Now, I have seen N*E*R*D, in person, twice now in the past two months, or is it three. April 16, in Seattle and June 3, in Portland. Both times with Kanye's GLOW IN THE DARK tour as one of the three opening acts. Lupe Fiasco, N*E*R*D and Rihanna. I have always had great respect for Pharrell, with all his production skills with EVERYONE it seems. Madonna, Britney, Sade (most recently), and Kanye (of course). The list goes on-and-on. AND he's a clean and sober guy. Has been! Doesn't smoke, you know, nor does he drink (not 100% on that one, but I'm pretty sure.) My boy met him in Seattle at KUBE before he passed and went on-and-on about it when he got home. "I met one of the Neptunes today." I guess he TRIED to smoke with him, but found out he didn't smoke! I think it was around that time that he himself quit. Maybe P had something to do with that, ya think?
CLEAR & CLEAN MINDS HAVE TIME
FOR ALL KINDS OF CREATIVITY!!!!
So, with all that commentary, here's the article from MTV Buzzworthy:
Check your iPod. If you don’t have any N.E.R.D. tracks (and if that’s true, then you need to get on it, so read on to avoid further pitying), then dollars to donuts, you’ve got something they’ve applied their Midas touch to as the Neptunes — their production operation. Madonna and Britney, Ludacris, Snoop, and Kanye — they’re currently backing him on his much-lauded Glow In the Dark tour. Hell, they’ve even remixed Sade.
Or, put another way: open up the Billboard charts, close your eyes and randomly point to an artist. Now open them. There’s an excellent chance the brain trust behind N.E.R.D. produced, remixed or will remix and/or produce that artist, taking already solid material to a new dimension you didn’t know existed but suddenly need a whole lot more of — the flavor of dream you’re not sure is the good or bad type, but you know it tastes better than being awake.
N.E.R.D. is Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo and Shae Haley. Like a giant squid fused with a set of conjoined octopus twins, the end result of N.E.R.D.’s time spent behind the controls sounds like they’ve got a lot more than just six hands and 30 fingers on deck. And the tracks snap, crackle and pop with the hyperstimulated sizzle of sticking all 30 into 30 different electrical sockets.
“With the Neptunes,” N.E.R.D.’s Chad Hugo told Hamptonroads.com, “we have that ability to collaborate with artists, and they have their vision and we’re there to paint different scenarios. As N.E.R.D., what we put out is directly from our brains to the stage. We’re in our own shoes. We have the ability to be ourselves.” Right. Which is why they’re about to drop their third N.E.R.D. album, Seeing Sounds, (out tomorrow), named for the neurological phenomenon synesthesia, where your senses basically swap shoes for the day. The album’s a celebration of their genre-resistant, chopped-and-screwed, tilted-and-twisted sound, complete with that hypnotic sawtooth bass swagger, dirty-ass drumming, superfunked, sexed-up, spaced-out blips, beeps and bumps.
We always suspected these guys saw things we don’t. Turns out they see everything we don’t. And with N.E.R.D. — forever the sickest and coolest kids you know — piloting their musical spacecraft into complete sensory overload, we get to explore a whole new galaxy of songs, sounds and sights we’d never otherwise hear… or taste.
Watch N.E.R.D.’s new video, “Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing In Line for the Bathroom),” plus a few all-time N.E.R.D. classics, check out their MTV.com live peformances, watch an exclusive Buzzworthy interview with the Va Bee three, watch their exclusive Artist of the Week videos — including performance clips shot at Special Sauce in Bayshore, New York — and road trip clips, featuring Donnell Rawlings (Ashy Larry of Chappelle’s Show.)
SOURCE: MTVBuzzWorthy
