Grammy award Producer & Engineer Ken Lewis talks to gearslutz.com how it’s been working with The Neptunes back in 2000/02 on N*E*R*D’s ‘Lapdance’ and Cuban Link’s ‘Still Tellin’ Lies’. Thanks to Jazz. “The entire first N*E*R*D album is a classic. “Lapdance” is a standout song. “Provider” and “Rock Star (Poser)” are pretty hot tracks, but the whole album is a great listen start to finish. First time i met Pharrell, I was at Sound on Sound – Studio B – in New York City mixing an album for Cuban Link (Atlantic). Neptunes were working downstairs in Studio A on the first N*E*R*D album and Pharrell and Chad came upstairs to say hello and talk about producing a song for Cuban Link’s album (which they did and i mixed 🙂
Pharrell walks in with fuzzy white cowboy boots, a cowboy hat, tight blue jeans and a sequined T shirt, and they walked right into a room filled with straight up thugs. I mean, I always loved and respected Cuban Link and his crew but i would never want to be on the wrong side of them, and here walks in Pharrell, maybe the only person who could have walked in looking like that and not walked out with bruises at minimum. Pharrell proceeds to put a rough mix of “Lapdance” into the CD player, put it on the big speakers, BLAST it, and….. i swear to god…. dance in front of the console, facing the speakers, while Cuban and his crew sit on the back couches.
And i mean Pharrell was doing some serious moves. Thank god the song was absolute fire. Song ends. Pharrell, Chad and Cuban Link have a short discussion about working together then Pharrell and Chad leave, and Cuban and his crew bust out laughing like “did that actually just happen”. It was completely surreal, but it happened. I couple weeks later we did the song “Still Tellin Lies” with Cuban Link, which Neptunes produced and i mixed, and became a radio single and video. Thats one of my best studio stories. – Ken”
N*E*R*D – Lapdance feat. Lee Harvey & Vita (UK) (01′)
N*E*R*D – Lapdance feat. Lee Harvey & Vita (02′)
Cuban Link – Still Tellin’ Lies feat. Tony Sunshine & Tammy Lucas (00′)