Hip-hop superproducer Timbaland is eager to get back to his roots and break into country music.

The hitmaker recently dabbled in the genre as the producer of Justin Timberlake's country-tinged track Drink You Away, a song which the singer performed with Chris Stapleton at the 2015 Country Music Association Awards earlier this month (Nov15), to much acclaim.

While some critics were surprised by Timberlake's country flavour, Timbaland defended his longtime friend, telling TMZ.com, "We are country. He's from Tennessee, I'm from Virginia. It's only right that we try to tap into what we was raised in. We was raised in the country. That’s who we are."

"We love love songs, we heard our parents sing them, the old country songs," he adds. "But now it's a new generation of country. Drink You Away was done on (Timberlake's album) The 20/20 Experience. It’s now one of the biggest songs. But we always wanted to do country music. We thought some of our lyrics were country."

Timbaland's so determined to get back to his roots that he's even found a place to live in Nashville, Tennessee - the country music capital.

"I gotta break that genre," he says. "I gotta tap into country, I'm already posted up in Nashville. I got a little spot in Nashville. That's something I want to do. Cause I am music, so I don't discriminate no genres. I learn it and I study it and I love it."