Justin Timberlake has countless hits on his résumé, 39 Billboard Hot 100 entries as a solo artist and 13 more as a part of *NSYNC.
JT sat down with Complex on Thursday (Nov. 5) to reminisce on his decorated catalog and rank the best songs of his career, and he ultimately went with “What Goes Around…/… Comes Around,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 in March 2007 and landed on Timberlake’s FutureSex/LoveSounds album.
“I would put this at No. 1 or No. 2,” he said. “It’s the first song I wrote for FutureSex/LoveSounds. Maybe I should dispel a rumor at this point, which has gone around forever, which it’s not a personal story of mine; it’s actually a personal story from a friend.”
Timberlake continued: “He was going through it and telling me what had happened. I said, ‘Do you mind if I write about this?’ And I quote, my friend said, ‘Yeah, torch that bi—. What goes around comes around.’ I was like, ‘I have to go. Thank you, I have to go.’”
It has long been rumored that “What Goes Around…/…Comes Around” was inspired by his close friend Juan “Trace” Ayala’s fractured relationship with The Girl Next Door actress Elisha Cuthbert.
“I just went in and again, this song was written in damn near 20 minutes,” JT added. “It was just flowing. The interlude that goes with it and then you put the video with it,” he said, referencing the Scarlett Johansson-starring clip. “We shot a 10-minute video we shot for it. This just hit on all cylinders for me.”
Timberlake gave “What Goes Around” the nod over “Mirrors,” “My Love,” “SexyBack” and “Cry Me a River” to round out his personal top five.
Elsewhere in the interview, Timberlake opened up about how Ye told him that “SexyBack” inspired him to make “Stronger,” which saw West bring in Timbaland to get the drums correct on his Graduation smash.
“You could probably find it, Kanye came to one of the shows on the FutureSex/LoveShow Tour. I had him come up and we did ‘Stronger’ together,” JT recalled. “He showed up and was suited up like I was. It was a moment. I remember talking a lot about that song.”
As for the future, Timberlake revealed that he worked on a few songs with Don Toliver after popping out at the “Can’t Say” rapper’s Miami tour stop in August. Toliver sampled JT’s “Rock Your Body” on his OCTANE standout “BODY.”
“I was like, ‘Don’t you have a studio on the road?’ He was like, ‘Yeah.’ I was like, ‘Cool, take a shower. Let’s work.’ We stayed at the arena for a couple hours. We did a few ideas,” he teased.
Watch Justin Timberlake’s full appearance on Complex‘s Re-Rank below.
