What Has Pharrell Been Up To? First Edition

What up billionaire boys and girls? There comes a time in most people’s day when they look toward the sky and wonder aloud: “I wonder what Pharrell is up to?” Well for me, that time is now. If you don’t know who Pharrell Williams is, first of all shame on you.  Second of all, lemme learn you somethin’. 

Pharrell grew to stardom as one half of the producer duo, the Neptunes with his partner Chad Hugo. He has been one of the more successful producers in this last decade or so, making beats for the likes of Justin Timberlake, Usher, and even Nelly (oooooh, white people can’t get enough Nelly, I know I can’t.) You might recognize him as one third of the Rock-Rap hybrid group N.E.R.D. perhaps, whose third album, Seeing Sounds has satisfied listeners around the world since it dropped earlier this year.  Don’t forget his illustrious solo career, I mean, who didn’t have a copy of In My Mind ?  Maybe you’ve heard of the Billionaire Boys Club/Ice Cream clothing label he started up in 2005.  Well, whether or not you’ve heard of Pharrell, he’s been a busy boy, and that’s for sho.  But what has he been up to lately?  that’s just the question I asked, so I went digging around, and here’s what I found.

Apparently, he will be featuring on the single, “Playground,” on Lindsay Lohan’s third studio album, Spirit in the Dark.  Wow.  If the album is going to be anything like A Little More Personal (Raw), shit is bout to be hot.  I just can’t wait.  I also heard he’s going to be working with Britney Spears on her sixth studio album for a couple tracks, but I can’t confirm it.  He also did  a spread in GQ, which was featured in the July issue.  Fresh threads, Skateboard P.

Check out this interview that was done by music celeb interviewer Nardwuar.  Peep those ridiculous glasses that Jigga was talking about, too.

If you love Pharrell as much as I do and wanna stay in the know, check back for more updates.

–Phrosty Phresh

MachineDrum and Theophilus London

During my daily surf-fest around the internet, perusing many a MySpace Music pages and the like, I found this dude, MachineDrum, out of Brooklyn, who really blew my mind. His name had already come up a few times in the previous week, whether it was on Mofomatronix’s Top Friends or somewhere else. Anyway, I finally clicked through and loved what I heard. Check out “Laugh and Cry” and MachineDrum’s remix of Cassie’s single “Me and U” remix especially.

MachineDrum’s MySpace

I’m a sucker for beat-making/deejaying videos, too, having dabbled in electronic music for a few years myself. So when I saw this on MachineDrum’s MySpace page, I flipped out. The things you can do with M-Audio’s Axiom 25 and Trigger Finger, plus your third party Digital Audio Workstation (I personally prefer Ableton Live), can be astounding.  That’s actually pretty close to my setup, so this is a lot of fun to watch.  Give this a little time.  It’s a long video at 8 minutes, but like a skilled musician of any kind, Machine Drum allows composition to add to the artwork.  He lets the beat build and breathe.  There are parts where you can nod your head to the beat, there are banger moments, and even ambience-esque lulls in the tempo.  It’s a very skilled integration of many types of electronic music.