Letras de canciones de The Neptunes

The Neptunes are one of the most influential production duos of the 21st century, both madly prolific and startlingly original—and as capable of topping the charts as of pleasing the snootiest underground hip-hop heads. Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams met at band camp in Virginia Beach, VA, in 1990 (Williams drummed, Hugo played sax). They first used the name “The Neptunes” at a talent show sponsored by R&B impresario Teddy Riley, who signed them upon graduation from school. By the late ’90s, the duo had crafted a uniquely spacious, rhythmically complex sound that drew on their marching-band past, frequently oriented around a single, stabbing melodic line and futuristic, off-the-wall flashes of flourish. Their aesthetic can be heard, in embryonic form, on Mase’s 1998 track “Lookin’ at Me”; it stormed into the mainstream a year later with bangers like Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Got Your Money” (the perfect setting for the rapper’s off-kilter flow) and Kelis’ album Kaleidoscope. From that point on, they took over the airwaves. They produced for JAY Z (“I Just Wanna Love U”) and Mystikal (the spacious “Shake Ya Ass”). They helped Britney Spears reinvent herself as a deliciously bad girl on “I’m a Slave 4 U.” Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani, Usher—for each artist, they brought productions steeped in hormonal immediacy. And their 2006 pairing with Clipse on Hell Hath No Fury remains a high-water mark for lyrical hip-hop production. Meanwhile, they also created their own left-field band, the gleefully genre-bending R&B/rock hybrid act N.E.R.D. Though Hugo and Williams pursued solo projects in the 2010s, N.E.R.D returned in 2017, and they produced Justin Timberlake’s diverse, rootsy Man of the Woods in 2018, yet again drawing from a deep well of inspiration.