| Revenge of the N.E.R.D. How two teetotaling hip-hop heads create stanky Jeep anthems by Sacha Jenkins (for Spin Magazine, August 2001) Up in Studio C at midtown Manhattan�s Right Track Recording, two fatigued hip-hoppers, Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams, prepare to embark on a remix for aging new wavers Depeche Mode (whom they�ve never met). But th session is stalled because �Dream On� the song slated to be reworked, is missing. Engineers frantically click through hard drives as the two peeved producers scowl on. Not that Hugo and Williams, a.k.a. the Neptunes, have much to complain about. The Virginia Beach production team is in high demand, remixing or producing everyone from �Nsync to Prince. They�ve created club banging hit like Jay -Z�s �I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me),� Mystikal�s �Shake Ya Ass,� and Noreaga�s �Superthug.� �One time we were in a studio in L.A. working on three different songs for three different groups,� says Williams. �We had No Doubt in one room and Brandy in another and were mixing Kelis in another--all at once.� Though the sleep-deprived 27-year-olds appreciate the work, they�re more excited about they�re new project: the R&B bugout group N.E.R.D. (short for No One Really Ever Dies). N.E.R.D. capriciously striking debut, In Search Of�, is a genre-bending freak show that places milky old soul crooning atop schizophrenic hip-hop beats and metal-inflected synth runs, �the N.E.R.D. album is different,� cautions Noreaga. �And it�s supposed to be. To me, anybody who doesn�t sell crack or get high or drunk is weird people--and Chad and Pharrell are usually sober.� (�Being a nerd,� Williams reasons, �is believing it�s okay to be a little smarter.�) But the straight edge duo must know something about the high life, because In Search Of�-blessed with the same bounce infected drum programming and jarring keyboard stabs that propel the best Neptunes jams--is teeming with tales of purple haze (�Bobby James�) and twisted sex (the titillating first single, �Lapdance�). The relentlessly experimental pair are grades ahead of the mushy sap heard on urban radio, and the album is spiritually fortified with enough headbanger�s brew to make John Rocker say �Ho!� Search�s release date, however, has been delayed several times. A source at N.E.R.D.�s label, Virgin, says that the company wasn�t sure how to market the electro-based, chitterlin-belt soul album. Though �Lapdance� did okay, the N.E.R.D.s claim that sales aren�t their concern. �This is a tastemaking album,� says Williams. �We wanted to change some things on the radio--that�s all.� Williams--a star-spangled man who stands behind his principles--says his partner has something he secretly desires: marriage and kids. �If I had that, I would be happy,� he says. �When you�ve got on girl fucking you, and another bitch kissing you, and you�re squeezing another�s titties, like, that�s a lot. I don�t want that anymore. I�m a stay where we are right now--behind the mixing board.� |