Pharrell Williams Music Career - Research Paper Example

Music Career of Pharrell Williams Music Career of Pharrell Williams Plarrell Williams is an American rap singer, composer, record producer and fashion designer. He is the co-founder of a musical company The Neptunes that produces hop hob and rhythm and blues music. He is also associated with the hip hop band N.E.R.D (No one Ever Really Dies) where he occupies the position of lead vocalist and drummer. He also co-founded two clothing brands names Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream Clothing (Elan, 2006) Williams released his first single song Frontin in 2003 and then started work in his album that was released in 2006 entitled In My Mind.

He also won three Grammy Awards for his musical performances. Williams also has the honour of producing several popular and hit singles for different musicians from his production company The Neptunes (Torbati, 2006) The musical career of Williams began from his school life where he was member of the school band along with Chad Hugo. They were also the member of marching band of the school and played key boards, drums and tenor saxophone in the summer band camp. From the school life he developed great chemistry with Chad and together they took part in the activities of several musical events.

In 1990s, he formed R&B type musical group with Hugo that later became four piece musical group The Neptunes. Famous record producer and musician Teddy Riley discovered them during the high school talent show where they were performing. The group signed with Riley after graduating from the high school and in this way their musical journey was initiated towards success and fame (Elan, 2006). While working with Teddy Riley Williams also focused upon song writing and wrote the verse for Wreckx-n-effects.

The song was produced in 1992 and became a hit song and in the same year he gave small rap solo for the second hit of the same band. In 1994, he established the production duo The Neptunes with Hugo and stated production albums that gained average response from the people. However, in 1997, Lookin’ at Me from Mase’s album Harlem world became very popular followed by Superthug of N.O.R.E. The song reached at 36th position on the Billboard Hot 100 and the band got attention of the people across the country for the first time.

They also worked with Kelis and produced her first album Keleidoscope in 1999 (Torbati, 2006). Williams continued his journey towards fame and popularity from the platform of The Neptunes that also produced Britney Spears single I’m a Slave 4 u in 2001. This production gave them worldwide popularity and people all over the world came to know about them. He created the group N.E.R.D with Hugo and Haley and their first album In Search of… was released in 2001. Next year they reproduced the album after making it different from their earlier works.

The album was released and became popular worldwide that made The Neptunes number one production duo in United States (Hoard, 2008). Nelley's single Hot in Herre also added to the fame of the company and in 2002 The Neptunes were named as Producer of the Year at The Source Award and Billboard Music Awards. In 2004, N.E.R.D released their second album Fly or Die that was a funk rock oriented album. Williams gave his rock credentials in this album and at the 2004 Grammy Awards he performed rock on The Beatles and I Saw Her Standing There.

He received two Grammy Awards in this ceremony for Producer of the year – Non classical and for Best Pop Vocal Album (Cohen, 2008). In 2005, he performed on single Can I have it like that from his album In My mind that failed to get appraisal in U.S. and reached at the position of 48, however, it was hot in UK where it reached at the position of number three. He also released some songs like Angle and Number One before the release of his album in 2006. He then worked on the production of Clipse’s second album Hell Hath No Fury that has been regarded as his best production.

The album also worked to bring the production duo back in the charts. In 2007, the performed singles songs at the Concert for Diana and Brazilian Leg of Live Earth (Hoard, 2008). Williams formed a new band The Yessirs and released his second album Out of My Mind but the album did not gained popularity as compared with his first album. He continued with his contributions to the musical industry and wrote the lyrics for different singers. He became the vocalist for many hits by Madonna and other top singers.

He also worked with Shakira on some songs of her sixth studio album She Wolf released in 2009. In recent years he has announced to work with Jennifer Lopez, French rapper Uffie, Snoop Dogg and rapper Game on different songs as vocalist, producer and musician. He also composed one soundtrack of the movie Despicable Me. In 2001, Williams announced his new label I am Other and continued with his remarkable performance in the musical industry where he plays several successful roles. References Cohen, Jonathan (2008).

"Pharrell, Oakenfold, Of Montreal Remix Maroon 5". Billboard Nielsen Business Media. Retrieved online from http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003885917 Elan, Priya (2006). "Pharrell Williams - Pharrell: In My Mind - Album Reviews". NME. Time. http://www.nme.com/reviews/pharrell-williams/7998 Hoard, Christian (2008). "Seeing Sounds - N.E.R.D. - Review". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. Retrieved online from http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/20949346/review/20961630/seeing_sounds Torbati, J. (2006). "Rap duo 'Clipse' rocks the gangsta hip-hop scene".

Yale Daily News. Retrieved online from http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/19305