2007: #8 - "Give It To Me"

"Give It To Me", a cross between an early Madonna dance anthem and an easily digestible version of the stuff Timbaland used to do with Missy Elliott and Aaliyah, is the forgotten stepchild of Tim's most recent spate of #1 hits. While songs like "Apologize" and "The Way I Are" (and also any number of hits by guests Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake) continue to garner a fair amount of airplay on dance and Top 40 stations, this one seems to have been lost in the abyss of summer of '07 radio playlists.

That's a shame, as a massive yet snaky beat, and a stunning double tracked chorus laid down perfectly by the inimitable (for better or worse) Furtado, more than make up for some ludicrous rapping by the chart-topping trio. Though Timbaland has one good dis (the "I'm a producer and you just a piano man" line that almost started a producer feud between him and Scott Storch), the rhymes almost do it in; one can't help but think how much better this might have been with Missy Elliott, or even Jay-Z (think "Big Pimpin'" or "Dirt Off Your Shoulder"), singing over it.