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Don’t be fooled by his boyish young looks, Pharrell Williams a.k.a. Skateboard P a.k.a. one-half of the legendary Neptunes is a veteran in the music game, with icon status established.

More than 25 years in the man has produced for everyone from Jay-Z to Britney Spears in his illustrious career and he’s still got lots of gas left in the tank. Recently Skateboard P indulged in much adult juice alongside Noreaga for Drink Champs and got into some eyebrow-raising moments he’s lived in his music career.

Aside from Nore dropping some gems like the fact that Biggie called him before he died telling him he wanted to hop on the remix to “T.O.N.Y.,” Pharrell’s definitely got some stories to tell himself and we can’t believe most of them.

Here are the 11 things we learned from Pharrell on Drink Champs.

 

Though the rumor is that The Neptunes ghost-produced the classic 90’s hit “Rump Shaker,” Pharrell says that it’s not true…entirely. Though P says he didn’t produce the beat, he reveals that he met Teddy Riley on the night the record was being made and Teddy asked him to pen his verse on the record. He obliged and the rest is history. He’s also the voice on SWV’s “Human Nature” which says “S-S-S-Double-U-Double-V.” Wow. Pharrell OG forreal forreal.

Pharrell says that N.E.R.D. was born after he was given a record deal as a rap group, but didn’t want to call them Neptunes because that was already established as he and Chad Hugo’s production team. So when it came to dropping records with his crew they went with No One Ever Really Dies as their name.

Pharrell admits he didn’t get why Snoop liked the record to “Beautiful” as much as he did because he felt he was singing “flat as f*ck” on the hook. But it turned out to be one of Snoop’s biggest records ever.

Interestingly enough, Pharrell says the beat for Ma$e’s “Looking At Me” was originally intended to be a Bell Biv Devoe record, but they passed on it. Also, “Slave For You” was actually for Janet Jackson (who actually recorded the record), but after she passed it ended up being a smash hit for Britney Spears.

Admitting that he’s not a tough guy in any sense of the word, Pharrell not only believes in paying taxes to fund the police in case thugs get to thugging, he has no problem taking the stand and dropping dime. Well, at least he’s honest about it. Now y’all know not to involve him in any kind of lawbreaking.

Speaking on the drama between Pusha T and Drake, Pharrell says that he hates to see them going through that. Ultimately he sums it up to their astrology signs with Pusha being a Taurus and Drake being a Scorpio. He wishes he could be the man to help them squash their beef and would even produce a record featuring the two of them.

Pharrell remembers that he tried for years to collaborate with Prince and even says that “Frontin’” was made for the Purple legend. Prince turned it down after hearing it. “He wasn’t into it.” Pharrell says his vocals on the record was “me pretending to be him.” Even Michael Jackson turned him down.

Speaking of Michael Jackson, Pharrell says that all but one of Justin Timberlake’s Justified album was actually intended for Michael Jackson. He even remembers Michael’s manager, John McClain calling him and telling him, “Maaaan, Michael don’t want that sh*t! He wants that sh*t that you giving Noreaga!”

Though Timbaland and Pharrell were the hottest producers at the same time more than a decade ago, Pharrell humbly states that “Timbaland is better than me.”

Pharrell credits his friendship with BAPE founder Nigo to Jacob The Jeweler. Apparently, Nigo went to Jacob and would have him re-create all of Pharrell’s diamond chains for him in various colors for years before they met. Once they met and Pharrell saw his Bathing Ape line, P says that was the moment he started realizing that he could get into the fashion game as well. Also, P says he stopped wearing BAPE after Nigo sold the brand.

Pharrell confirms that after The Clipse started beefing with Jive Records, that’s when he stopped working with Justin Timberlake who was signed to Jive at the time. Though he had love for JT, Justin took it personally due to how the record label told him it went down. Though the two men have gotten over it, Pharrell regrets taking that course of action at the time and wouldn’t have done it if given the chance.

N.E.R.D. Alert: 11 Things We Learned From Pharrell Williams On ‘Drink Champs’  was originally published on hiphopwired.com