Don Toliver Brings Justin Timberlake Back to the Stage

Justin Timberlake is back on stage, and Don Toliver can take some of the credit.

During the NITROUS leg of Toliver’s OCTANE World Tour, Timberlake made a surprise appearance, giving fans a moment that felt almost too perfectly planned. The reason? Toliver’s song “Body” samples Timberlake’s 2002 hit “Rock Your Body,” so seeing the two artists share a stage was basically the musical universe connecting the dots.

Timberlake did not simply show up for a quick hello, either. He was spotted watching the show from the crowd before eventually being brought onstage, turning what could have been a normal concert night into a pretty memorable one.

The connection between “Body” and “Rock Your Body” goes beyond Toliver borrowing a familiar sound. He has made it clear that Timberlake’s music has been important to him for years.

Toliver has spoken openly about how much Justified, the album that originally housed “Rock Your Body,” means to him. "I got a lot of fond memories of that," he said to Billboard earlier this year. "Justin Timberlake is always one of my favorites. Justified, that album is literally in my top 10 favorite albums of all time."

So when Toliver decided to sample “Rock Your Body,” it was not exactly a random trip through the music archives. It was more like taking one of his favorite songs and giving it a new home.

The decision, according to Toliver, was mostly instinct.

"I didn't think that deep into it," Toliver explained. "Hold on, this is literally one of my favorite songs of all-time. 'Rock Your Body' is one of those songs that triggers an endorphin in my body. To put those two together was so iconic for me."

And now, the artists behind those two musical moments have literally been put together on the same stage. Talk about a full-circle moment.

“Rock Your Body,” produced by the Neptunes, is one of the signature singles from Justified. Released in 2002, the song helped establish Timberlake as a solo star following his run with *NSYNC.

More than two decades later, Toliver flipped part of that musical history into “Body,” bringing the sound to a new generation of listeners. The surprise appearance gave that connection an extra layer, especially for fans who knew exactly where the sample came from.

For longtime Timberlake fans, it was a chance to see a familiar star return to the spotlight. For Toliver fans, it was a reminder that one of the artists influencing his sound was suddenly standing right there with him.

The Timberlake appearance comes during the NITROUS leg, the second phase of Toliver’s OCTANE World Tour.

The new leg kicked off Aug. 4 in Sacramento after the first run of 31 dates sold out. That success helped push the tour to add 19 more cities, giving Toliver even more opportunities to bring his music to fans.

The NITROUS leg is scheduled to wrap up Sept. 6 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. After that, Toliver will take the tour to Europe, where the run continues through late November.

For now, though, one of the tour’s biggest moments may already belong to Timberlake, Toliver and a song that started this whole musical connection more than 20 years ago.