I did not find this in a search, so I hope this hasn't already been posted.

I will not hide the fact that I am NOT a Timberlake fan. It comes as no surprise to me that he and Timbaland listened to Prince while recording Timberlake's last album. It is sooooo painfully obvious that this nerd made a pathetic attempt to bite Prince's sound and style (even down to his stage design and musicians for his tour). I am sure this has probably been discussed here, though I missed it. Anyway, here they basically admit it.

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Justin Timberlake's Fooling 'Around' Resulted In Award-Nominated Song: Behind The Grammys

'We had no direction at all,' Danjahandz tells MTV News of the song, adding that Timbaland supplied JT with Prince tunes and lasagna.
By Jennifer Vineyard

...Timberlake had gone to Timbaland's studio in Virginia to begin sessions for the LP — but there was no game plan for the album, not even a title. "I think that was the beauty of the whole project," Danjahandz said. "Nobody had a thought about anything. None of us was aiming for anything." So while Timbaland kept them well supplied with "real good lasagnas and pastas" to eat and plenty of Prince music to listen to on the stereo, they were just "fooling around" and "freestyling" at first. Then Danja started playing a guitar riff that caught Justin's attention...

Full article: http://www.mtv.com/news/a...stin.jhtml

i expected to see a picture of justin nibbling prince's ear or something because i already knew the rest

he said prince,s music did influence him. and there is a track off the sexyback c.d. that sounds like prince