The Producers: The Neptunes

Welcome to a new series called The Producers, where I turn my attention to the maestros behind the boards in Hip-Hop and Pop. While MCs, may understandably get all the attention, any Hip-Hop song lives and dies with its beat. The best producers know how to work to an MC’s strengths, challenging the rapper and forcing him to take his flow to new heights. Other times, MCs will tailor their rhyme to the beat, taking advantage of the bells and whistles of the producer’s sound and exploiting the negative space. This is a salute to the best beatmakers around:

The Producer: The Neptunes, more than any other artist or entity, helped give an identity to pop music in the 2000s. The Virginia Beach production duo is comprised of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo (Virginia Beach, interestingly enough, was somewhat of a hotbed of production talent in the mid- 90s, as the scene also brought us fellow genius Timbaland). Pharrell became a celebrity because of his fondness of lending his trademark falsetto to the hooks of many of the group’s productions, despite the fact that his voice sounds like what a neutered Marvin Gaye would sound like if he were forced to sing while being strangled (he also occasionally attempts to rap a verse on some of his tracks, presumably to make the actual rapper sound much better in comparison). Though Pharrell’s falsetto is often grating, his presence on a track signaled to the listener that the song was a Neptunes production, and therefore unlike anything else on the air.

The Neptunes were instrumental in shaping the direction of popular music in the new millennium for several reasons: First, the Neptunes were partially responsible for the genre-mixing and the urbanization of Popular Music that marked the 2000s. Though Hip-Hop and R&B had been mostly integrated since the early 1990s, Pop and Hip-Hop remained separate. However, the Neptunes’ obliterated the gap between Pop and Hip-Hop in 2000 when they remixed “The Call,” by the Backstreet Boys, and added a verse by Pusha T of the Clipse. The Neptunes, who previously had only produced Hip-Hop and R&B, were thrust into the world of Pop, and by 2001, they were producing tracks for Britney Spears and No Doubt. In 2002, the Clipse appeared on Justin Timberlake’s “Like I Love You,” further mixing the previously disparate worlds of Pop and Rap. It’s hard to think about how unconventional this was back in the day; while in 1999, it would have been unthinkable for a rapper to appear on a Britney Spears song and be taken seriously, but nowadays, Snoop Dogg does a song with Katy Perry and no one bats an eye.

Second, the Neptunes were one of the driving forces in turning Hip-Hop into the most commercially viable form of popular music in the 2000s. While Hip-Hop established itself as a legitimately profitable and artistic musical genre in the mid-1980s, Hip-Hop songs rarely reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 without the help of an established R&B singer, except for certain singles by megastars such as Biggie, Puff Daddy or Dr. Dre, and watered-down pop-rap novelty tunes (see, “U Can't Touch This,” "Bust a Move," “Ice Ice Baby”). The Neptunes’ success at implementing Hip-Hop into their new breed of pop music helped turn rappers like Nelly, Ludacris and Snoop Dogg into legitimate pop stars.

Third, the Neptunes versatility and success paved the way for the increased incorporation of electronic music into Pop. While electronic sounds have long been explored in Hip-Hop and Pop, the Neptunes were among the first to integrate the glitches, sweeping synths and drums of 1980s Detroit Techno into Hip-Hop and Pop. The critical acclaim and chart success of their productions caused other producers to follow suit, and the lush soul samples that defined Hip-Hop in the 90s became less prevalent. Neptunes-esque synths soon became the norm in Pop music, replacing the soft guitar sounds of the Boy Band era.

Fourth, and most importantly, for this series, the Neptunes, along with Timbaland, helped redefine the role of a producer in popular music. While producers were just as vital before the 21st Century, the Neptunes helped turn the producer into a brand--a draw unto itself, no matter the artist he or she is working with.

The Sound: The Neptunes' versatility makes it hard to pin down one definitive sound for the group. They always have a distinctive percussive sound, generated by Pharrell's frequent use of live recordings of himself playing the drums, rather than just loops and drum machines. The Neptunes have an affinity of generating percussive sounds from unusual sources (woodblocks, maracas, tongue clicking). Chad utilizes a wide array of synth sounds, ranging from lush, processed strings (Jay'Z's "Excuse Me Miss," T.I.'s "Goodlife"), to a clean, guitar-like stab (Timberlake's "Rock Your Body," Snoop Dogg's "Beautiful") to an unfiltered, heavy Korg (synthesizer) bassline (Clipse's "Trill," Kelis's "Milkshake"). The tell-tale sign of a Neptunes production (besides the presence of Pharrell, which is a giveaway) is the off-kilter keyboard (or synth, as it may be), with its atonal scales and chords that don't resolve (Jay-Z's "La-La-La," Lupe Fiasco's "I Gotcha"). It's a testament to their skill that despite the variety of their productions, they still have a distinctive, trademark sound.

Soon: The Neptunes' Best Beats