Pharrell Williams became the first artist to create a 24-hour music video, when he released the video for his song “Happy,” off the Despicable Me 2 soundtrack.
The music video was available on the website 24HoursofHappy.com, which seems to be inactive now but you can watch the music video on Pharrell’s iamOther YouTube channel in six parts all broken into four hours each.
The music video featured plenty of celebrity cameos including; Tyler, the Creator, Jamie Foxx, Earl Sweatshirt, Kelly Osbourne, Magic Johnson, Jimmy Kimmel anmd many more. You can watch the first four hours below.
Pharrell also released a regular music video version of Happy.
Pharrell provided the adlibs for r&b group SWV’s debut 1993 single “Right Here.” The song was released on July 10, 1993 as the lead single from their debut album It’s About Time, which also released that same year. Right Here sampled Michael Jackson’s 1982 ‘Human Nature’ and the voice chanting S-W-V in the “Right Here (Human Nature Remix)” is Pharrell Williams. This was one of Pharrell’s first credits.
“S, double U, S, V, S, S double U, double V S-W-V”
As a kid, Pharrell Williams fired from THREE different McDonald’s locations . Pharrell first revealed this on his MTV episode of ‘When I Was 17’, he then talked more about it with late night TV show host, Seth Meyers, late night show.
“I was lazy … I was very lazy,” Pharrell said.
“My manager would say ‘Williams, go mop the floor’!
(MTV video no longer available)
“And I’d go out there, but the problem is I’d get caught up in the music … out in the dining area (of mcdonalds)… so the music would be playing and I’m like (dancing and singing to the music).
“At a certain point they realised that I was no help. I was only good at eating the chicken nuggets.”
McDonald’s paid Justin Timberlake, who sang the original ‘I’m Lovin’ It’, $6 million for the memorable “ba-da-ba-ba-bah” ascribed to “I’m Lovin’ It.”
While Pharrell was still a teenager, Teddy Riley brought him in to work on Wreckx-N-Effect’s 1992 sophomore album Hard or Smooth. Pharrell helped write a verse on the albums lead single Rump Shaker.
Rump Shaker has 11 different writer and producer credit; Aqil Davidson, Anton Hollins, David Porter, Markell Riley, Teddy Riley, David Wynn, Etterlene Jordan (Bunny DeBarge), El DeBarge, Randy DeBarge, Ty Fyffe, and of course Pharrell Williams. The song peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, right behind Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.”
There were rumors of The Neptunes producing the record but Ty Fyffe, a producer on Rump Shaker, clarified Pharrell’s involvement in the song saying,
“Me and [Teddy Riley] are the only producers that did that song. A lot of people got credit…shouts out to Pharrell; he was down with the camp back in the day. But he really didn’t produce ‘Rumpshaker’ – no disrespect, Pharrell’s a genius. I love Pharrell’s music. But he only wrote Ted’s rap.”
In 1991, Virginia natives Pharrell Williams, Timbaland, Magoo, and Larry Live were all in a group called “S.B.I.” which stood for “Surrounded by Idiots.” The group was created during their high school days. Timbaland went under the moniker DJ Timmy Tim and Pharrell was known as Magnum.
Pharrell Williams gave Chad Hugo a shoutout on “Skull Caps and Stripe Shirts” on the S.B.I. 1991 Demo Tape by calling him “Chad the Creator.”
According to Timbaland’s book The Emperor of Sound: A Memoir, Before joining S.B.I., Pharrell Williams was a member of his own group, Dead Poets Society.
In a 2012 interview with Life + Times to celebrate the then tenth anniversary of Clipse‘s major label debut album Lord Willin’,which was produced entirely by the Neptunes, Pusha T discussed how the albums biggest single “Grindin’” almost never happened and could have been another smash hit for Jay-Z.
Pusha T and his brother Malice nearly lost the record to Hov.
“The way it was presented to me…I was actually home and Pharrell was in the studio and he called me and he was like, “Listen. Get up here right now. Get up here right now–I’ve got this record and if you’re not up here in 15 minutes I’m just giving it to Jay Z. I am. I’m giving it to him. If you’re not here in 15 minutes…I know you’re home. You’re home. You’re home. Your house is 10 minutes from here. That means you’ve got five minutes to get ready and get over here. If not, I’m giving it to Jay.” I couldn’t really deal with that. And I was there, needless to say, in 13 minutes (laughs).” (Life + Times)
Pusha also discusses working with The Neptunes
“Our first record out was “Grindin’.” This was at a time when Pharrell was hot, the Neptunes were hot. He was on every hook from Nelly to Mystikal, everybody. And we have a hook where he’s actually not on it. The intro…it basically set the tone for all of those maneuvers and moves. It was just like, “This is what we are, we’re different. This is the streets, this is Virginia, this is new, this is risk-taking.” Playas, we ain’t the same. You know.” (Life + Times)
Grindin’ is listed at No. 84 in Rolling Stone’s best songs of the 2000s.
