Timbaland was inspired by an “Oompa Loompa” beat for Aaliyah’s ‘Are You That Somebody’

nme.com:

Timbaland has revealed that he was inspired by the ‘Oompa Loompa’ song for one of Aaliyah‘s biggest tracks, ‘Are You That Somebody’.Last week (April 30), the Virginia producer was a part of a panel discussion at the 2023 Pop Conference.

Hosted at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, he spoke alongside Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, and Take a Daytrip about music production.

Here, Timbaland discussed how he created the 1998 Aaliyah classic ‘Are You That Somebody’ – breaking down samples and inspirations that informed the song’s creation, as per Pitchfork.Prompted by Take a Daytrip saying that the hook to Lil Nas X’s ‘Industry Baby’ was inspired by a scene from Shrek 2, Timbaland said he “was trying to make the Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory beat from the ‘Oompa Loompa’ song.”He sang the original song, before continuing: “I took that rhythm and I listened back to it and I was like, ‘Man, that’s a dope addition’.

That’s what I was trying to attempt but in a hip-hop way.”He added: “I gotta thank Willy Wonka for that.”He also discussed the iconic baby noise pulled from a ’60s sound effects record, which he said was “the missing piece of the whole beat to me.”However, he didn’t believe it would work until the singer reacted to it. “I was talking to Aaliyah from where she was sitting on the couch,” he explained, “and I just hit the button and it was in key.