It's been a long road for Timbaland's new album. After announcing a name-change from Textbook Timbo to Opera Noir in May, we haven't received any more updates on the album process. We've heard a few potential album leaks, including a "Bounce" demo with Jay Z, however nothing really official.
Timbaland declares Opera Noir as his very own Purple Rain, referring to Prince's opus, in a new interview with Rolling Stone, also alleging it could also be his final project before bowing out and letting his own artists take the spotlight.
"Yeah, this is my Purple Rain solo album that I'm going to put out. I have no features on it. It's called Opera Noir and it's the most innovative work I've ever done. It's all about truth and what's going on around us. It's about my personal truth: It's one of the things that MediaTakeOut will care about, but I'm telling you what happened. I'm telling you: At this point, this happened. I'm telling you at this date, I'm telling you that I did this. I'm telling you that she did this or he did that. And just how I look, dropping all my weight, and how I look like a whole different person now, you're gonna really understand. It's about truth and what the world is facing, and we don't even realize," the producer said during the new interview.
When asked to clarify what he meant by "his Purple Rain", he says, "It's my grand finale. It's my voila. This is why you call me Timbaland. This is why you say I'm the greatest who ever did it."
Does that mean it's his last project? "It could be, for like me doing solo, because it's not about me. It's about my artists, so you know, I'm just being the teacher. The people that I birth, I want to help them shape their careers because they have longevity. Mine, I'm at a stage where I want to enjoy my wife, I want to enjoy my family a little bit more. I just want to enjoy life. I worked so hard to get to this point that I haven't really sat down to enjoy life the way I should enjoy it."