Otherwise, these productions are in the same vein of his output during the last several years: high-gloss dance-pop (sometimes with guitar) that is a little too pop to be easily categorized as R&B or hip-hop.
The closing “Timothy Where You Been,” a rambling, quasi-country number - imagine a slight twang in Tim’s voice as he declares “Hits for Jay-Z, Nelly Furtado/Catch up, y’all slow, escargot” - is the only song to truly leave Tim’s comfort zone. The highs here are not as high, and the lows are as low, unless you consider the very presence of Chad Kroeger and Daughtry, or the unveiling of Brandy’s rapping alter ego Bran’ Nu, to be more odious than a sub-Coldplay ballad. Timbaland does not stock Shock Value II with quite as many guests, and performs a higher percentage of the vocals, and what results is less schizophrenic and more directly pop than its antecedent. Shock Value produced a pair of smash singles in “Give It to Me” and “The Way I Are,” thus necessitating a sequel.
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