TIMBALAND - TIMBALAND TO RETIRE?

Leading hip-hop producer TIMBALAND has strongly hinted he's considering following JAY-Z and DMX in quitting the music industry.

The 32-year-old, real name TIM MOSLEY, has been a long-time collaborator of MISSY ELLIOTT and has worked with many of the leading lights of the industry, but the star producer claims he is getting "bored" and may follow his sports hero MICHAEL JORDAN into retirement.

He says, "I'm Jordan. I'm about to get out of it. I wanna be like DR DRE - very selective. Right now hip-hop's very boring to me. It's no excitement."

However, Timbaland is still enthused by the work he's been doing with Elliott and R+B star BRANDY.

He says, "Missy's first single is stupid! If it comes out right now, it might be a shock for radio. If you thought WORK IT was dope, ain't no comparison.

"You seen 28 DAYS LATER? It's something just like it, bugged out like that. Sort of like a movie. Real different. She has a song with Jay-Z called WAKE UP. She's bussing just as hard as Jay-Z.

"People wanna know if can we do it again. Can we do it again? Hell yeah, we can do it again."

"I just did Brandy's album. (It) was fun for me. Brandy's first single is insane. She's got big records. I put my foot in it. She's singing about dudes, her relationship, everything. A Brandy album keeps my drive going. Missy's albums keeps my drive going."