| The N.E.R.D. From Another Planet Fires Back at the Power of the Media (from the September 2001 issue XXL Magazine, page 50. NOTE: This article is a response from Pharrell Williams after a negative review from XXL and the inclusion of a quote from Pharrell in the magazine�s �Negro Please� section. Both were included in the June 2001 issue. �Can we just go some where else? Like, man, who gives a fuck where we�re from, how old we are? Like either (A) talk about music, or (B) talk about the world. Can we do that?� was the quote from the �Negro Please� section.) I think that whoever at XXL listened to my album to review it should�ve listened to it from the perspective of me being a person--not listening to me for what it is that I do. Like nobody shits on Will Smith for acting. Can I just be like, uh, I ain�t gonna say multi-talented, can I just be multi-skillful or something� �Cause at the end of the day my album wasn�t made for you to go and shoot anybody. Or it wasn�t made for you to go sell any drugs and something that you�re not. My album was a matter of practicing the freedom of expression. Whoever reviewed my album said I sounded like a wack Everlast. And they shitted on it like I was trying to be Everlast. I�m not trying to be Everlast! A diss is telling me I sound like Lil� Kim on the operating table. That�s a diss. That was fucking unnecessary! Like at the end of the day you don�t like what it is that I�m trying to do then just don�t say nothing at all. Kim is my homegirl and a rapper so why would you compare me to her? That�s like me saying XXL is no different then a fuckin� regular fuckin� cheap neighborhood newspaper. People say [rappers] got influence on the hip-hop game. But it�s the media, dude. At the end of the day, if your record don�t get played, people won�t hear your record nine times out of 10. If they don�t see you on TV they won�t hear about you. If they can�t read about you in a magazine they won�t know about you. We should be more responsible about the things that we print. You can always hear about a rapping feud in magazines. And that�s fucked up because when you read a rock magazine they not talking about shit like that. They also not talking about the cars and the houses either. It�s a whole different culture and I totally understand that. But I�m just ready for my people to be taken to another level. At the end of the day, I do this shit for not only myself but I�m trying to do it for the world. I�m trying to be like how Marvin [Gaye] was great and fuckin� Donny Hathaway was great. I want to be one of those niggas that know that they contributed to the betterment of mankind. When you read a magazine and it says �nigga please� to me saying can we either talk about music or talk about the world and end that shit with �nigga please� then that�s wack. That shit pissed me the fuck off because you know what it is, at the end of the day, whoever fuckin� did that dumb-ass column doesn�t know me, man. I don�t hold my dick and think about fuckin� houses and cars all day cause I got �em. That�s not me man. Had that came from some typical rapper guy that you assume is like that, it might have made more sense. If you don�t like me, man, don�t say nothing about me. �Cause there ain�t no �nigga please� about me. I do more fuckin� charity than most people write off on their taxes. That�s who I am. So whoever said �nigga please� don�t say �nigga please� about me, man. Say �nigga please� about yourself. You don�t fuckin� know me. That shit pissed me off so bad. Finally, the person who reviewed my album was probably listening to the shit that I did for Busta or was listening my shit on the Jay-Z or Babyface record. I got music all over the fuckin� spectrum but people wouldn�t know because we�re segregated as a race. But that�s not my fault. So the minute I do something that is not necessarily challenging to�fuckin� do your homework first, man. Read my discography first and see that I�m not stepping out. I�m not trying to be Everlast. I could be super cocky and run down 100 rock groups that I�ve worked with already. That�s so dumb and all you�re gonna do is blow that shit up like I�m being cocky. And I don�t want to be cocky. --As told to Vanessa Satten |