Timbaland’s new album Shock Value reminds us why he is one of the highest paid producers in the world, by lending his futuristic hip-hip beats to artists from a range of genres.

The album includes Timbaland’s seemingly permanent collaborators, Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado, and attempts to appeal to other sectors of the mainstream with artists such as Elton John and She Wants Revenge.

Timbaland, born Timothy Z. Mosley in Norfolk Va., came up in the rap world through producing, DJing and occasionally rapping under the name DJ Tiny Tim.

Tim’s production style of fast, complicated drum-patterns, mixed with a new-wave synthesizer, was revolutionary in the early 90s R&B and rap scene.

Shock Value starts off as a hard hip-hop album, with Timbaland or the featured artists rapping over Timbaland’s beats.

The instrumentals have an outer-space sound, with lots of synthesizer beats or samples extremely tweaked by special effects, somewhat copied from Pharrell and earlier DJs. However, Shock Value has the handclaps and Arabian drums that Timbaland has made his signature.

Shock Value has a great flow to it, smoothly transitioning from an urban hip-hop album, to a suburban pop rock album, with artist such as The Hives and One Republic.

Each song has the ability to be played in the club, which is different from most rap albums that typically have three club singles at the most.

Even when the singing is soft, and at times teenybopper, there is always a hard Timbaland beat.

Beats that DJs will be using for a long time.

On Shock Value’s first single, “Give It To Me,” Timbaland takes a shot at Grammy Award-winning Scott Storch, calling him “Piano man.”

In Timbaland’s verse he says, “I get a half a mil for my beats, you get a couple grand-d-d-d-d/Never gon’ see the day that I ain’t got the upper hand/I’m respected from California way down to Japan/I’m a real producer ‘n you just a piano man/Your songs don’ top the charts, I heard ’em, I’m not a fan.”

Storch responded with the YouTube single, “Built Like That,” where Storch makes fun of Timbaland’s weight, and claims that he made the beat to “Cry Me A River,” and Timbaland stole it.

Feuds aside, Timbaland Presents Shock Value is bound to be a multi-platinum classic and will have more success in Europe than in America.

Less than half of Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds sold in America.

Timbaland is quite smart in the mass appeal Shock Value has.

The instrumentals are outstanding, and the lyrics complement the beats seamlessly.

On the song, “Two Man Show,” featuring Elton John, Timbaland plays the role of pump up man, not saying much more than “Bring it in,” and “uh uh.”

Because the album’s focus is the beats, don’t expect lyrics that have any subtext, or deep meaning.

Overall, Shock Value has an interestingly unique hip-hop sound but tries to cover too much ground.

A listener is likely to only enjoy half of the album.

Many listeners will like either the hip-hop section or the rock section, but rarely both. I recommend buying singles on iTunes rather than buying the entire album. Shock Value gets a 3.5 out of 5 rating.