Britney Spears Fans Praise Missy Elliot For Prompting Timbaland’s Apology

Pop star Britney Spears might have gotten an apology from Timbaland, but as it turns out, it was all thanks to Missy Elliot.

On Tuesday, a clip surfaced online, in which the music producer said that Justin Timberlake should have "put a muzzle" on "crazy" Britney Spears. Although Timbaland did apologize, many fans slammed his words as a "second insult." However, they did have praise for Missy Elliot, who was apparently the one who pushed Timbaland to apologize for his remarks in the first place.

After the release of her memoir, "The Woman In Me," on October 24, 2023, Timbaland suggested that the "Cry Me A River" singer should have "put a muzzle" on the pop star to prevent her from reflecting on allegations of infidelity and an unplanned pregnancy.

In the clip, Timbaland calls Britney "crazy" before he went on to say, “I wanted to call JT and say ‘Man! You should have put a muzzle on that girl.’”

In a snippet of his TikTok Live post to X, formerly known as Twitter, Timbaland apologized but it didn't sound like much of an apology. Timbaland said, “I’m sorry to all the Britney fans, even to her. If she never saw the… I’m sorry because muzzle was… no. You have a voice and you speak what you wanna speak. Who am I to tell you when not to speak and I was wrong for saying that but I hope you see it from… I was looking at it from a different lens.”

He concluded, “I apologize to the Britney fans and her and yes, you know, about respecting women, h— yeah.” Elsewhere in the video, though, he revealed that it was actually Missy Elliot who prompted him to apologize, prompting support from Britney fans.

In a short post shared to the Britney Spears sub-Reddit, one user started off the conversation, writing, “Missy Elliott apparently texted Timbaland and said she doesn’t support what he said and that he owes Britney an apology.”

“He went live on Instagram last night to issue an ‘apology’ and mentioned he was doing this because of Missy texting him. Good on Missy, but he can F off with his half a--ed apology. He never directly says sorry to Britney during any of it,” one netizen commented.

“What a f---ing idiot. Why would you say you’re only giving an apology because someone told you to?” another user asked.

Other fans were hoping that the “Toxic” singer would speak up about his comments. “That's a nice development. She was just inducted into Rock n Roll Hall of Fame like last week and thanked him #1. So they close, and he owes her. Nice to see her poking his ribs. I kinda hope/wish Britney claps back,” another user wrote. “She ain't a fragile baby bird anymore y'all. I want her to whip out a sheet from her box of ‘f--- yous’ and throw one at Tim, like You want a piece of me? You want a piece of me.”

However, not everyone agreed, as one user stated, “Britney is too big to reply to everyone who says something about her.”

“Y'all hate hearing this, but Timbaland ain't just anybody. He is the industry that has been bullying her all her career,” another follower wrote. “He is the embodiment of all those people who tell her she isn't good enough and equivocate about terrible crimes that happened to her. He is a great avatar for her to pushback on an entire industry who did bully her. Let's not forget it was not just the paps and Perez Hilton, people like Tim (I won't mention others), and so many others, bullied her. I want her to demonstrate she's got a new approach to bullies nowadays and not even a bona fide legend like Timbaland is gonna get away with that s--- anymore.”

As it turns out, Timbaland might have lost favor with a lot of other celebrities for his comments. “I think I saw that her, Madonna and a few other female celebs unfollowed Timbaland on his socials after his nasty comments towards Brit. I'm glad we're all finally putting our foots down when it comes to literally bullying Britney,” another netizen commented. “It's NOT ok, especially not in 2023 after everything she's been through. F--- around and find out Timbaland. Maybe next time he'll think before he opens his mouth about Britney.”

It wouldn't be a surprise to learn that Madonna unfollowed Timbaland, as she also unfollowed Justin Timberlake following the release of Britney's memoir.