N.E.R.D

Hailing from Virginia, Williams and Hugo first met in seventh-grade in the school band. Nothing if not eclectic in their tastes, the pair devoured everything from hip-hop to punk and arena rock via their parents' record collections, and by the early 1990s were performing in various venues throughout Virginia Beach. One of these performances in a 1992 talent show featuring Pharrell, Chad and fellow high-school mate Shay (Sheldon Haley), led to them being discovered by new jack swing pioneer Teddy Riley. Under the watchful eye of Riley, Williams and Hugo began their production careers and soon branched out on their own taking on the name the Neptunes

Over the last five years, the Neptunes with their punctuating beats and unique syncopated rhythms, have helped propel the talents of a fantastic number of artists to the top of the charts, and their work with such luminaries as Jay-Z, Mystikal, Kelis, Ol' Dirty Bastard, and Busta Rhymes has made them one of the most sought after production units on the hip-hop/pop axis.

With their digital musical palette and vivid imaginations, they've taken their hip-hop foundation and stretched the boundaries of many different genres, bestowing unsuspecting hit records in lightening succession - whether in rap (Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, et al), R&B (Usher, Babyface), pop (Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake) or rock (No Doubt), Pharrell and Chad have been making the soundtrack to your days, nights and everything in between for the past few years.

In 2002, the duo signed a deal with Arista Records to distribute material from acts such as Kelis, Spymob, and Clipse signed to their own Startrak label, and they recently took home a 2004 Grammy award for “Producer of the Year.

However, not content with being pigeonholed as hit makers for the hip-hop/R&B A-list, the production gurus, along with vocalist Shay decided to once again became masters of their own destiny with the launch of their own alter-ego band, N*E*R*D in 2001.

Pharrell explains: "N.E.R.D stands for No One Ever Really Dies. The Neptunes are who we are and N.E.R.D is what we do... As Neptunes we are producers and we're like the crayons to other peoples colouring books, but N*E*R*D is our colouring book". And boy have these guys been doing some colouring!! They've practically taken over the music business with their unique off the wall production, and not content with just shading other peoples drawings, they've stepped up and drawn their own outline with N*E*R*D.

Their debut album, "In Search Of..." was painted with the familiar digital crayons that marked Neptunes-produced songs, but after it's release they decided they needed to head in a different direction. So the group abandon those tracks and re-released the album recruiting the band Spymob, to articulate their new sound with live instrumentation.

Going beyond hip-hop, conjuring the spirits of 70's R&B and fusing them with '70s rock, "In Search Of..." crossed genre boundaries and confounding expectations, proving that N*E*R*D are infinitely more interesting, and groundbreaking than most of Pharrell and Chad's famous clients.

Now about to release "Fly Or Die" on March 23rd, their second album picks up where the free-wheeling sensibility of its predecessor "In Search Of...", left off. The songs represent the spectrum of influence impressed upon the trio, from classic rock and Beatles-esque pop to old funk and modern hip hop, and the live instrumentation remains, but this time instead of Spymob, it is Pharrell and Chad that provide the instrumentation

Is there anything these guys can't do? The answer is probably no, and we feel we can do nothing else but bow down and celebrate their huge talent by making them our MTV Artists Of The Week

HH