So the Pharrell album leaked. My expectations had been significantly dampened by the lack of standout tracks coming out before the entire album. Pharrell & Chad Hugo have the uncanny ability of pleasantly surprising the listener, using unorthodox sounds that somehow delight the ear. Whether it's mouth clicks or sound bytes from video games they excell at presenting the unexpected. Unfortunately, Pharrell decided to do the beats all by himself on his solo (half)-effort, utilizing Chad Hugo only for the engineering and mastering portions of the album. It shows. The last great producer turned rapper album was the College Dropout, and it was great because Kanye West brought fresh beats and fresh perspective to the scene. Pharrell is way more established at this point in his career than Kanye was, and thus told himself he didn't need to do anything groundbreaking, and it that it's ok to use the same snares and guitar plucks from eight years ago. You may think I'm going to now completely trash the entire album, but I'm not. There are a few nice tracks, Pharrell still knows how to USE those tired sounds, which is obviously more important than the familiarity (and possible apathy) of the sounds themselves. The cut with Snoop, the cut with Slim Thug and the excellently smooth Take It Off all stand out. Unfortunately, the guest appearances by Pusha T, Jay-Z &
Kanye West are all fantastically underwhelming. I don't know if I'll listen to this much in a few months but even though it's not interesting, it's not
uninteresting, if that's a compliment.
Pharrell Williams - Raspy ShitThe other two tracks I posted are pretty much polar opposites, and shining examples of what can frustrate me so much about The Neptunes. The Ludacris song is a nice stab at being a party cut, but I don't know why he would make it his first single, he's enjoying a bit of a renaissance as a lyrical beast, you can find some of his other new tracks on the internet and they're jaw dropping, and this track certainly is not. The Clipse/Slim Thug song, on the other hand, is an absolute MONSTER. Apparently they gave the beat to Foxy and then she went deaf and they gave it to Clipse and now she wants it back and I don't even care enough about that story to post a link to AHH or whatever. CLIPSE FUCKING KILL THAT SHIT THOUGH GOD DAMN.
Clipse feat. Slim Thug - What It Do (Wamp Wamp)Ludacris feat. Pharrell - Money Maker
