Timbaland has revealed the story of how he met Ludacris, and how he “was the one” who discovered the rapper.

The Virginia-born producer has been sharing his production knowledge on social media, including his own Twitch channel and numerous podcasts.

On April 24, Timbaland – real name Tim Mosley – became the first interviewee in the I Am Hip-Hop series. He spoke about how he and Atlanta rapper-turned-actor’s 2000 track ‘Phat Rabbit’ made “labels started calling” Ludacris.

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“I was the one who found Ludacris,” he said. “Because Ludacris was working in the radio station and I was like, ‘Hey, ain’t nobody sign you? What’s going on here?’ [He was like], ‘Nah man.’”

Mosley spoke about Ludacris asking who should sign with: “He asked me one time, ‘Would you sign to Def Jam or Eleltra?’ I said, ‘Man, you better go to Def Jam.’ And I didn’t know how the business go. I just backed them ’cause I knew he was incredible.”

Timbaland and Ludacris hopped back in the studio to work on the latter’s 10th album in 2019. In a statement, the ‘Stand Up’ rapper said, “Tim was the first person that really believed in me, along with Jermaine Dupri and Organized Noize.”

He continued, “Do your history, Google that.”

The Grammy Award-winning producer also spoke about how Aaliyah‘s massively successful single ‘Try Again’ was a “mistake”. He said, “I was playing with this keyboard and it was a mistake, and my engineer Jimmy Douglass caught it. I said, ‘Jimmy did you catch that lil rhythm?, [and] he said, ‘I sure did’.”

The song won two MTV Video Music Awards, was Grammy-nominated, and became the first single to reach Number One on the Billboard chart solely on airplay. However, rap mogul Jay-Z convinced Mosely he had a hit: “When Jay-Z came in the studio, he was like, ‘Oh my God,’ and that’s when I was like, ‘Yeah, we got one.’”

In other news, Timbaland has confirmed that Justin Timberlake‘s next album is “finished” and that they’ll be reviving their sound from ‘FutureSex/LoveSounds’.

Meanwhile, Ludacris will be performing at the Hard Rock Casino in Cincinnati alongside Flo Rida and Ashanti on July 20. Tickets go on sale on April 28 at 10am.