I’ve never been mad at a remix or remake when it brings something fresh to the song. Yalla Habebe, an anonymous producer, just dropped a remix of Timbaland and Keri Hilson’s “The Way I Are.” This version leans into afro-house, turning the track into something slower, warmer, and way more intimate. It’s less about nostalgia and more about how it moves right now, with a summer groove that’s all body and heat.
The original, released in 2007, paired Timbaland’s verses with Hilson’s cool delivery over electrohop and R&B textures. Heavy synths gave it a futuristic shine, and that push-and-pull between them made it one of the biggest club records of the late 2000s. Timbaland plays the broke guy, Hilson shrugs it off, and their back-and-forth turned into the hook that packed dance floors. It climbed to number three on the Hot 100, went triple platinum in the U.S., and hit number one across the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Canada, and Australia.
The video leaned into the same raw, street-level feel, shot in Salford with extra verses from Timbaland’s crew. Critics compared it to Justin Timberlake’s futuristic cuts, but Hilson’s presence kept it fresh and gave the track its own pull. Between the Grammy nods, VMA nomination, and year-end iTunes top sellers, “The Way I Are” proved Timbaland was still running the sound of that era—and Hilson showed she was more than a feature, she was about to be a name on her own.
This fresh take is below. Enjoy!
