Getty Image / Robin L Marshall
Britney Spears‘ new memoir, The Woman In Me, led to the shocking revelation that Britney had underwent an abortion after sleeping with Justin Timberlake when she was just 19 years old. This is an extremely sensitive topic and one that struck a nerve with millions, many of whom turned their ire on JT who was simultaneously trying to get a Backstreet Boys reunion off the ground which seems to have since evaporated into thin air.
For some odd reason, rapper Timbaland who worked with Justin Timberlake on ‘Cry Me A River,’ ‘My Love,’ ‘What Goes Around… Comes Around,’ and other tracks decided to speak up about Britney Spears’ memoir. Timbaland was doing a Q&A in front of a live audience when he said Justin Timberlake should have ‘put a muzzle’ on Britney Spears.
The full quote from Timbaland is “I wanted to call JT and say ‘Man! You should have put a muzzle on that girl.'” and to make matters worse, he said this in front of a laughing audience. For reasons it doesn’t take a Ph.D. from MIT to understand, there was a lot of backlash after his comments:
Timbaland says Justin Timberlake should have put a “muzzle” on Britney Spears, following the release of her memoir:
“I wanted to call JT and say 'Man! You should have put a muzzle on that girl.'”
— Pop Base (@PopBase) November 7, 2023
If you have been on TikTok or YouTube Shorts in the past 24 hours, or even on Reddit, then chances are you’ve caught wind of the Timbaland clip and how angry people are that he’d suggest Justin Timberlake should put a ‘muzzle’ on Britney Spears after she was under a 13-year conservatorship and only just recently was able to regain control of her own life.
Timbaland Facing Backlash Over Britney Spears ‘Muzzle’ Comment
After the Timbaland video was shared on Reddit, the top comment reads “That’s disgusting. Why do men continue to think it’s okay to talk about women like this? It makes me so very tired.” Another comment picked apart his ‘everyone wants to go viral’ statement and questions how Timbaland feels now that millions of people are furious with him. Others threatened to start digging up anything and everything in his past to see how that would sit with him.
It’s not just men speaking out against Timbaland. On X, formerly known as Twitter, one guy wrote “why do men feel like they can silence woman? He’s a weirdo.” Another guy added “Timbaland has BEEN weird too…” And yet another chimed in with “Timbaland is the one who needs a muzzle. We didn’t forget about his gross Aaliyah comments. He’s still upset Britney didn’t want to work with him. A nasty man.”
Timbaland was named to TIME Magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in 2021. He has a successful webcast series. It is certainly not as if the man has disappeared from the public eye and reappeared to say all of this. So it will be interesting to see where this story goes in the coming days.