Label Issues Stopped Me & The Neptunes From Collaborating – Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake and Pharrell were two musicians who worked together early on in JT’s career and some of the songs they put out were massive hit singles. Pharrell has obviously been a brilliant mind behind the boards and in front of the microphone for so long and or the most part, any time he works with someone, it’s bound to be dope. While Pharrell got JT for his solo album GIRL, we haven’t heard Pharrell do any production for Justin in a long time. In a recent interview, Justin Timberlake explained what prevented him from working with The Neptunes.

Justin Timberlake recently sat down with Zane Lowe on his Beats1 show where Lowe asked JT about working with Pharrell. The singer explained there was some behind the scenes label politics that went on that prevented him from working with Pharrell. The singer said at the time, he and The Clipse were both signed to JIVE Records. However, Pharrell was trying to get the Virginia duo out of their deal and that caused a huge block between Timberlake and Pharrell from working together on music.

“It became challenging for him to work with any Jive artist at that point. If I’m being totally honest about it, I was extremely hurt being caught up in the middle of it,” he explained.

JT later mentioned that because he had already gone through legal issues following NSYNC, he wasn’t trying to get in the middle of the label politics.

“I had already gone through legal troubles, and I kind of felt like, you know what, I’m at this point where I feel like I have so much ahead of me, I don’t want to be in the middle of the record label and somebody that I consider a friend, so I feel like I just removed myself from the situation,” he told Lowe.

Watch the full interview below.