There are some musicians out there that make you want to be a fan once more. A few of them, you know the type of musicians like Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, and so on. The kind of musicians who through their music inspire you to heights you once couldn’t imagine. The kind of thing that just gets into you and won’t let go. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about and have that kind of feeling for one musician or another. But this blog is all about my thought online. So, we are here today to praise the almighty talent personified by this gentleman called Parrell Williams. That’s right, there is still hope left as far as music is concerned, you just have to listen in closely and bam!!! You will be blown away by the way music has evolved this far. You see, for the past few months I have had a pessimistic view about everything that is art or art related. Be it Cinema or Music everything that has been produced and released lately has been of bland taste to me and made me have the feeling that the more we go forward as a species, the less we have the chance to face something that we would call genuinely genius. It’s sad, but true. The idea that a musician or any artist for that matter, would put in a great deal of effort in order to perfect himself as an artist, is almost as unfeasible as colonising Mars.
I remember that I even wrote this piece called Art?!?!?! which I still regard as a point of reference as far as my views on art go. To cut a long story short (i.e. if you are lazy to read the entire article), in my opinion art these days is all about how eccentric and original you are ready to be. That's right, almost all artists out there, seem to have forgotten about their audience and focus about the "me" they portray to the public. "Look how twisted my mind is", "look at the weird sh*t I'm capable of", last but not least "look at how many followers I've got". Don't they realise that this is rubbish and they'd better stick to their fundamentals and #KeepItReal? It's not that hard you know?. The same goes with music; and me being a Hip-Hop guy it’s no surprise that the idea that Hip-Hop is dead just dominated my mind when writing The Art Of Rap. Indeed, it looks like all the rappers went on a shopping spree and forgot their roots, right? Where is all the “street cred”, “Gangsta Sh*t” , and so on? Now, it all feels so different, so fake. As if some kind of devolution has taken place. Really looks like people would rather focus on crap such as Lady Gaga and so on when it comes to music and actually miss the fact that the heirs to Michael Jackson's throne of king of Pop are already there, you just have to look more carefully. As I mentioned earlier not all is that bad and just like the way Django and The Wolf Of Wall Street were pleasant surprises in terms of Cinema, Pharrell Williams does the same when it comes to music. That's right, as far as music and sound of high quality goes, I can't think of anything greater than Pharrell at the moment. Unstoppable and unmatchable he goes on his own part of musical expiration taking in whoever he meets on his road. You get that feeling when you meet people and they are like, "have you heard about Pharrell Williams?" and you get that smile as though you were saying, "it's better late than never, bro." ^_^
I suppose the most important thing for an artist is to never lose his identity and always be in an evolving state of mind. When I say never lose his identity, I mean that a musician should make sure that he delivers a maximum effort whenever he's going to release some material for his audience savour. It should be some kind of etiquette that all musicians out there should always keep in mind whatever the case, cuz whatever they say it's all for the love of their listeners that their music exists in the first place. And unfortunately, there are few musicians out there that actually understand this conception. Indeed, the number of artists that fit in these harsh guidelines are equally limited. You see, I’ve been an ardent admirer, listener and promoter of what Pharrell Williams does from the word go. That’s right, right from the very beginning when “The Neptunes” started releasing what was at that time considered by many the very “crème de la crème” of Hip-Hop. When all these "Gangstas and Niggas" were busy trying to show off their "Cadillacs and Bling", Pharrell was creating a sound that to this date remains as something unique in the immense world of Hip-Hop. Something that I might call "the sound that doesn't need an update". Awesome, right? I mean, everybody loves "Drop It like It's Hot" ^_^. I guess, it’s an undeniable fact that they were and probably are at the very top of what contemporary Hip-Hop and this is a spot that won't be contested in the near future. Indeed, when it comes to production, I can’t think of any producers out there who have generated as many high quality prods as “The Neptunes”. If you are still not sure about this I invite you to listen to some of their tracks I’m sure you will be as mind-blown as me. Actually I’m sure that you guys already know some of those tracks, you just didn’t know that they were produced by “The Neptunes”. But this post is not just about all the awesomeness that is behind “The Neptunes” sound and Pharrel Williams, it’s much more than that.
I'd like to dedicate this post to the idea I had the other day which was connected to what are the things that make an artist, a musician to be more specific, a good one? Is it just the fact that he's the best at what he does, like it is the case with Jimi Hendrix and his guitar, or Bob Marley and Reggae music, Michael Jackson and Pop? Or there's much more to this than perfection in this or that genre. Well, I would say that limiting our assessment of an artists value just to the quality of his performance is wrong. In fact, music and musicians in general should be all about evolution. Not only, but the fact that a musicians can evolve beyond a genre in which he feels comfortable. Just think about how awful it is to follow an actor who evolves in one genre and one genre only. I mean even the greatest like Jim Carrey, have always put an emphasis on the fact that they are actors first. Not comedians, but actors. This is quite important considering the fact that the same can be said about musicians as well, but people prefer to limit themselves to a role that is pre-set by their debut in music or even worse by their money-hungry producers and managers.
You might be asking yourselves, what the hell does Pharrell Williams have to do with it? Well, short answer; everything!!! Long answer; have to say that Pharrell Williams is still the best example of what an evolutionary approach t music might be. Perhaps, it is because he’s got this amazing producer background, perhaps it’s because he’s a genius and that’s just the kind of thing that geniuses do. Whatever is the reason for this versatility, one thing remains true; Pharrell Williams is probably the only artists right now which is not put off by trying something new and actually is the only musician I know who has been equally performant in a variety of genres. From Kelis to Swedish House Mafia going all the way down to Madonna. Here is a musician that makes the task of defining what makes a true musician as easy as ABC ^_^. Genuinely talented and real. I guess you guys witnessed all this with the amazing album Daft Punk released recently. I mean, this guy is the same guy that produced some of the most classical Hip-Hop tracks ever. So, considering all this I guess this it’s no doubt that once more he delivered with the release of his latest and greatest album, “G I R L” which I will describe as an “enhanced ode” to Michael Jackson. That’s right enhanced. This is clearly the only way I picture modern Pop/Reggae/Jazz/Rock/Funk music to be just music, just Pharrell Williams....
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