The singer Pharrell labelled a maestro: “His voice is unmatched”
Pharrell Williams has been a hitmaker since he first began producing in the mid-1990s. The producer first arose out of Virginia beach alongside his friend Chad Hugo and the two quickly became protégés of the iconic Grammy-award-winnng musician Teddy Riley.
With Riley’s mentorship, he quickly became a master beatmaker and was soon producing and writing tracks for groups such as Wreckx-n-Effect and soon exploded into the hip-hop mainstream after the release of Noreaga’s 1998 single ‘Superthug’.
With their unique sound and beautifully simplistic sonics, swiftly took over the hip-hop charts with their beats and by 2003, were responsible for 43% of the songs on US radio, and the number only grew from there.
Having worked with rap stars and pop stars alike, including artists such as Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, Kelis and Britney Spears, Pharrell has worked with the best of the best and, in 2013, even began venturing into pop and funk, working with the likes of Nile Rogers and Robin Thicke.
During the making of his 2014 album GIRL, Williams spoke with the Associated Press (AP) about some of the best tracks he has produced over the years and called one of his collaborators a “maestro” concerning singing.
When speaking with AP about his intentions going into the making of GIRL, Williams revealed, “I wanted to work with all cultures and all kinds of people so it could teach me more about my own craft.” He continued, All of the artists we were blessed to work with that didn’t look like us, that didn’t sound like us or didn’t dance like us, all of that was the very reason I was able to make this album.”
When asked to reflect on some of his favourite tracks, Williams first named Jay-Z’s ‘So Ambitious’, which appeared on his 2009 album The Blueprint 3. Opening up about his of Jay-Z, Williams revealed, “He just continues to get better — it’s like fine wine,. He’s something else. When you talk to him, you see purple. He’s wisdom.”
He also cited Missy Elliott’s ‘On & On’ from her 2005 album, The Cookbook, unveiling, “That’s one of my favourite hip-hop beats I’ve done of all time because it’s so unorthodox. It’s Missy, so you’re working with a person that’s genius. She morphs into anything. Her spirit is super-colourful and larger than life. And she knows how to tap into another zone.”
However, one of his favourite productions of his own he named was Usher’s 2001 song ‘U Don’t Have to Call’. Pharrell spoke highly of Usher, telling the AP, Don’t Have to Call” was another hit in Usher’s epic run as pop’s leading man in the early 2000s. “He’s just a maestro … his voice is unmatched … he supersedes what most people think he can do.”
You can listen to Ushe’s ‘You Don’t Have To Call’ in the video below.