Best Timbaland track of the year...

Best Timbaland track of the year isn't by Timbaland. It's LeToya's "All Eyes On Me," produced by Jonathan "J.R." Rotem. What seems Timbo about it is the dark two-note bass blat that just crawls across the beat, much like "Put You On The Game." Equally good is LeToya's "Tear Da Club Up," a similar blat but not as slow or as Timbo (and originally produced by Jazze Pha and reworked for the album by Wine-O; Dre may be the grandpa influence on these).

(Actually wouldn't commit to there being no better Timbo or Timbo-influenced tracks this year, seeing as I've only heard four of the Furtado and three of the Timberlake, etc. etc. But I'm currently in love with these two songs and want to share my enthusiasm. My favorite Timbo track last year also wasn't by Timbo, was Rich Boy's "Get To Poppin'," which has great resonating Timbo-style crud beats and a Mexican vocal sample seemingly from a primordial field chant. Produced by Brian Kidd, w/ frequent Timbo collaborator Jimmy Douglass credited as engineer. Or at least that's what some smart dude on the Internet says.)

EDIT: Turns out that "All Eyes On Me" was first a promo single last year, which undoes the premise of this post, or at least of the subject line, though the album version I've got is somewhat different (the promo version has two rappers - Paul Wall and Slim Thug - while the album version only has Wall); same basic accompaniment, however.