Pharrell Williams - The "In My Mind" Era (News!)

[ruby1]

God, This guy is fine!!Way better than akon
To bad the cd kinda bombed :(

[SHOOTER]

Pharrell swears he never made the album to sell records - and he didn't expect to sell all that much. He just did it for fun and to get out all the ideas in his head that he couldn't help other artists pull off.

Still don't know how it snagged a Best Rap Album Grammy nom, though. It wasn't nearly that good.

[George]

ruby1 said:

God, This guy is fine!!Way better than akon
To bad the cd kinda bombed :(

Even though he's half-naked most of the time, when he takes a serious shot like this, I think he's sexy too.

[busyboy]

Uh, this comes 2 days late but...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PHARRELL! :)

[diamond]

yeah happy belated birthday, Pharrell spent it partying with Robin Thicke in NY, also celebrating Robin's success.

popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2007/04/the_champagnean.html

Pharrell, Robin Thicke celebrate each other in NYC
Apr 6, 2007, 06:30 PM | by Leah Greenblatt

Categories: Music

The champagne — and the itty bitty appetizers — flowed freely last night on New York's Lower East Side at a dual party for uber-producer Pharrell Williams (marking his birthday), and Robin Thicke (celebrating his just-certified gold record, The Evolution of Robin Thicke). Bold-faced friends like Diddy, Jay-Z and Thicke's wife, actress Paula Patton (Déjà Vu) gathered at upscale supper club Stanton Social to surprise Thicke, who thought he was only there for the birthday.

"I know you thought you were showing up for me," Williams said as a stunned Thicke stood by, "but everybody here was showing up for you." Later, cornered by EW, he was asked what he had to say about his American Idol guest appearance, scheduled for next Wednesday. "I've never seen the show," he said with a wink, "but I really hope Paula Abdul wins it." Also coincidentally in the house was season 4 castoff Constantine Maroulis, still spinning out his 15 minutes.

Markedly not present: Cristal champagne. Jay-Z continues to boycott the luxury brand, ever since its company director made public remarks disparaging the hip-hop community. Instead, he drank from bottles of Ace of Spades, which reportedly retails for something between $750 and $1,000 — not too shabby. As Diddy, Pharrell, and the Hova simultaneously popped corks, Chad Hugo (Pharrell's partner in the Neptunes production team and co-conspirator on the Star Traks label, which Thicke is signed to) told EW that he was still in the studio with Ashlee Simpson, and that people would be "amazed" by what they've got so far. "I think she's really gonna surprise people on this. She's been underestimated."

Jay-Z also snuck in a little self-promotion, when his just-released single with Rihanna, "Umbrella," came on the sound system, telling us it would be "the song of the summer. Make sure you write that down!" The party continued long after Thicke led a singalong of "Happy Birthday," adding his own falsetto flourishes. As the night eventually wound down, the big boys — Diddy, Jay, etc. — gathered the troops and moved on to another nearby hotspot. And this lowly reporter? She headed home, with a champagne buzz and stomach full of birthday cake.

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[busyboy]

In Or Out? Pharrell's Reworked Solo LP In Limbo
?uestlove says producer is 'blown away' by new version of Mind, which does not have release date.

By Joseph Patel

Pharrell might have been humbled by the lackluster sales and critical response his debut solo album, In My Mind, garnered last year. After all, the super-producer had engineered a number of hits for other artists and emerged as a charismatic presence on several others. Yet, among critics, Pharrell took knocks for the LP — not because of his new status as a flashy frontman, but actually due to the stripped-down beats that have long been his trademark.

But rather than leave the album to collect the critics' dust, Pharrell decided to repackage it entirely. Last fall, he rang his friend ?uestlove — drummer for the Roots and one of the hardest-working musicians in the business — to write and perform (with his pals) new music for the CD's 15 tracks, while keeping Pharrell's existing vocals intact. The result is the tentatively titled Out of My Mind, credited to "Pharrell and the Yessirs."

"Pharrell called me at 4 a.m. like three times in a row from Japan," ?uestlove told MTV News via e-mail. "I picked up and in his 'sell a drowning man water' mode, he sold me on the album: 'I need to make this world see my vision with this record. Please help me translate it, man!' He had me dressing and in the studio starting this record five hours later."

Out of My Mind was recorded very quickly, over a 15-day period in October. ?uestlove worked with members of the Roots, frequent collaborator James Poyser and other members of his various production incarnations — e.g., the Soulquarians, Illadelphonics and the Randy Watson Experience — and dubbed the collaborative "the Yessirs."

"We always customize a name for each project so it can have its own identity," he said, adding that he and Poyser worked "constant 18-hour days [with] no showers, no eating, nada."

Pharrell's reaction when he heard the finished reworking was enthusiastic,
?uestlove said. "He was blown away. He said, 'I didn't think you'd pull it off.' I always felt that under the coldness of the original album lied a treasure that needed to be somewhat polished. He was open-minded to our ideas, and I thank him for the challenge."

Last week, ?uestlove quietly posted one of the songs — the reworked "How Does It Feel?" — on his MySpace page in an effort to drum up support for the yet-unreleased reissue. The frenetic, old-school funk energy of the reworked track — colored by a full rhythm section, guitars, strings and horns — is an imaginative take on Pharrell's synthesized, minimalist original.

But while ?uestlove posted the track just last week, the project currently sits in limbo. Interscope Records, Pharrell's label, had no confirmation on the album's release.

Whether or not the project does come out, ?uestlove says he's looking forward to resurrecting the band for a possible new Pharrell album in the near future. "I believe he really wants to keep the same unit and do all new songs — and I welcome any challengers."

[SHOOTER]

The original LP sucked so I'd love to hear how ?uest freaked it out!

[busyboy]

^ The three leaked songs sound average to me.

[diamond]

the redux of "Number One" and "How does it Feel" are much much better than the originals. the only one Im not feeling was "Raspy Sh*t" but I never liked the original either. I doubt this will ever see the light of day though.

[XXIX]

Where can I hear them?

[busyboy]

Go from here...

[XXIX]

^^^ Thank you.

[busyboy]

The more ?uestlove versions keep appearing (they're simply not good IMO), the more I think the hole remixed album will not be released. I'm actually liking the original more now.

[diamond]

Yeah there are some misses but his remix of "Take it Off' is really good.