Revenge of the NERDs

Since they emerged in the late 1990’s from the hip hop hothouse that is Virginia Beach, The Neptunes have become the hottest producers in rap, almost on a par with other big-name knob-twiddlers like Dr. Dre and Timbaland. The duo, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, have been friends since early childhood and have helped craft hits for a long list of hip hop artists starting with Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s ‘Got My Money’ and Jay-Z’s ‘I Wanna Love U’ and moving onto the biggest names in rap, from LL Cool J (‘Luv U Better’), Busta Rhymes (‘Pass The Courvoisier’) and Nelly (‘Hot In Here’). They then successfully crossed into mainstream pop in 2001 producing tracks for the likes of Britney Spears (‘I’m a Slave 4 U’), N’Sync (‘Girlfriend’), and Usher’s (‘U Don’t Have to Call’).

Their own debut album, Neptunes Present... Clones (2003), confirmed their growing popularity, by topping the US album chart and shifting 250,000 units during its first week alone. They continued to churn out hits, most notably for Justin Timberlake (‘Rock Your Body’) Snoop Dogg (‘Beautiful’) and Jay-Z’s ‘Excuse Me Miss’. Not satisfied with conquering the hip hop world, the Neptunes then began their own rap-rock group, N.E.R.D. (which stands for “No One Ever Really Dies”)
N.E.R.D’s 2002s debut In Search Of displayed a nu-metal sense of adventure that travelled some distance from their hip hop roots and won them an even wider audience.
“A lot of people don’t get the N.E.R.D thing,” says Chad Hugo on the line from his base in Virgina. “We wanted to let people know that there was a lot more depth to what we do. People had us categorised a certain way – they think, ‘Those are the guys who make the beats for all these people.’ N.E.R.D is our side thing, apart from what we do as The Neptunes.”
The latest album from the pair’s rock alter ego, Fly Or Die, sports influences as diverse as The Beatles and Duran Duran, along with a distinct 1970’s funk vibe. The current single, the piano-based soft funk/rock tune ‘Maybe’, is well on the way to becoming their biggest hit.
“It’s good that people are recognising us now ’cos we’ve been doing this for about 15 years”, Hugo offers. “We started out making a lot of hip hop records, which is still our first love and will always be our foundation but it’s good to start breaking out and dipping our heads into pop radio and stuff like that. I can relate to Outkast but I can also relate to Radiohead for that matter and bands like The Darkness. Hopefully we’ll reach a wider audience but we’re not trying to be trendy for the radio or for MTV.”
Hugo says his primary influences lie in the soul and hip hop of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s: “I remember seeing Stevie Wonder on The Cosby Show and that made a big impression on me. I got a sampler and an electronic keyboard and I was intrigued by all the sounds it could make. Between that and being into the whole hip hop scene I just became captivated. Then the whole Herbie Hancock thing was amazing as well. Here was a jazz artist doing hip hop which was just amazing to me. It was the age of exploration with a lot of people doing different things. We’re in that time right now again.”
The Neptunes team appears to be unassailable at the moment – one reviewer probably got it right when he said the pair “practically sweat platinum”. What have been the highlights of their production work to date?
“Doing the Justin Timberlake stuff probably,” he says. “We got our rewards for it in the shape of a Grammy, which was nice. But it wasn’t just about getting the Grammy – it was working with Justin, who’s a real nice dude and a very talented guy. It wasn’t your typical thing that happens sometimes with us where we do a song in a day, stick on a hip hop beat and put it out to radio. He came to our town and we hung out a little bit and we built up a friendship.”
N.E.R.D are on tour at the moment and Irish audiences will get a chance to experience them live at the Oxegen festival. What can people expect to see?
“When N.E.R.D play live we tend to get a really wide-ranging crowd, including a lot of people who are just curious to see what we’re like,” he says. “That’s who we’re really trying to target, people who are out looking for something new and different. You’ll find diehard N.E.R.D. fans out there as well but they tend to be those looking for something different. We’re not trying to claim rock for ourselves, we’re not even trying to claim hip hop – it’s all just music.” b

N*E*R*D play this Saturday night at Oxegen