The Neptunes #1 fan site, all about Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo

Here is a new Nike Commercial track produced by The Neptunes for Kobe Bryants new Shoe Line called „Zoom“.

For fans of the Clipse, the Virginia rap duo’s upcoming third album, Till The Casket Drops, is a big deal, indeed. So it was with great pleasure that I ventured out tonight to hear the album’s first teaser single, the appropriately titled “Kinda Like A Big Deal,” which features a guest spot from Kanye West and should be released for public consumption on March 9. Super-instant react: It’s dope. The song finds the Thornton brothers in a far more upbeat mood than 2006’s supremely bitter Hell Hath No Fury — it just might be their first bona fide party track in years. That vibe starts with the beat, a burner courtesy of DJ Khalil that opens with a blazing electric guitar lick before falling into a wicked sampled organ, guitar, and drum groove. Pusha T. leads off with some vintage braggadocio: “The third time’s the charm/After two classics, another stripe upon my arm.” Pusha also finds time to crow about “how it feel to blow a hundred thou in a recession/With no second-guessing.” Recession rap this ain’t. Next up is Kanye, who delivers a swaggering verse that will remind listeners of how great he is when he actually raps. If Kanye’s lyrics comparing himself to “the black Marshall, mixed with Jay” are any hint, maybe he’s planning to get back to rapping full-time soon, lord willing.

(Trivia note: I’m pretty sure I recognized a couple of Kanye’s punchlines, like the one mentioning “alligator souffle,” from a verse Yeezy spit on an early version of T.I.’s “On Top of the World” that I heard last year.) Pusha’s brother Malice follows with a sick verse of his own. Clever lyrics (of course), a tight beat, and a Kanye cameo: All in all, this single should make for a strong reintroduction for the Clipse. “Kinda Like A Big Deal” is one of a handful of DJ Khalil-produced tracks that are being considered for Till The Casket Drops, which is tentatively expected to see a late-summer release. I also got an early listen to a few works in progress that might make it on to the album, including several sparkling beats that emerged from recent studio sessions in Miami with the Clipse’s longtime collaborator Pharrell Williams of The Neptunes. (Nothing is for certain yet, but the Clipse’s camp says Neptunes productions will likely account for about half of the final album when all’s said and done.) Pending further information, this is looking like it could end up being 2009’s rap album to beat. Anyone else looking forward to hearing the final product?

*popwatch.ew.com

IT’S become a cliche to bemoan the decline of hip-hop. The protest subculture of its 1970s pioneers has degenerated, traditionalists argue, into an antiseptic mainstream phenomenon. Rapper and producer Pharrell Williams epitomises this commercial turn.As 50 per cent of The Neptunes production team — a partnership with his high-school homeboy, Filipino-American Chad Hugo — he’s perhaps the music industry’s most in-demand hit maker. Yet he also embodies the genre’s outsider ethos: the possibility of socially marginalised kids rising to the top. He spent the first seven years of life in the housing projects of Virginia Beach. Now, platinum-plated artists such as Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Jay-Z, Nelly, Usher and Kanye West line up for the production duo’s golden touch. At one point, Neptunes productions accounted for 43 per cent of tracks aired on American radio. Their handiwork fuses rap with rock, folk and rhythm and blues, creating eclectic sounds that Williams, 35, is at a loss to describe. “Um, I don’t know, it’s just music,” he says. “I’m not sure if we have a title for it.” To author Neil Strauss, writing in Esquire magazine, The Neptunes’ output is “not the messy kitchen sink of postmodernism but the sparkling, clean chrome kitchen of hip-hop futurism”. The team has softened rappers such as Snoop Dogg with Beautiful and Mystikal with Shake Ya Ass, roughened up Madonna with last year’s Hard Candy album, and gave Britney Spears a sharp-edged makeover with her 2001 hit I’m a Slave 4 U.
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Help Chester French and DJ Clinton Sparks come up with a title for Chester French new mixtape project! Clinton Sparks is at it again but this time with one of the hottest new pop bands, Chester French aka D.A & Max! Clinton has been taking the mixtape game to another level with his latest projects from Fall Out Boy and most recently Strong Arm Steady and Tyga. Chester French teamed up with Clinton Sparks to create an audio movie with a score of all original music written, produced and performed by Chester French. Clinton Sparks and Chester French have been in the studio nonstop for a week putting this masterpiece together, and for those of you who are not yet familiar with Chester French, after this project you will become a fan of their unique, creative sound and understand why Kanye West, Jermaine Dupri and Pharrell Williams all wanted to give them a record deal!

They ultimately signed with Star Trak/Interscope and their debut album “Love The Future” is slated to drop April 21st, but in the meantime GET FAMILIAR with this Chester French and Clinton Sparks collaboration, set to drop the top of March. This mixtape is pure entertainment with humorous skits, interludes and a few surprise guest features that will take you on a journey with D.A. & Max from their Harvard days where they formed their band and hooked up with a few “Nerd Girls,” to Hollywood where they were partying and getting kicked out of clubs, got a record deal and subsequently were sucked into the Hollywood life before buckling down and finishing their debut album. Leave your Mixtape Title ideas as comments On Chester French Blog.

Once again, new theme, hope you’ll like it. You all know how to help me keeping the website alive!

Legendary producer Rick Rubin has been working on tracks for the Clipse’s long-awaited third album this month, the rap duo’s camp tells EW. Rubin, who signed the Clipse to Columbia Records shortly after taking over as the label’s cochairman in 2007, has completed one tune with them so far in a Malibu studio; they plan to work with him on one to two more in the coming weeks. Though Rubin began his career in the ’80s working with acts like Run-D.M.C., LL Cool J, and the Beastie Boys, he’s more recently focused on producing rock and pop bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Weezer — along with occasional high-profile forays into hip-hop like Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” in 2003. Needless to say, the thought of the bearded studio wizard crafting tracks for critical darlings the Clipse is enough to make many rap fans salivate. The Clipse is currently aiming for a late-summer release for Til The Casket Drops, which will feature contributions from a wide range of beatsmiths. First single “Kinda Like A Big Deal,” produced by DJ Khalil and featuring Kanye West, is set to drop March 9.

*ew.com