Pharrell WilliamsLast weekend, I was looking through this month’s Elle magazine and I stumbled upon a short side article of an interview between Rachel Rosenblit and Pharrell Williams, producer and frontman of arty hiphop threesome N.E.R.D. The 37-year-old Virginia Beach native and principal member of N.E.R.D, says the band’s fourth record, Nothing , is a “conversation with women.” Here, he expands on what he thinks women want. Elle: You say Nothing speaks to women. How so? PW: We didn’t go into this saying, “How do we get women excited?” We went, “Man, we really want to connect to our fan base – where do we start?” Okay, we’ll start with the women. What is important to them right now? What would they find sexy?

“We’re noticing more than ever that women are constantly being made to feel that if they don’t do X, Y, and Z, they’ll feel lesser than. If every woman had what the public deemed a perfect nose or a perfect set of lips, then what would the world be? Full of mannequins.”

Elle: This record channels the ’60s psychedelic rock of the doors and James Brown funk. When you played it for women, how did they respond? PW: You would notice them crossing their legs back and forth, picking up water bottles, adjusting their feet. The music is sexy in an unobvious way. Elle: You mean hip-hop is generally about being overtly sexy? PW: I just think we’re desensitized to videos filled with 15 billion bathing suits–aren’t we? Elle: Yes, definitely. But then, you coproduced Mystikal’s “Shake Ya Ass” in 2000 and Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” in 2002–not exactly odes to female empowerment. PW: Yeah, because that was a moment in time. It was in the air. But I don’t want to go into the next decade doing that. Elle: So what’s the most provocative aspect about Nothing ? PW: The honesty is sexy. By the way, while all of this sounds so earthy – and I am somewhat of a hippie – I enjoy a Ferrari. (End). “Nothing” was actually supposed to be released July 6th, but now the release date for the album is September 7th. Williams claimed that the group had decided to throw away most of the songs they had created in the early stages of the record’s production. “We scrapped 27 records because they weren’t good enough. They sounded great, but what were they saying? So we went back into the studio and just focused on feeling,” Pharell said in a recent interview. “It’s almost like we did this whole entire album with our eyes closed – not because it was that easy but because it was that important to reconnect with what we feel and I would say this album is like scrapping everything and starting with nothing.” There is already a single out for the album, called “Hot-N-Fun” featuring Nelly Furtado. It’s catchy – but doesn’t really say anything profound to women yet – other than the song in general addresses that in our society, we want it all ( “She want to get right, get money, get sex, get real, all intertwined”). But I was able to find some lyrics from an older unreleased track “What’s Wrong With Me?” You don’t have to have those beautiful eyes Or that… beautiful skin You don’t have to walk that way Or be extraordinarily thin You don’t have to be a supermodel Sounds like Pharrell may not be a stranger to this kind of mindset. I am happy that Pharrell, who is in a position to have a lot of influence, recognizes that a lot of pressure is being put on women. However, they are not the only ones and it would have been really great if N.E.R.D.’s “Nothing” would have been targeted to both sexes. I hope that the album lives up to what I hope it will be! I will definitely revisit this once I can get my hands on some singles and lyrics from “Nothing.”

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