Guides/A Riffiter guide
Albums Pharrell Williams touched
Producer, Neptune, hitmaker: the records that carry his fingerprints, from Justified to Random Access Memories.
Pharrell Williams has shaped pop, hip-hop and R&B for over two decades, as one half of the Neptunes, as the frontman of N.E.R.D, and as a solo star. This guide collects the albums his production touched, from Justin Timberlake's Justified to Daft Punk's Random Access Memories.
Few producers have left a wider fingerprint on modern pop than Pharrell Williams. With Chad Hugo as the Neptunes, then with his band N.E.R.D and his own solo records, he spent the 2000s building a sound (spare, bouncing, instantly recognisable) that took over the radio.
This guide gathers albums he produced, co-wrote or fronted. Some he built end to end; on others he supplied the one song everyone remembers. Either way, you can usually hear him the second the beat drops.
- 1
In Search Of...
Be the first to rate—Pharrell's own band, and the purest distillation of his taste, funk, rock, hip-hop and pop colliding at once. The Neptunes' production lab in album form.
- 2
Justified
Be the first to rate—The Neptunes produced much of Timberlake's solo debut, including "Like I Love You" and "Señorita," turning a boy-band graduate into a credible pop-funk star overnight.
- 3
Lord Willin'
Be the first to rate—Produced front to back by the Neptunes, Lord Willin' is the hardest, sparest expression of their sound, clipped drums and eerie space behind two of rap's sharpest voices.
- 4
- 5
R & G (Rhythm & Gangsta): The Masterpiece
Be the first to rate—Pharrell produced its biggest moments, including the hypnotic "Drop It Like It's Hot", Snoop reborn over the leanest beat of the decade.
- 6
Love. Angel. Music. Baby.
★ 3.5 · 1—The Neptunes produced several tracks on Stefani's solo debut, among them the chant-along smash "Hollaback Girl."
- 7
Britney
Be the first to rate—The Neptunes handed Spears her most adventurous single in "I'm a Slave 4 U," a slinky, whispered turn that grew her up in three minutes.
- 8
Nellyville
★ 3.5 · 1—Pharrell and Chad Hugo produced the summer-defining "Hot in Herre," one of the biggest singles of the Neptunes' imperial run.
- 9
Blurred Lines
Be the first to rate—Pharrell co-wrote and produced the era-defining (and much-debated) title track, the song that made him inescapable all over again in 2013.
- 10
Random Access Memories
★ 4.3 · 9—Pharrell sang and co-wrote "Get Lucky" and "Lose Yourself to Dance," the disco-bright heart of Daft Punk's Grammy-sweeping farewell.
- 11
G I R L
Be the first to rate—His second solo album, built around "Happy", the inescapable, sunlit hit that became a genuine global phenomenon.
- 12
Hard Candy
Be the first to rate—Pharrell and the Neptunes produced much of Madonna's dance-pop reinvention, lending her their bounce on cuts like "Give It 2 Me."
- 13
To Pimp A Butterfly
★ 4.1 · 12—Pharrell produced "Alright," the album's defiant centrepiece, a song that grew beyond the record to become a protest anthem.
- 14
Sweetener
★ 4.2 · 3—Pharrell produced a clutch of Sweetener's most experimental tracks, pushing Grande's pop into looser, stranger shapes.
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