![]() ![]() You could easily opt for Busta Rhymes’ other great Neptunes production, Pass the Courvoisier Part 2, but Light Your Ass on Fire’s cocky minimalism is what makes it: beyond the opening nod to Kraftwerk’s Trans-Europe Express, there’s nothing but a drumbeat, clearly designed to sound incredible at immense volume. 21 Busta Rhymes ft Pharrell Williams – Light Your Ass on Fire (2003) There’s an echo of that early weirdness here: “I got a colourful aura,” he offers, “like I got neon guts.” And the beat is terrific: spacey synths over a super-stoned rhythm track. In the Neptunes’ pre-fame days, Williams wrote psychedelic sci-fi rhymes: a Virginia Beach friend remembered lyrics about “space coasters” and laser guns. ![]() ![]() ![]() 22 Lil Uzi Vert ft Pharrell Williams – Neon Guts (2017) 23 Gwen Stefani – Hollaback Girl (2004)Įven on an album that featured productions from Dr Dre, André 3000, Dallas Austin and Jam and Lewis, the Neptunes’ work stood out: battering-ram drums, dive-bombing sub-bass, raw-sounding brass samples, an incongruously sweet acoustic guitar. But behind the familiarity lurks a fantastic pop song, its lyrical straightforwardness balanced by beautifully nuanced production that evokes 60s soul without sounding like an imitation. The eighth highest-selling single in UK history, Happy is hopelessly, perhaps irrevocably, overplayed: plenty of listeners would doubtless be delighted never to hear it again. Read more 24 Pharrell Williams – Happy (2013) The main lyrical preoccupations of NERD’s debut album are evident in the song titles – Lapdance, Rock Star, Am I High? – but Run to the Sun is something else: slick funk that sounds like a love song, but turns out to be a regret-filled paean to Williams’s ailing grandmother. The rumours were untrue, but you can’t really blame people for wanting one: Juggernaut is that good. Pharrell’s only contribution to the uncompromisingly dark Juggernaut was a guest spot, rapping over the distorted beats and dive-bombing bass, but it was enough to spark rumours of a collaborative Tyler/Williams album. 28 Tyler, the Creator ft Lil Uzi Vert and Pharrell Williams – Juggernaut (2021) It was repurposed – with Nas replacing Pusha T – for the Neptunes’ Clones album, but the original still wins. Though Hugo and Williams pursued solo projects in the 2010s, N.E.R.D returned in 2017, and they produced Justin Timberlake’s diverse, rootsy Man of the Woods in 2018, yet again drawing from a deep well of inspiration.A lost classic from Kelis’s second album, which wasn’t released in the US: guest rap from Pusha T, slapping beats, reedy organ, great hook (“Make my record skip, make my record skip”) fantastic chorus. Meanwhile, they also created their own left-field band, the gleefully genre-bending R&B/rock hybrid act N.E.R.D. And their 2006 pairing with Clipse on Hell Hath No Fury remains a high-water mark for lyrical hip-hop production. They helped Britney Spears reinvent herself as a deliciously bad girl on “I’m a Slave 4 U.” Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani, Usher-for each artist, they brought productions steeped in hormonal immediacy. They produced for JAY Z (“I Just Wanna Love U”) and Mystikal (the spacious “Shake Ya Ass”). From that point on, they took over the airwaves. Their aesthetic can be heard, in embryonic form, on Mase’s 1998 track “Lookin’ at Me” it stormed into the mainstream a year later with bangers like Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Got Your Money” (the perfect setting for the rapper’s off-kilter flow) and Kelis’ album Kaleidoscope. By the late ’90s, the duo had crafted a uniquely spacious, rhythmically complex sound that drew on their marching-band past, frequently oriented around a single, stabbing melodic line and futuristic, off-the-wall flashes of flourish. They first used the name “The Neptunes” at a talent show sponsored by R&B impresario Teddy Riley, who signed them upon graduation from school. Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams met at band camp in Virginia Beach, VA, in 1990 (Williams drummed, Hugo played sax). The Neptunes are one of the most influential production duos of the 21st century, both madly prolific and startlingly original-and as capable of topping the charts as of pleasing the snootiest underground hip-hop heads. ![]()
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