He has a neurological condition that's called synesthesia. GREENE: As you can hear, Pharrell Williams talks about his creative process in visual terms a lot: the cresting wave, the sunset, the Mona Lisa. If you're not ushering in change, then you're just literally riding a wave, and all waves have a beginning, they have a peak, and then, you know, the sun sets. WILLIAMS: When someone is gigantic, that's a responsibility, because you have enough people listening, then you're supposed to be ushering in change. And that's just kind of, like, the way you do it. But at the same time, he was an ambitious one, and wanted to do things differently. WILLIAMS: He's a pop star, which was interesting, because we got to use all of that, like, horsepower. The former member of *NSYNC was trying to move beyond his boy band past. GREENE: Williams has helped a lot of artists become Mona Lisas, among them, Justin Timberlake. Most of them do, right? And C is where I sort of look at, like, their voice and what it sounds like and what would be an interesting juxtaposition in terms of a texture, all the while making sure that, like, the musician understands that they are the Mona Lisa, the picture. B: They also walk in talking about their latest experiences. It's, like, they walk in asking for, you know, they have, like, a request for what they might want to do, A. GREENE: When a star hired The Neptunes to produce a song, how does the process work? So I was, like, oh, you know what? I'm going to just completely do the opposite. I mean, I just thought, like, everything was just so heavy at the time. GREENE: And you thought what was missing was a certain simplicity in a song like this. What you know is what you feel like might be missing. WILLIAMS: You don't know what people are looking for. GREENE: How did you come to realize that minimalist was something that people were looking for at that time? WILLIAMS: I was just really into, like, a minimalism thing, the least amount of sounds we could use the better, because it's the sparseness that I felt like would make one react. (SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DROP IT LIKE IT'S HOT") They formed the Neptunes, a production team whose sound helped define hip-hop and R&B in the new millennium, with hits like this one from Snoop Dogg. Pharrell and Chad did have an instinct for sounds that could cross barriers and enjoy wide appeal. We were too busy going inward and thinking about, like, what music did to us. We didn't really think about things in that way. WILLIAMS: Because Chad and I have been the same since we were young. I'm wondering why you feel like it's not something you want to talk about. GREENE: It gave you pause that I'm asking you about this. I mean, you know, his family was from the Philippines. WILLIAMS: Well, I hate to look at things like that, but you're asking that question. WILLIAMS: He was from Kempsville, and I was from the area of Princess Anne. In the late '80s, he and his best friend, Chad Hugo, were teenagers growing up far from the recording industry in different neighborhoods around Virginia Beach. GREENE: Pharrell Williams received seven Grammy nominations this year, in some categories competing against himself. PHARRELL WILLIAMS: (Singing) She's up all night to get some. He helped make two of 2013's biggest songs, singing this one. We're going to hear now from a producer who certainly left his mark on music this year.
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