Timbaland has turned his back on hip-hop – insisting the genre is “just not the same” as when he started out. The Grammy-winning superproducer began his career working for hip-hop superstars Ginuwine and Missy Elliott, but has moved away from the genre to focus on more pop-sounding tracks with acts like Justin Timberlake, The Pussycat Dolls, and even Miley Cyrus

“I was done with hip-hop a long time ago. Once my generation left, I left. I do it, but there’s nobody from my generation besides Jay-Z who’s doing it. I look at Lil Wayne as being from my generation. Some people are still acceptable,” he tells MTV.com. “Kanye (West) is acceptable from my generation. It’s just not the same. By it not being the same, I kind of fade to black. I did music that fits where I was going to in my age bracket.”

“I figured it out a couple of years ago with Nelly (Furtado) and Justin (Timberlake) and myself. We had a tremendous run. I think it was good for me to do that. But I got this run, I’m not gonna stop until I wanna stop.”