Timbaland Says He Has No Features On New Album ‘Opera Noir’; Calls It His ‘Purple Rain’

Timbaland has changed the title of his forthcoming solo album a few times but it looks like he’s finally excitedto deliver it to us.

In an interview with Rollingstone, the legendary producer spoke about his next album Opera Noir and what we can expect from it. Shockingly, he reveals that he has no guest features on it (what?) and that it might be his last solo album before he decides to slow down and enjoy life.

He also says that the album is his “Purple Rain” and there might be a part 2 of the album which will be based on his upcoming reality show on Fox called Empire.

It’s been awhile since a Timbaland solo album — I’ve heard rumors that a new one might be coming.
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.

What do you mean it’s your Purple Rain?
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.

Grand finale? That implies that it’s the last one.
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.

It ain’t spending money, it’s just simpleness of life, and I just want to get back to it. Like, when I was a kid going to high school dating a girl, you know? Treating life like we just had each other. When you’re in this music world, it’s hard to do that. So I’ll probably take a break.

Slow down a little bit…
This is a powerful album. I can’t do two of these. It’ll be like a part one of two, but the part two will be based around my TV series I got coming out on Fox, which is called Empire. That’s gonna be like a continuation of Opera Noir.

What’s the idea behind the TV series? I hadn’t heard about this.
It’s about music and the struggle to get into music. It’s a different way of approaching a typical musical film. It’s from the real aspect.

So is it like a Making the Band kind of thing?
Hell no, it’s not Making the Band. It’s not a band. This is real life. It’s not about making nothing. It’s almost like what we go through behind the scenes to make you interview me. It’s like the stuff you don’t see to make you want to ask these questions. Now you can relate something back to a question that you asked me and look at the series and be like, “Now that makes sense. Now I get it.”

Read full interview here.