

Why the Uproar? This is not a case of sampling 2-3 or 4 seconds of music and looping it. Its taking an entire song, adding a beat and Nelly's Vocals than releasing it to the public as Timbalands original work. That is the problem.

In a recent radio interview Timbaland said that "maybe you didn't know who it was by because it don't have the credits listed. So you just use it. Hey, I don't know, I like it, but I'm gonna use it."

The Claim that there is no credit given is false "Acid Jazzed Evening" can be downloaded in its native .MOD and .SID Format and played inside an emulator and winamp, in both cases you can see the Song Title, Author Name and Year it was composed.

Again I repeat...it is not music from a Video Game and it was never used for a Video Game.

I dont know why Timbaland would say it was from a Video Game, either he is

misinformed or is trying to downplay the whole thing.

It is one thing to sample bits and another to take an entire song, put lyrics on it and call it you're own work.

To quote Timbaland again "I don't have no researchin'- time is coming up when I got to turn a record in."

He does not have time to research? With all the money he's making, he could hire a student to do the research for him.

Were now 2007 / 21st Century by this day an age a producer like him should no better that you should clear any samples you use. I think he figured he wasnt going to get caught. Since in 2005 he used the same song for a RingTone.

Look at what happened to "The Verve" using an uncleared sample from the Rolling Stones for the song "Bitter sweet symphony" The Rolling stones sued and one the rights to the song and since they owned it, they were using the song for TV Commercials etc.. and that was the end of "The Verve" and that was just from using a sample.

Imagine taking a Beatles song, putting you're own lyrics to it and calling it your own, guess whats going to happen? Beatles Fans and many who are familiar with the Beatles will complain.

Same thing has happened here.

Again I cannot say this enough times. "Acid Jazzed Evening" is not a video game song it is an original composition for a Oldskool Music Competition back in 2000.

[sayitright]

I think he thought the C64 is a video game lol, I mean you can play games on it, but I don't know what he was thinking. lol I don't think it was about him thinking he wasn't going to get caught. I really believe he couldn't find the credits and he took the chance that if someone claims it so be it and if not then it's public domain. And it took Tempest 2 years to claim the sample, so he probably thought it was public domain. It depends on where he got it from really. Tim has been cut from albums before because he couldn't get the sampled cleared even on his own albums, why didn't he just steal the samples all those times and not get them cleared. That's why I think it was an honest mistake. And yes he really did sample it, he didn't take the song as it was. He didn't take the whole song and he added to it, therefore it's a sample. Actually, a pretty bad uncreative sampling job.

[8-Bit]

Originally Posted by sayitright

he didn't take the song as it was. He didn't take the whole song and he added to it, therefore it's a sample. Actually, a pretty bad uncreative sampling job.

The act of recording a sound from a Record, Microphone or any other Audio Source into a Computer is called "Sampling" and typically in Hip Hop or any other type of song, you use a small Sample...normally 2-3 Seconds. In this case an entire song was sampled with drumbeat and Nellys vocals added.

Watch this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2JjPFd7Jr8

It demonstrates how The original, ringtone and "Do It" is the same song.

No again you cannot make the mistake of thinking "Acid Jazzed Evening" is from a Video Game. Both the original versions for the Commodore 64 and Amiga version are available you can play the Amiga Version in "Winamp" and if you look at the File Info, you can see the authors name and year composed. Same with the C64 Remix by Glen you can use an Emulator to play the Original Commodore 64 file and again you will see the Credits. So there is no confusion as who made the songs.

Sorry if I sound like going into a rant not trying to.

I hope in the end Timbaland and the Record company do the right thing and at the very least give proper credit for where the song came from.

The first time I heard about this story, I loaded the Original Amiga song and than Nellys "Do It" and I couldnt believe my ears....Main lead sound, Bassline everything. was copied.

I can e-mail you an MP3 of the original song if you'd like than you can compare it for yourself.

Nelly should get a refund for spending good money on Timbaland.

[sayitright]

But there is a difference in Do It, if you listen to for example the break that wasn't in AcidJazzed Evening and there's some others. But I really don't think he took the sample if he knew the credits, I just don't. It depends on where he got it.

[Jeremy]

Originally Posted by sayitright

But there is a difference in Do It, if you listen to for example the break that wasn't in AcidJazzed Evening and there's some others. But I really don't think he took the sample if he knew the credits, I just don't. It depends on where he got it.

No offense but please take off the fanboy/girl goggles. He obviously stole the song to make a MAJOR part of Do It. Not only that but to be so arrogant as to claim he has no time to research etc is not something that should be admired. I hope the dude gets sued.

[sayitright]

I'm not wearing any fan goggles. Yeah he was wrong for stealing the sample and I was angry at the way he was arrogant and how he insulted Tempest. Lately he's been acting like an arrogant fool and I'm so dissapointed in the way he's been acting. He keeps calling himself the King and saying people can't step to him and they're not on his level blah blah. He's annoying, just plain irritating right now. I agree with you guys he was wrong. I've said that like two or three times now! But I don't think he stole it on purpose and I think he sampled AcidJazzed Evening because it's not exactly the same. I mean I've listened to the songs and I hear the differences and no matter how many times you guys keep trying to tell me he stole the whole song I don't care because my ears hear different.

[Jared10]

^^^speak the power!

[furtado-lounge]

this is cool but very hard to understand

and OMG the interviewer should stop sayin "right" all the time...IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!!

[theget]

Timbaland can suck it. How's that for shock value?

This is for Janne cause personally I think 90% of Timbaland is crap. The other 10% is however, good for sampling.