Timbaland & Magoo - Under Construction Part II (LP)

Under Construction, Part II arrived on 12 August 2003, the third and final studio album from Timbaland & Magoo, and it still sounds like two Virginia lifers flexing their chemistry while the club lights strobe. The title winks at Missy Elliott’s 2002 Under Construction, a nod that makes sense given how tightly this crew moved through the late 90s and early 2000s. It came out via Blackground Records with Universal handling distribution, and the whole thing plays like a snapshot of a scene that had already changed pop radio once and was itching to do it again.

Timbaland handles the production throughout, and you can hear why his drums were the envy of every bedroom producer at the time. He leans into clipped snares, gummy bass and oddball textures that stick in your head more than a chorus. Magoo, often underrated in the duo’s story, slides across these beats with a relaxed, conversational flow that’s more wry grin than chest-thump, and that balance is half the charm. When people talk about the signature Timbaland sound, they usually mean that playful collision of precision and strangeness. This album gives you that in spades.

“Cop That S***” is the obvious entry point. Missy Elliott barrels in with the kind of guest verse that hijacks a room, and the track flips MC Lyte’s “Paper Thin,” a sample that carries the weight of hip hop history without ever feeling like homework. It’s a proper single, built for cars and sticky dancefloors, and it nails the mood of 2003 nightlife. If you were out that year, you heard it. “Indian Flute” goes the other way, tilting toward a bhangra-laced bounce with New York singer Raje Shwari adding her distinctive vocal colour. She’d been popping up on rap and R&B records around then, and her presence here was a neat bridge between scenes. Sebastian, Timbaland’s brother, throws in his own flavour, and the result is one of those Timbo deep cuts that still gets DJs nodding.

What makes Under Construction, Part II quietly satisfying is how it stretches without straining. The beats are experimental in timbre, sure, but the writing stays grounded in everyday flex and flirt. There’s a looseness to the sessions you can feel, as if the pair were comfortable enough to leave air in the tracks. That gives Magoo room to lay back into his cadences, and it lets Timbo riff with percussion and little mouth-noise fills that reward headphones. You get the sense of a studio where the red light stayed on late and the ideas were captured before they cooled.

It’s also a record that knows its lineage. Timbaland & Magoo came up through the Swing Mob and Da Bassment circles in the 90s, alongside Aaliyah and Missy, and that shared history hums beneath the surface. There’s a warmth to the way the hooks land, a trust in melody, and a refusal to run with trends just because they’re buzzing. In 2003, Southern rap was booming and mixtapes were reshaping how singles traveled. This album sits right in that moment, confident and slightly left of centre.

If you’re on the hunt for Timbaland & Magoo vinyl, keep your eyes open. Original pressings of their catalogue can be elusive, and Under Construction Part II vinyl has long been a conversation piece for collectors. With Blackground’s catalogue returning to streaming in 2021, interest in the duo spiked again, and you’ll see more people talking about these records in shop queues. For anyone browsing a Melbourne record store or trawling vinyl records Australia listings to buy Timbaland records online, filing this next to Welcome to Our World and Indecent Proposal makes for a tidy trio. Timbaland albums on vinyl tend to vanish fast, so if you spot a clean copy, don’t think twice.

Two decades on, the album plays like a time capsule that hasn’t gathered dust. The singles still do damage, but the album tracks are the reason to stick around. You hear a producer pushing his own boundaries, a rapper comfortable in his lane, and a circle of collaborators who know when to punch in and when to chill. It’s not a victory lap, more a shrug and a smirk that says, this is what we do. Put it on loud, let the low end do its work, and you’ll understand why fans keep circling back.