I was recently talking to a friend about the wonderful mix of featured artists on Tyler, the Creator's 2017 album Flower Boy. The album features such illustrious guests as Frank Ocean, A$AP Rocky, Lil Wayne, and Kali Uchis, but the album's most famous guest only appears once, uncredited, on the album's final track. This artist is, of course, Pharrell Williams. My friend said that it seemed strange that Pharrell has such a small, behind-the-scenes role on the album, considering his status as a bonafide pop star with songs such as "Happy" and Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines", along with his notable features on Lil Uzi Vert's "Neon Guts", Janelle Monae's "I Got the Juice", Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot", and Ariana Grande's "Blazed". When I mentioned that Pharrell had in fact produced every single aforementioned track, my friend was completely stupefied. He had no idea of Pharrell's long, varied career as a producer. The musical polymath has seemingly always preferred to avoid the spotlight, even after he dominated the charts in 2013 and 2014 with "Blurred Lines", Daft Punk's "Get Lucky", and "Happy". Without further ado, here are some of Pharrell's greatest songs as a behind-the-scenes superstar.
For clarification: The Neptunes are a production duo consisting of Pharrell and Chad Hugo. N.E.R.D. is a band consisting of Williams, Hugo, and percussionist Shay Haley.
1. N.E.R.D. - "Provider"
N.E.R.D. provided Pharrell with his first taste of being a frontman and a bonafide superstar. The band's first record, In Search of..., is very similar to Pharrell and Hugo's work with The Neptunes, filled to the brim with synthesizers and drum machines. In order to keep the groups differed in both sound and style, the album was re-recorded just one year later. All members played their own instruments, and the album took on a much more subdued, rock-influenced sound. In its original state, "Provider" is fairly bare-bones. On the re-recording, it's a beautifully subdued piece of folky R&B, effortlessly showing off Pharrell skill as a producer, songwriter, and general jack-of-all-trades.
2. Clipse - "Momma I'm So Sorry"
The Neptunes' production style breathed new life into pop and hip-hop music around the turn of the century. Their drum programming was off-kilter, their melodies were deliberately synthetic, they took quite a bit of influence from music around the world, and Pharrell's common presence on the tracks he and Hugo produced gave the duo a level of stardom not usually given to producers. To best understand the unique production style of the duo, look no further than Clipse, the legendary hip-hop duo consisting of brothers No Malice and Pusha T. The duo released three albums during their career, and the first two—Lord Willin' and Hell Hath No Fury—were produced entirely by The Neptunes. Every single beat on both records is odd, eerie, skeletal, utterly unique, and above all, perfectly complementary to the exquisite rapping. "Momma I'm So Sorry", off of Hell Hath No Fury, is arguably the best collaboration between the two duos.
3. Ma$e - "Lookin' at Me"
Ma$e isn't exactly the best rapper in the world. Superstars such as Kanye West might site his signature lethargic, melodic drawl as influential, but to me, he always ends up sounding completely disinterested. And it's practically a crime to sound disinterested over a beat this good. "Lookin' at Me" was The Neptunes' first hit, reaching #8 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the minimalistic, eerie beat was a sign of fantastic things to come.
4. Kelis - "Caught Out Here"
Kelis' Kaleidoscope was the first album produced entirely by the Neptunes, and "Caught Out Here" is its best song. Kelis would later garner more commercial success with the iconic "Milkshake" (more on that later), but this aggressive R&B jam is one of her best, made even better by the wonky synths in the chorus that evoke malfunctioning machinery.
5. Snoop Dogg - "Drop It Like It's Hot"
After a decade of disappointment following the release of the seminal Doggystyle, Snoop Dogg burst back onto the hip hop scene with "Drop It Like It's Hot", his only #1 single as a primary artist. Very rarely do rappers from an earlier age make a comeback as seamless and well-received as Snoop, and the icy beat from the Neptunes has a lot to do with its success. The tongue clicks during the verses are an interesting voice, yet they somehow work perfectly, and the synths that lead into the chorus are a perfect ode to the g-funk sound of Snoop's early days.
6. Ol' Dirty Bastard - "Got Your Money"
It takes a production duo just as weird as the late, great Ol' Dirty Bastard to rein in the crazed rapper's talents and pump out a concise, incredibly catchy, off-kilter masterpiece of pop rap, and the Neptunes were just that production duo. The beat is propulsive and bouncy, ODB's rapping is just as strange as always, and Kelis' hook is undeniable.
7. Britney Spears - "I'm a Slave 4 U"
The singles for Spears' sophomore album, Oops!... I Did It Again, were primarily produced by Swedish hitmaker Max Martin and Shania Twain producer Mutt Lange. Martin and Lange are both known for their sterile, heavily poppy style, straying about as far away from R&B as possible, and upholding Spears' "little girl" image. "I'm a Slave 4 U", the first single from her eponymous third album takes Spears' sound in a completely different direction. The Neptunes' produced beat is sultry, sly, and, at the time, shockingly mature for Spears.
8. Common - "Come Close"
Pharrell and Hugo harken back to '70s soul for this silky smooth Common beat. "Come Close" was the only single for Common's strange, psychedelic Electric Circus, and it makes sense as to why. It's a really sweet, genuine, effortlessly produced and performed soul song, and the Neptunes' smooth beat fits perfectly among the kaleidoscopic J Dilla production that takes up the rest of the album.
9. Justin Timberlake - "Like I Love You"
It's almost weird to think of a time that Timberlake wasn't one of the most successful entertainers in the entire world. The transition from unmemorable boy band member to pop star could have, and probably should have, been incredibly difficult, but Timberlake's first single has him out of the gate running. This song emphasizes how important the drums are to the Neptunes' sound. With a more typical, standard drum loop this track could have been dead on arrival, but the off-kilter, distinctly Latin-feeling drums make the track much more interesting to listen to.
10. Kelis - "Milkshake"
Must I say more about this song? One of the most iconic pop songs of the entire 2000s was produced by the Neptunes and it has their trademark sound in spades. That iconic 4-beat count in, overly-synthetic instrumentation, what's not to love?
11. Gwen Stefani - "Hollaback Girl"
Now that this song is 13 years old and a firm relic of 2000s pop music, can we as a society realize how weird of a song this is? The verses have no melody whatsoever, the horns in the chorus are ear-piercing, Stefani isn't exactly the most palatable vocalist, and an interpolation of "Another One Bites the Dust" is inexplicably thrown in. Quality of the song aside, the Neptunes deserves a lot of credit for bringing this style of weird, minimalistic music to the mainstream.
12. Beyoncé - "Green Light"
As the Neptunes ended their time as a chart-dominating duo, it could have been easy for them to rest on their laurels. While "Green Light", a single from Beyoncé's second studio album, bears a little more than a passing resemblance to the singer's 2003 hit "Crazy in Love", the drums are still incredibly impressive, and the bridge is an absolute masterclass in songwriting and production.
13. Solange - "I Decided"
The first single to Solange's second studio record is odd for the Neptunes, in that it's entirely normal and straightforward. Eschewing off-kilter drums and robotic synths for a delightful ode to traditional pop and vocal jazz, the beautiful piano melody anchors a powerful vocal performance from the up-and-coming singer/songwriter.
14. Pusha T feat. Tyler, the Creator - "Trouble on My Mind"
As the 2010s rolled around, productions by the Neptunes have become less and less common. However, when Pharrell and Hugo do come together, they produce absolute gold. Here, the two reunite with former Clipse member Pusha T for a track from his first solo album, a hard-hitting banger featuring up-and-comer Tyler, the Creator. They may have gotten some help from Odd Future member Left Brain on the production, but this only endears them more—they were never scared to embrace the new guard of hip-hop.
15. Jay Z & Kanye West - "Gotta Have It"
Kanye West and Pharrell have quite a few similarities. They're both known best as huge solo artists, but both have really impressive careers as producers as well. So when the Neptunes and Kanye collab, the results are obviously pretty fantastic. The booming synth and eerie vocal sample are pure Neptunes, the piano and the James Brown sample at the end are pure Kanye, the styles match perfectly.
16. Frank Ocean - "Sweet Life"
If this track sounds a bit different than anything else on the list, it's because this wasn't produced by the Neptunes, just Pharrell. One of Pharrell's first big songs produced as a solo artist is smooth, sultry, and so effortlessly laid-back. Pharrell and Ocean create such a good groove and they don't even make a big deal out of it, it's a fantastic song from a fantastic album.
17. Earl Sweatshirt feat. Vince Staples - "Burgundy"
When I mentioned that Pharrell was on the ready to embrace the new guard of hip-hop, I wasn't joking, because this is the third Odd Future member on this list. This has the basic feel of a classic Neptunes production, just with a much more soulful of a sound. The horns are huge, and the drums are scarily off-kilter, which fits perfectly for an MC as strange as Sweatshirt.
18. Ed Sheeran - "Sing"
It's hard to try and suppress my (mostly negative) thoughts about Ed Sheeran as a whole, but I can't deny that this song properly catapulted the singer/songwriter into the absolutely massive pop star he is today. The melody and the guitar strums are distinctly Sheeran, but the percussion and the dancey vibe of the chorus are all Williams. Goes to show the power a good Pharrell beat can have.
19. Kendrick Lamar - "Alright"
Somehow I never knew Pharrell produced this, which was a pretty common thought I had as I was doing research for this list. Not only does Pharrell produce this track, the anthemic theme to the Black Lives Matter movement, he also sings it's vital chorus. Also, the drums leading into the chorus is one of my favorite musical moments in recent memory.
20. Travis Scott feat. Toro Y Moi - "Flying High"
Pharrell hasn't done much in the way of trap production, so the fact that the beats on the verses manage to stand out on an album already filled to the brim with great production is incredibly impressive. And the orchestral segments on the Toro Y Moi-led bridge are absolutely beautiful.
21. Frank Ocean - "Pink + White"
Pharrell and Ocean working together is an absolute sight to see, because they both knock it out of the park each time. Pharrell's production is often fairly hyperactive, but when he wants to turn it down a notch, he does it so, so well.
22. Camila Cabello feat. Young Thug - "Havana"
Pharrell didn't produce this, but he co-wrote it and it's him ad-libbing throughout pretty much the entire song. This is my first time finding this out, and I thought everybody reading this would probably like to know this, because it absolutely blew my mind.
23. Lil Uzi Vert feat. Pharrell Williams - "Neon Guts"
It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Pharrell produced this, considering he's featured, but this is another case of Pharrell doing really well at and bringing his own spin to a genre he doesn't have much experience in. Lil Uzi Vert is one of today's premiere trap artists, and hearing Pharrell produce for him is odd but it works incredibly well. The little melody in the background is really fantastic.
24. Migos - "Stir Fry"
Pharrell's recent production style has been undeniably indebted to bounce music, an upbeat and danceable style of hip hop that hails from New Orleans. It's so different compared to Migos' usual cinematic trap sound, and they still manage to flow so well over it. Pharrell always brings the best out of any artist he works with.
25. N.E.R.D. feat. Rihanna - "Lemon"
Yet another case of Pharrell emulating that New Orleans bounce style to wonderful effect. N.E.R.D.'s first studio album since 2010, No One Ever Really Dies, was strange, energetic, heavily indebted to punk and dance music. The fact that this was it's most normal, commercially viable single says all you need to know.
26. The Carters - "Apes**t"
Beyoncé and Jay-Z's first collaborative album wasn't the resounding success it probably should have been, but it did provide us with "Apes**t". Pharrell once again brings his own weird, melodic spin to an otherwise fairly typical trap beat, fitting perfectly with the braggadocio Beyoncé and Jay-Z are both spitting.
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