Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
Arts & Entertainment
Beautiful, Pharell-Style
By
Jen Chung
Published May 5, 2003
Modified Mar 6, 2008
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Jen Chung
Published May 5, 2003
Modified Mar 6, 2008
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
I love the Neptunes and N.E.R.D., and they do have a very hot sound, but the over-Pharell-ization of music today makes things a bit...boring? The Neptunes are the hottest producers these days, but case in point: Beautiful, Snoop Dogg's new song with Pharell Williams (the most visible member of The Neptunes/N.E.R.D.). It's tight and sexy but it gets predictable. This quote by Sasha Frere-Jones in the Village Voice's Pazz and Jop ('Tune versus Tim, as in Timberland) issue says it all:
The Neptunes are the first important producers of the 21st century, happy children of the loud, brassy world of digital audio. It's not just how their beats return again and again, deathlessly big like a can-crushing machine. Their ideology is digital. The sounds they pick are clean and the pop thrills they seek are rarely idiosyncratic.
Neptunes produced songs you've heard, and if you haven't, then Gothamist is watches too much MTV:
Boys, I'm a Slave 4 U - Britney Spears
Like I Love You, Rock Your Body - Justin Timberlake
Hella Good - No Doubt
Work It Out - Beyonce Knowles
Girlfriend - *NSync
Hot in Herre - Nelly
Honey (Remix) - Moby
And their upcoming projects look as widereaching: Foxy Brown, Beyonce, TLC, Loon, Korn, Blur, Rosco P. Coldchain, FAMLAY, Kelis, DREAM, Limp Bizkit, Blink 182, Marylin Manson, Popa Roach, Sugar Ray, Kardinal Offishall, Sean Paul, Ja Rule, Taxi 3 Soundtrack, Britney Spears, Mystikal, Super Cat, Vanessa Marquez, Kelly Levesque, Clipse, NERD. The Neptunes on their label, Star Trak Music.
Gothamist's favorite video for N.E.R.D.'s Lapdance, made by the Modern Humorist.
Tagged
beyoncé
Beyonce Knowles
britney spears
cat
children
foxy brown
gothamist
hot
I Love
I Love You
ja rule
justin timberlake
Kardinal Offishall
Like I
Limp Bizkit
love
Modern Humorist
mtv
Music
No Doubt
rock
Sasha Frere
Sean Paul
Snoop
snoop dogg
sugar ray
tlc
video
village voice
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE arts-entertainment
Inside a photographer's journey to visit every neighborhood in New York City
What do you see when you record the whole of the boroughs?
By
Sonia Rao
Published Oct 5, 2026
Banned books and Winnie the Pooh: October in NYC libraries
It's a busy month at the branches.
By
Alec Hamilton
Arts & Entertainment
Banned books and Winnie the Pooh: October in NYC libraries
It's a busy month at the branches.
By
Alec Hamilton
NYC music in October: The Strokes, a Blink-182 cover band, and Polish experimentalism
By
Hank Shteamer
Are you a New Yorker? The Department of New Yorker Verification will now decide.
By
Hannah Frishberg
In the mood for a pastoral autumn experience? Try Queens.
By
Elizabeth Shwe
and
James Ramsay
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .