Original subtitles

- Dada. - Yes, sir.

- Dada. - Yes, sir.

Careful. Don't crash.

You okay?

Yeah, but you're not supposed to have that

- on the table, buddy. - Dada.

So, can you do me a favor and tell everybody

I'm trying to do an interview for the film?

Okay, babe.

But just tell the kids to be... quiet down, like...

- And good morning, brother. - Hey.

- Are we good? - Yeah. All set.

Okay.

- Hey. - Hey, how you doing, man?

Good to see you. How's it going?

- We're recording? Yeah? - Yeah, yeah.

Okay, cool.

Quiet on the set!

You know what I always thought about?

What's that?

What if, like...

What if nothing's new?

What if life is like a LEGO set?

And you can put 'em together whatever way you want.

But you're borrowing from colors that already existed.

Does that make sense?

Um...

You know what would be cool is if, like,

we told my story with LEGO pieces.

- Seriously? - Yes.

- LEGO? - Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Just imagine all the color that would bring to it.

Sure.

- Limitless color. - Mm-hmm.

This is the best way I can really be my purest self...

- Yeah. - ... without feeling weird.

Okay.

Man, I'm saying just...

Just be open. Just be open.

So, what would you be wearing in this interview, then?

Dad hat, T-shirt, shorts,

on a yellow electric bike.

'Kay.

Moving on.

Here's an easy question.

Well, maybe it's easy, maybe it's hard.

Where are you from?

I'm from the mud.

Close to the fabled Atlantis.

I just became obsessed with, like, water, you know?

And, like, King Neptune.

I feel like my obsession with water

triggered something in me.

Different kinds of abilities.

I don't know where it's from.

But I knew I was different.

Really?

I've always grappled with that.

I'm from Virginia Beach.

The beach was less than a mile from Atlantis,

the housing project where I grew up.

The suburbs thought this was the hood,

but really this place was magical.

You'd just witness music bouncing off the walls.

And the Blue Angels, they would fly over

my housing project.

We lived in the crash zone,

so we had the best view.

You couldn't tell me that life was not amazing.

And I loved music.

Like, everybody loves music, but I'm realizing

I had a different kind of relationship with it.

Like, it was...

literally was mesmerizing to me.

I didn't even know that I was mesmerized.

I just thought that's what all Black kids did.

I thought we all just stared into the speaker like...

Whoa.

I was seeing colors.

It's called synesthesia.

It's not something that you see with your physical eyes.

It's something that you see in your mind's eye.

All the Stevie music would do it to me.

Beautiful hues of light cascading.

I would just start the record over

and start it over and over and over.

Doing whatever it took to continue to make it happen.

Man, he was way out there.

He must have got it from his mama.

Oh, my God.

And me.

As parents from a project,

we needed to be encouraging and tell him like...

You can do anything you want to do.

People are able to accomplish things

because they work hard at what it is that they do.

That's my mom.

We basically lived in the same neighborhood.

We were kids, so it was like, "Hey, we're gonna ride our bikes

to Mount Trashmore."

And I was the kid

in the neighborhood with the skateboard.

Yeah.

We explored everywhere.

We would go to neighborhoods

and point at massive houses and dream.

Virginia Beach Oceanfront was

the congregating place for anybody

who was a creative.

The best rappers there made a name.

You have Timbaland, who's known as DJ Timmy Tim.

We all kind of knew each other from school.

Yeah, I knew Timbaland.

I knew Timbaland 'cause we were in class together,

and he was cool with Missy.

And that's how I met Missy, through Tim.

At the time, we weren't thinking

we were going to be artists.

We just loved doing music.

In Virginia, we've been saying for years

there's something in the water.

They always say there's something in the water,

but I think it's just Virginia itself.

But I wasn't the best student.

I found school difficult, you know?

You go from being in sixth grade,

where you only really had two teachers,

but seventh grade was like

you had seven different teachers.

It was just too overwhelming.

Hey! Earth to Pharrell.

Stop daydreaming and get to work.

I have, like, anxiety about it

and refuse to go back.

So, I was in seventh grade twice.

The teacher contacted my mom and said,

"Look, he's got enough credit to pass."

And my mom was like, "No, he needs to...

he needs to do it again."

The boy is smart. He's brilliant.

But he only did enough to get by.

Do you feel like you fit in as a kid?

No.

I was detached.

And more in dreamland all the time,

because oftentimes that's all I had, was my imagination.

Soul...

Train!

I wanted to escape.

Hello and welcome aboard.

You're right on time for another ride on the big train.

Live long and prosper.

TV, for me, became like this magical place

where, like, my imagination would just run super wild.

Even in the outskirts of our own solar system,

we humans have barely begun our explorations.

Carl Sagan's way of looking at life

was amazing to me.

I felt like everybody else was like,

"Oh, that's an odd child. He's odd."

And that crushed my spirit.

So I didn't know what the hell I was gonna do.

I remember his grandmother

telling him that she had a dream.

Pharrell was lifted up.

He was suspended in the air,

way up in the sky among the stars.

And she said...

God has given you a special gift,

but to whom much is given much is required.

Were you making any music yet?

No, 'cause I didn't take band

in my first time in seventh grade.

I mean, like, even singing or playing piano or anything?

The closest I came to music

was lining my grandmother's pillows up off of her couch

and taking the cake mixer and a whisk.

And those were my drumsticks.

She saw that in me, and that's when, in the seventh grade,

she got me a snare drum.

But she started me on my path.

My grandmother was the one that was like, "Listen..."

When you go back to school, you should take music.

And that's when I met Chad.

Chad understood colors in music,

and we bonded on that.

Both of them was kind of different.

They was like little nerds.

Chad was always kind of quiet.

I mean, it's true.

Yeah.

But to see the two of them

do music together,

it's like they read each other's minds.

We were just being ourselves

and were just-just having fun, you know?

Chad is literally like a savant.

I've learned so much from him.

He was like, "I met this kid named Chad.

"He has some music equipment at his house.

We should go and check it out."

We started going over to Chad's house,

over the garage.

I'm sorry, I have to say it.

We skipped so much school.

It was so bad.

Every day, we would create songs.

Everything sounded futuristic.

"Let's try this. Let's try that."

It's like the person who invented

peanut butter and jelly.

It's like a weird mixture.

And if you can pull it off,

it becomes something new and different.

It feels good. I like that.

It's alive!

- Chad. - Yeah?

We need a name.

- Yep. - What do you think it should be?

Um... I don't know.

Don't know.

Pharrell, he wanted more

out of life than just making it, you know?

I think he had a job at McDonald's for 30 minutes.

He had a whole separate business

selling nuggets out the back door.

Dealing nuggets? No.

That never happened.

Nice, Shae. Nice one.

And he would come home with, like,

at least a hundred nuggets.

They were so good.

But it's the reason I got fired,

'cause I was eating all the time.

- You got fired? - Yeah, I got fired.

Three times.

A number one, extra large.

You want some fries with that?

Remember, this is Virginia Beach, Virginia.

It's like very Normalville, USA.

There's no... no music industry there.

I couldn't relate to it.

And I thought, "Well, damn, how am I gonna make it out?"

Huh?

And then, out of nowhere...

the biggest producer in the world at the time

comes to Virginia Beach.

I was looking at the future.

Ladies and gentlemen,

get ready for the new jack swing king.

He's produced hits for Keith Sweat,

Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince,

and of course Michael Jackson.

Teddy Riley in the house.

What's the chances

of the hottest producer

moving within walking distance from your high school?

I was in disbelief.

It's kind of like saying

E.T.'s hanging out at the mall.

That shook our town up.

But I don't think it brought change to the city

because it wasn't

opened up like that to the city.

You know what I'm saying?

It was Teddy Riley's studio.

So, Mr. Riley, where did this all begin?

The story of Pharrell began with these two policewomen.

- Police? - Yes.

They just kept coming to the studio.

And they were like...

Why is it that y'all think

y'all can come in here and do y'all music

and not do nothin' for the community?

We would love to do something for the community,

if you can do us a favor.

Now you want favors. Okay, what is it?

Yeah, what is it?

Introduce us to the principal of that school.

We would like to do talent shows.

- Oh, okay. - Okay.

I was on the panel.

Teddy said that

the winner would get to come

to Future Studios and work with him.

If we do this right, whoa.

All right. All right, now.

How many of you are ready for Teddy Riley?

Do you even remember what the music was?

It was a lot of, like, baby Whitney Houstons.

All of the judges were like,

"These people are the next greatest singers."

All right, last but not least,

here come The Neptunes!

But when Pharrell and The Neptunes came on...

I was like...

Oh, these guys are different.

It went from one thing to another.

Pharrell went from rapping

to singing,

and then got on the drums.

It felt like the most incredible freestyle performance.

And I just knew that's what I'm looking for.

A'ight, guys, let's look at what we have here.

- Mr. Pharrell. - Yes, sir.

- Chad. - Yes, sir.

- Shae. - Yo.

You know, we're looking for new artists and new vibes.

So...

- Yes. - Oh, wow, okay.

Absolutely. Can't wait.

Here you have it.

Whoa. It's real.

Oh.

This entire time,

I'm just thinking, "I don't know

where life is gonna lead me, but I'm just gonna go for it."

It's The Neptunes for Teddy.

Teddy was, like, super busy.

I think he was, like,

working on Michael's Dangerous album.

He just was meticulous about everything.

He would spend, like, an hour just mixing a snare. I'm like...

What is he listening to?

They meant business.

They didn't want kids running around the studio.

My studio etiquette was so wrong.

You know, Teddy would play a chord, and I would go...

Hey, why don't you change it to this chord?

And the engineer would just give me the dirtiest look.

Hey, man, listen.

Teddy's the boss.

- Mm-hmm. - When he's working,

- you don't say anything. - Yes, sir.

You're lucky to be in the room.

That's where I learned discipline.

And a lot of times, Pharrell would give me tracks,

and he would say, "Tammy, can you help me

write some lyrics to this song?"

You know what I mean?

The thing that raised my eyebrows was

Pharrell leaving home late at night.

And I'm thinking, "This guy is wasting his time."

This one night,

I just... I needed help on this record...

because I didn't know how to really rap.

I said...

- All right, Pharrell. - Yes, sir.

Man, I need a rap.

And I was like, "Really?"

- He was like... - Yes.

This is a big task.

This record cannot come out until I get the proper rap.

You got it.

I don't think he had it,

but he just went in the room and freestyled it.

And then I mimicked what he did.

- And he was like... - Nah, it's pretty simple.

Just let it bounce.

Oh, my God.

And one day he came home,

he said, "Dad, this ain't bad for a first paycheck."

But, I mean, I blew it in like two weeks.

I mean, I was like 19 years old.

He wanted to try to get on another level.

That gave him, like, an artistic itch.

So I would go up to Teddy week after week

and just sort of question him, like...

- Man, I'm trying to make my own music. - No.

He said I wasn't ready.

I was, like, really at my wits' end.

I thought I might have to get out of that deal with Teddy.

So I talked to my pastor about it.

And I remember being so confused.

Look, in Virginia, he's the only guy here.

Like, what's... How is this gonna happen?

Listen.

If you're standing at the bottom of a mountain,

can you see the other side?

No, you can't.

But does that mean there's no other side?

The other side of that is your life leveling up.

What God has for you, no man can stand in the way of.

- He said, "Trust God." - Trust God.

And I did.

Hey.

Pharrell would come to my house

with a beat in his head.

We would tell ourselves, "We can do this."

Let's make some music.

I'm choking on french fries,

but that's okay.

Music was just coming out of me.

Can't tell you where it's coming from.

I don't know.

I love it.

Creatively, I'm going in there.

I'm just reaching into oblivion,

reaching into the future,

and we don't know what the hell we gonna bring back.

I'm new to this.

But it's awesome.

For, you know, like five years,

time just passes, just stacking beats.

I was so ambitious.

It's all I cared about was, like, getting on.

Pharrell definitely wanted to be in front of the mic. 100%.

He wanted to rap.

He wanted to sing.

He wanted to rap sing.

What am I gonna do?

I don't know, man.

Definitely thought it was time to go back to school.

Get another profession.

Yeah, but, I mean, listen.

All it just takes is the right opportunity to do our music,

and it's gonna go.

We're gonna figure it out.

So I called this A&R guy, Kenny Ortiz.

One of his interns would always answer the phone.

That was Rob Walker.

Hello?

You know, the first few times,

it was kind of like, you know...

Kenny's not here.

He's busy.

Because he literally called every single day.

And then it got to the point

where he wasn't calling to see where Kenny was.

He was just calling to say, "What's up?"

- What's up, man? - Hey, man.

What's going on? Like, what's happening?

We were like phone friends, like...

Oh, that wasn't from you?

They almost made...

There was a connection there.

And I finally met him.

And I was like, "Oh, wow, these guys look like somebody."

Oh, what's up, man?

Finally nice to, like, put a face with a name, man.

Hey. I want to play you this music.

And I'm, like, immediately blown away.

Like, blown away. And I was like, "Holy..."

Wow. Like, this is great.

I didn't have a manager. I was like...

Yo, you be my manager.

Manage you?

Yo, I don't know anything about management.

I'm an intern.

Well, we can learn together.

So I was like, "All right, let's do it."

After that, we went crazy.

Every week, we'd send out tapes

and then he would market them around as best as he could.

Five to ten new beats a week,

and then I would then go around to the A&Rs, to the artists.

I was sleeping in lobbies.

Whatever I had to do.

Yeah, I just need like five minutes, B.

We did the rounds.

We met everybody that was somebody.

And Pharrell was coming full throttle.

Like, "I'm coming for the crown.

I'm coming for you. I'm coming for everybody."

And once he turns on, you can't turn him off.

It got really bad.

One exec holds

a full-fledged conversation as we're performing.

In Air Force 1s, I'm strictly 13.

12 and a half won't work, man.

Pharrell gets on the desk, and I'm like...

Bruh, why are you on the desk?

Yo, he has to see how hard I'm willing to go.

He was like this little brother that you wanted

to knock upside the head.

I had to have a talk with Pharrell.

Like, he had no money, my unemployment ran out,

we're all living with our parents.

This was, like, everything I was banking on.

I said...

Hey, man.

Yeah, what?

Like, we can't do that, man.

You're gonna, like, kill yourself in this thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, hey, I'm an artist.

But selling beats, that's a way to get in.

Okay, fine.

At the time,

I chose to look at it the wrong way,

to think that, like, I was being rejected.

I didn't realize that I was being told to train harder.

- Hey, N.O.R.E. - Hey, what's going on?

It's N.O.R.E. Yep. What's your name? Morgan?

- Yep. Morgan. - How you doing, Morgan?

Good, good.

So, I was just wondering,

how did you know about The Neptunes?

What was it like when you first met them?

Uh...

I first met Pharrell because Rob Walker.

And at the time, I had never heard of The Neptunes.

Two dudes, one Filipino

and the other Black, from Virginia Beach?

Come on. This is... This doesn't even make sense.

But they played me one beat,

then they played me another beat.

I remember I was on my way to Miami

and Pharrell said, "This third beat..."

This third beat, don't listen to that until you get to Miami.

Why? Why wouldn't I listen to this third beat?

And he's like, "Yo, listen."

People take my beat sometimes,

but people don't let me produce.

I want to produce this.

No one had talked to me

like that before, you know what I'm saying?

It took everything for me in the world

not to listen to track three.

I remember the hotel like it was yesterday,

and that's when I actually listened to track three,

called "Superthug."

I took a risk with these two kids from Virginia

who had this totally different sound,

but when you put our sound together, it's magnificent.

I remember recording the original track of "Superthug."

I would go, "What, what, what, what, what, wh-what, one."

That's how I counted my bars.

I remember me saying...

Listen, all we got to do is get the hook.

- And Pharrell saying, "We got the hook." - We got the hook.

He kept me and just took out the "ones."

- And I remember telling him... - They're gonna laugh at me.

- He said... - You're gonna laugh straight to the bank.

I just believed in this kid.

I remember the album coming out

and all the DJs start playing the record.

I remember bringing them to Jay.

I remember bringing them to Nas.

But everyone was a little skeptical

because Pharrell purposely

wanted to make hip-hop but not look like a hip-hop star.

You know, it's like opening a bakery shop, right?

For the first two months, the bakery shop is not doing good.

And then you go and you tell everybody...

This bakery shop is it. It's awesome.

Then you travel somewhere and you come back,

and the bakery shop is all over.

Everyone is just... They want these muffins.

They want these cookies. They want these bakery good...

And you get to say, "I knew this was gonna work."

When "Superthug" dropped, everything changed.

- Forever. - Hello?

We started getting the calls

to work on this and to work on that

and to work on this and to work on that.

The magic of the music business is

how many times can you do it again.

'Cause this is the hot seat.

Not everybody can sit in that hot seat for long.

I remember watching the Mystikal video.

- And I was like... - He in the video?

It went from no one

returning my calls to everyone calling.

"Yo, can you hook me up with those dudes again?"

- And I'm like... - No!

We got... We good? Okay.

Let's roll.

So, did you first notice Pharrell

when he started having hits?

No, I don't, I don't think I paid attention to him

in that way, to... just to be completely honest.

I knew Pharrell.

I dated a girl in Virginia who called Pharrell her brother.

So I think I, like, saw him at the airport.

He was rocking the mustache and trucker hats and all that.

And I was like...

He's trippin'.

Um, yeah. I knew him from before.

He's Jay-Z. He's a legend.

You know, I'd reached a level of success

as a, quote-unquote, "superstar."

I was always looking for performers

that was new and different to give them a shot.

For "Give It 2 Me," I think

I heard the beat, and I was like...

What the hell is that?

It was, like, new and quirky.

And the next day,

I was shooting a video for another track.

And Jay goes, "I changed the single."

What do you mean you changed the single?

He said, "I did it last night. I'll play it for you."

Who-who did that?

- Pharrell. - Pharrell?

Pharrell just took it.

At the same time of being a visionary,

Pharrell has, uh, an affinity for, like, hood shit.

He was fascinated by it, but that wasn't really him.

Or-or was it?

No, he definitely wasn't that at all.

We mean really not at all.

Not an ounce, not a drip of street is in Pharrell.

That's why we loved him so much.

He was like the young brother that we all wanted to protect

because we knew he had the talent

to open up doors for all of us.

Make some noise for Pharrell Williams!

One time, everybody, jump!

He was sort of, like, finding himself and his way

about how he was gonna deal with this success now.

Yeah, I think he went a little crazy with it.

This is my favorite game.

This is Galaga.

Everything in my house is vintage.

Some of the stuff is Dutch.

I always wanted a house like James Bond.

But, you know, Chad was, um, different.

This is my wife's, uh, glass collection.

She loves art.

This is the family room where we watch TV.

Lately, it's been so busy, we hardly watch any TV.

My ambitions were more eclectic

than what we had previously done.

That was back when, like,

they would look at you crazy for working with a pop artist.

Like, "Why would you do that?"

- Rolling sound. Marker. - Okay.

Uh-oh. We have some gardeners.

Let me go get them t-to stop.

- Okay, we're ready. - Okay.

We got our... We got our quiet back.

So, for me, the idea of working with The Neptunes

was the most out-of-bounds, weird idea.

Like, they'd never really worked outside of hip-hop

when we worked with them.

I remember the day we went to the studio.

- What's up, Gwen? - Hi.

- No Doubt. - Hi.

Pharrell was, like, intimidatingly cute...

and hip-hop.

And I'm not hip-hop. I'm from Anaheim.

Pharrell, he was like, "I'll play you five tracks."

I'm like...

What? A track?

At that time, we just wrote songs as a band.

But I remember he played us the track for "Hella Good."

I was like...

Oh, my God.

This song is ridiculous.

The band really was kind of hesitant.

We've never done a collaboration like this before.

I want to write a dance song you could hear in a club.

Let's see what kind of magic we can come up with.

How can we come together?

How can we make something new

out of something that already exists?

To me, the most common thread

of different worlds is a feeling.

And-and trust me, people just want to feel good.

Even though it seemed like

we were from two different planets,

it was like two cultures' collision of beautifulness.

Pop music could be fun,

but I wasn't gonna leave hip-hop.

I was trying to call him, but he didn't pick up.

- Just now? - 'Cause I was gonna ask him,

"What do you want me to lie about?"

I-I'm curious.

When were you even first aware of The Neptunes?

It was like some rock music,

and it was on the video game.

I think it was on Madden.

This is beautiful work that you've been doing.

Thank you, man.

This what I want though, P. I'm waiting on a hit record.

Feel what I'm saying? One of them bad mama jama.

- Um... - That song that you did with Jay-Z,

I told somebody the other day...

First of all, Snoop is very tall,

and then he's in the studio with like

15 Crips who are all six-five.

You ever been in a city where you could see

the fog really low?

That's what it was like.

Snoop has mystical vibes.

Bow-wow-wow.

I'm just, like, channeling him.

So I made that beat out of my mind.

He had the drum pattern,

but he had left a reference for the hook.

And he didn't say the words. He just was like...

So I had to figure the words out.

Then Chad came in and started putting

all of that dynamic synthesizers like...

That was like the candle on the cake.

We was like, "God d..."

Oh, come on!

This the crazy part that they may not know.

"Drop It Like It's Hot" was my first number one single ever.

- Skateboard P. Chad. - What's up, bro?

- That was dope. - Yes, sir.

This is a brilliant record.

You gave me something that I was missing.

I was always a bad gangster,

but you couldn't see the fun in me.

- You brought out a smile. - Hell yeah.

Up until The Neptunes,

we didn't really have hip-hop superstar producers.

And so, as an editor, I was like,

"I need to pay attention

because I've never seen this before."

talking about the state

of hip-hop and where we're at right now.

So as a producer who's basically dominating,

what do you think about hip-hop right now?

Like, do you think people aren't being creative enough?

Too creative?

- May I say something? - Yes. Go ahead.

What you think about me?

- I want to know. Be honest. - Uh, well...

You should let me be on a cover with my bike.

- Oh, God. All right. - I got a little bit of looks.

I can make the girls get hot and go crazy, all right.

Oh, boy. Enough.

Hip-hop-wise,

I survive off of my addiction to exploring new territory.

- You know what I'm saying? - Right.

So watch out because the way I'm-a do it is gonna be so fly.

Oh, my God. Okay.

I remember a really fancy studio.

Everybody worked there.

And Pharrell, he was literally

working all of the rooms at the same time.

- Pharrell. This beat is hot. - Whoa.

It slaps you in the face.

I was so excited to get The Neptunes at that time.

It felt like a real moment.

Pharrell used to come in there with such a hot hand.

It was competitive.

I wanted to make sure that I had a banger, too.

Nobody don't want to be a weak link in the crew.

We would hear, like, a crazy stat like,

"Oh, it's the biggest record at radio."

"Nah, this is the biggest record at radio."

Who are The Neptunes?

You just got to turn on a radio to find out

who we are.

It's gonna get a little crazy.

- You're the greatest, lil' bruh! - Yo! Did you hear that?

And the Source Award for the Producer of the Year

goes to The Neptunes!

You know, we've been doing this hip-hop thing

since I was making mixtapes out of my boom box

and Pharrell and I were breakdancing in...

on pieces of cardboard in the garage.

So, thanks, everybody.

There was a time when

I had lost my music deal.

I was like, "Okay, cool. I'm out."

Just back to it, you know?

Back to hustlin'.

And Pharrell knew everything I was doing.

This one particular day,

he made this beat, and he called me and said...

You got to come over here, bro.

You got to come to Chad's house.

If you don't get here in 15 minutes,

I'm giving this beat to Jay-Z.

"It is the best beat

that I've ever made, so you need to get here."

There was no way anybody could get anything

that he thought so highly about other than me.

He was like...

You don't even know, but you're shining.

Pharrell really made a choice

that no one else would have made,

and he helped me in the best way possible.

That's the new joint from Virginia's own,

The Clipse and The Neptunes.

We on fire right now, baby.

Local to global, baby. This joint going worldwide.

Virginia. "Grindin'."

I firmly believe

if man can make it on the moon,

we can make it out of the projects.

It's aw...

All right. All right. Hold on.

Come on, man. Stop playin'.

Why are you playin', man? Why are you playin'?

And that's when we did our first N.E.R.D. album.

Me, Chad and Shae as a group.

N.E.R.D. forever.

Pharrell took what they were doing in high school,

and now that we have a platform to really do real records,

he made it so the world can see.

You know, we go on tour overseas, and we see

70, 80,000 people going bananas.

Like, that just opened our eyes

to a whole different perspective.

We've been around the world and people embrace him the same.

No matter where he's at.

Japan, Russia, anywhere in the world.

It's funny, man, because

there's such a big market for alternative-thinking kids.

I am, like, the biggest example of a hybrid thinker.

- Star Trak. - N.E.R.D.

- Star Trak. - Nerd for life.

Star Trak.

Nobody told him,

"You can't do that."

Nobody told him, "Black people don't skate."

What he sees, he believes.

But maybe it's the gift and curse of him, too.

See, a lot of times, we do things with people

and they don't use them.

So we hold on to beats that we feel, like, are special.

It's like wine. It only gets better with time if it's good.

This beat was for Prince,

and he heard it and didn't respond.

But I saw the potential.

I tried my best to get this beat

for Usher.

I begged him for that record.

And I was like...

What? Why would I do that?

He was like, "Because he's gonna

take that record where it needs to go."

No, I need to show everybody what I can do.

"Frontin'" was a huge hit.

Hell yeah.

Is Pharrell here?

I think he was playing it in the studio, and I was like...

You cra... That's incredible.

Let me, let me get on that.

It was very comfortable

standing next to Jay-Z.

But "Frontin'" was in reverse.

Jay-Z was standing next to me.

Pharrell is here today.

"Frontin'" is

the missed opportunity of a lifetime.

He was supposed to become a solo artist after that song.

Everyone was waiting. Everyone was waiting for that.

Like, "What happened?"

You didn't put out another solo song for three years.

- Yeah. - What... Why?

I wasn't... I was afraid of it.

It scared me.

"Frontin'" put me in a place

where I felt something, and I was like,

"Ooh, I'm not built for that."

It was like, "Oh, I think I'm ready now to be an artist."

I wasn't.

And maybe that's why I was never comfortable

with my voice in the first place,

'cause I wasn't talking about anything.

Maybe I didn't want to be a solo artist ever again.

Hi.

It's great to finally sit down with you.

For sure.

So you've never done an interview before, right?

Right. And when Pharrell said,

"I want this to be like the LEGO movies."

And I was like, "What?"

Yeah, that's crazy, right?

Yeah.

I first met Pharrell at a friend's barbecue party.

All I see is like 15 girls in this cabana

gawking at him as he's walking away.

So I definitely knew that he was someone.

But he just came up to me

and asked me 90 minutes of questions.

You know, "What's your name?

"When's your birthday? What do you like to do?

"What's your favorite color? What do you like to eat?

Do you have a boyfriend, by any chance?"

Yeah, I do.

And he said...

Do you want to marry him?

No.

Then you don't love him.

Okay. Okay.

I actually did break up with that guy,

and we started really hanging out.

From one day to another, I was like...

I think I love you.

He was like, "Well, you know, I told you

I wasn't ready and blah-blah-blah."

And then I was like...

"Okay."

Sometimes it takes a moment for things to register.

Right?

I think the hardest thing with-with me and Pharrell

was keeping on focus.

I want to think outside the box.

I want to do all kinds of things.

Like, it was always the next thing.

"What's the next thing? What we doing next?

What we doing next?"

I don't want to be fit into a box.

Thing about Pharrell is that

if he gets inspired by something,

he wants to do it.

Amazing.

Amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing.

Whether it's a chair

or, you know, or the face cream.

I use the face cream.

The lotus enzyme exfoliator.

I don't look like Pharrell yet, but I'm gonna keep

rubbing that in until I do.

He was endorsing

high-end designers.

Artists weren't doing that back then.

So what I am is a maverick.

You know, I'm over here designing sunglasses

for Louis Vuitton

and working with Adidas and Chanel.

I did a jingle for McDonald's.

- Did he? - Yeah, he did.

Wow. I didn't know that.

There were times in the studio

where Pharrell would be like, "I'll-I'll be back

in a couple of hours."

What... How long are you going? When are you go...

Yeah. And I would stay there

and sing melodies over what Chad was playing,

and Pharrell would come back and be like,

"I'm working on this skateboard brand

that I'm doing."

Hey, it's the new fragrance from Pharrell Williams.

Gonna like it.

Because it smells good.

He did a drink called Qream with a "Q" for "queen."

- Ladies like it, right? - We love it.

That pink liqueur, it looked like Pepto-Bismol to me.

There was a lot going on.

I wanted to be like, "You don't need to be doing that.

You need to go create. Go make some music."

The thing that happens after you get success

is everybody got an opinion

of how you should do things and what you should do.

That's when everybody comes in

with this "shoulda, coulda, woulda."

I'm like, "Yo, those are bad guys.

"They're, like, trying to get on the next step of the ladder

through you," you know?

It's like they were coming to him

with their "expertise"...

and I got air quotes up when I say it...

to get records,

but they took away his attention from what was important.

You know, I think what is really important

is keeping your ear to the streets.

And you can't do that when your head's in the clouds.

My grandmother, she was sick.

She had an incredible impact on me.

She saw things in me that I couldn't see in myself.

I remember my grandmother used to say...

"Find something you love to do..."

and you'll know when it's right.

When you can find a purpose for humanity in it.

But what does that really mean

at the end of the day?

I-I don't know.

Is Pharrell coming through?

He said he was.

I don't know if he is, to be honest.

Why don't you just go and raid his house?

Take us there. We'd love to.

So, are The Neptunes

the top priority of your business now or...?

Mm...

- Maybe. - "Maybe."

The Neptunes broke up.

So many of the people in the room with him

when he was at his most adventurous left.

It...

Yeah, it was, it was a difficult time, man.

He couldn't pay someone for a hit.

Businesspeople, they're trying to tell you

to basically regenerate yourself from a past time.

But if your best ideas come from the future,

you can imagine your worst ones are gonna come from the past.

I made the worst record of my life

called "All Eyes On Me" with Pharrell.

I don't remember the song.

Of course you don't remember the song.

It's so bad.

It was trying to be pop.

It was like, "We're gonna have

"a record on pop radio,

"and we're gonna have a hot record in the streets,

and we're just gonna have all these fan bases all at once."

It was reaching.

I was in the studio with him, and he's playing me

all of these songs.

It was... It just really wasn't that great.

And he says to me, "This is the radio record."

And then he plays me another song, and he's like,

"This is the record for the girls, right?"

And h-he giving me a thumbs-up like, "This is hot, right?"

And I gave him, like, the sideways thumb, like...

Eh, kinda.

But he was like, "Kinda?"

Yo, just stop. Just turn it off, man.

Just turn it off.

You're Pharrell, bro. Like, what are you doing?

You don't make the radio record.

Like, you don't make the girl record.

Man, you just make music, bro.

So when you say he says he was lost,

I believe that.

He would've had to have been.

You're being written off at this point.

There ain't places you can turn

for that inspiration that you need...

because even the people with the "shoulda, woulda, couldas,"

they don't want to be attached to the failure.

So they quickly abandon ship,

and they get in the safety boats with the life jackets on,

and they abandon you.

When I looked over my shoulder,

I just didn't like what I was doing.

I didn't like the decisions that I had made.

The pieces just didn't fit anymore...

because relevance is a drug.

Staying relevant will have you doing

all kinds of things that you regret...

just to win.

To win.

Pharrell, excuse me.

Carl Sagan?

Take a look.

The Earth, it's a pale blue dot.

That's home.

On it, everybody you love, everybody you know,

everybody you've ever heard of lived out their days there.

Every mother and father,

every inventor and explorer,

every saint and sinner,

every supreme leader,

every revered teacher of morals

in the history of our species lived there.

The delusion that we have

some privileged position in the universe

is challenged by this point of pale light.

And there is no hint

that there's anyone who will come

and save us from ourself.

That will happen only if we do it.

Wow.

I spent so much of my career

just being arrogant.

And I might not have been the best person.

And I realized that I needed to give the purest of my spirit.

That's... everything.

Chad.

Helen!

- Oh, my God. - I'm ready now.

Okay.

So what are we gonna do about that?

When I look up and see

all the love and all the support,

the people who just never left my side...

My family.

All my friends.

The realization when, like...

everyone wants you to win.

And I'm like, you know,

"Man, forget the trophy, man.

The idea that you want me to win."

When thinking like that and thinking about that,

my heart...

could keep the lights on the Earth.

Do you need a Kleenex?

No, I'm okay.

This is therapeutic, man.

I hope in a good way.

- In a really good way. - Yeah.

So after all that, did people just think it was easy, then?

Oh, yeah, of course.

I call that distant assessment.

No, it was just starting to get hard.

Why?

Because I didn't know if I could do it again.

- Dada! - Yes, sir.

- Dada. - Yes, sir.

- Dada. - Yes, sir.

We had just gotten married,

and we had our son, Rocket.

Pharrell was pushing himself on this song for a movie.

He wrote like eight or nine songs,

and the studio, every time, they were just like,

"Nope, not the one. Nope, not the one."

I can't get it. I don't know how to do this.

Like, I don't know how to make a song like this.

I'd be like, "Is he okay?

Why is he staring off into the light like that?"

- Dada. - That feels great.

This is it.

And the next thing you know, boom.

How did "Happy" happen?

- People are putting up their own videos. - Yeah.

It was, like, no longer my song.

Roll the tape of that.

People started putting videos

around the world getting happy.

Ah. Makes me cry, too. Makes me cry, too.

Ah.

You know, I was just thinking about your grandmother.

I bet she didn't even imagine that.

No, it's beautiful.

Why am I crying on Oprah?

I love that song, but it turned into

this other thing that I didn't see coming.

People are singing

and celebrating to highlight an emotion.

But you realize why they feel that song:

'cause they've been through some shit.

They've been through some shit.

I felt that just now.

'Sup?

People would say,

"Your song got my mom through her chemo,"

or, like, "Man, I play that song every day.

It just made me feel better."

It took a toll on me, though, just seeing so much pain.

And boom, right after that...

Hands up! Don't shoot!

it got really dark.

Hands up! Don't shoot!

Hands up! Don't shoot!

Hands up! Don't shoot!

It's what changed my outlook on

what it means to be Black.

must disperse immediately.

Now! This is an order.

You'll be subject to arrest and other actions.

I realized that you're Black

in juxtaposition to the entire system.

This is literally what we think about every day.

I remember finding these jazz vocal samples

and playing this chord around.

it just felt like a rainbow of blue murky water.

And what Kendrick wrote to it was just

poetic justice.

Pharrell had the hook.

That's him on the hook.

The "alright" phrase, what does "alright" represent?

You know, there was a lot going on,

and still to this day a-a lot going on.

It's something else inside of them chords

that Pharrell put down that feels like a statement.

We gon' be alright!

We gon' be alright! Hey!

We gon' be alright! Hey!

We gon' be alright! Hey! We gon' be alright! Hey!

- We gon' be alright! - Say what?

That record, it kind of

attached itself to every struggle.

We gon' be alright!

We gon' be alright! We gon' be alright!

You know, there's strength in numbers.

And to inspire people to be aspirational,

you don't just aspire up.

You aspire left to right as well,

because that's what creates a unified front.

Without it, then you're just like a broken community.

And we've had spells where it's felt like that.

If we put our heads together or our hearts together,

like, what can't we do?

The bird is even chiming in.

Why?

Because the crow gets it.

Yes.

Yes.

That's right.

You see? That's how it works.

Pharrell!

Hey! Thank you, Pharrell!

Oh, my gosh!

I'll never forget what this neighborhood felt like.

Ever.

All of that is hitting me right now.

That was my room right there.

My grandmother lived here until, like, I was 15.

Why me? Why me?

I grew up with kids that could do anything.

But no one saw the propensity in them.

All I saw was talent.

Beauty.

Everybody has that.

Man, this is gon' be a LEGO movie, bruh.

I know.

Like, you don't understand.

Trying to, like, take it apart brick by brick.

Put it back together.

So it makes sense.

One day, you wake up

and you realize that this was all designed.

And because it's a design,

there's potential for us to change it.

One, two, three, four.

Look what we can do when we come together, Virginia.

Wow!

Missy Misdemeanor.

Timbaland.

These days, I am more interested in diving deeper.

What's that mean, "diving deeper"?

I don't know if you have the time for that one.

Yeah. Well, it is the end of the movie, so yeah.

Right.

When you go deeper, you realize,

like, we're just vibrating, buzzing molecules.

Light, sound, everything is vibrating all at once.

And so, you realize that life is much bigger than you.

That's when you ask yourself,

"How do I serve this thing called life?"

Dad, is that it?

- I think we're done. - What?

Whew. What a legendary story, yeah?

Holy moly guacamole.

I'm extremely proud to be a part of this movie

slash whatever this is.

Um, like I said, this bakery shop is awesome.