Brothers From Another

Talking shop with the brains behind N.E.R.D. and The Neptunes -- the producers who can play.

by A.D. Amorosi

"I want to be with a producer who produces me -- not a programmer, not just someone who makes beats" says LL Cool J, backstage at Russell Simmonsí Hip-Hop Summit Action Network at the Liacouras Center. "A lot of guys make a beat, sell you a track and that is it. In reality, you produced it along with your A&R guy. Someone like that should be considered like a studio musician and not get points and such. Iím a player who wants to be coached."

Yet, where prolific producers are concerned, you'd be hard-pressed to find ones who can play instruments, sing like songbirds, rap and rhyme with cool candor and look good doing it. You're searching for Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. They're the rugged, rap-rock group N.E.R.D., whose first CD In Search Of was an instant crit classic. The Neptunes Present Clones, on their new Star Trak label, stars themselves, their million-selling clients (Nelly, Busta, Ludacris, Jay-Z) and Star charges like Spymob, Kelis and Philly's Rosco P. Coldchain. It debuted on Billboard at number one.

Hugo and Williams met in high school music programs in Virginia Beach, where their Master Sound Studio sits today. Williams was playing sax; Hugo was DJing and programming beats. Both messed around on drums and keyboards. "We jammed. We'd record. And that was that, really. We didn't think about it," says Hugo.

Outside of Pharrell's rapping and singing ("That's not for me," laughs Hugo), there's no division of labor between them. Neither is solely responsible for writing the long, complicated melodies of their hooks or their improbably danceable rhythms. "I think the people who come to us for production -- from the most poppiest to the most thuggiest -- learn that story and know what we do. They trust The Neptunes, they trust us. They know it's like we're tour guides -- The Neptunes take you through your favorite sounds."

"That's what The Neptunes do," says LL Cool J. "Like on åLuv U Better,' Pharrell'll be at the keyboards, Chad'll be on drums or bass and I'll be there jotting down lyrics, talking about the songs, the concepts. We're vibing. When they hear what they want, they grab it -- tell you to continue that. You give them more lines, more ideas. They put you in the booth to record -- they tell you to calm down or speak clearer or scream. Go uhhh. That's producing."

Despite sequencers and drum programs, the young duo had a sense of the human voice, the emotion of what making music means. They started making hip-hop history, first, with Bastard and Jay-Z. They made Mystikal's "Shake Ya Ass." Then came the pop-toppers: Britney, Janet, Justin, Beyoncé. "There's lots of songs that made impact, really fast," says Hugo. "I think we wrote and produced such different-sounding music with that sort of force because we were like a band without a lead singer."

Then came N.E.R.D., Williams and Hugo's live rock band backed by the boys in Spymob. Along with two versions of its In Search Of (one with drum programmed, the other backed by live instrumentation), N.E.R.D.'s live vibe gives them a chance to break out of their programmed beatbox. "We wanted to speak to more people -- bring The Neptunes sequenced thing to the live rock world we come from," says Hugo. Asked to name his favorite rock, he replies, "Mica and quartz."

Sprite Liquid Mix Tour with N.E.R.D., Kelis, O.A.R., The Roots, Talib Kweli, Spymob, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Skillz, Slightly Stoopid, Jessy Moss, High Speed Scene, The Wylde Bunch, Borialis and Red Wanting Blue, Thu., Sept. 4, 4 p.m., $10, Tweeter Center, Mickle Blvd. and Riverside Dr., Camden, N.J., 215-336-2000.