The following two true stories say everything about how underappreciated the Neptunes are for their awesomeness. The first story involves my brother, who if you don't know, is the king of pop culture trivia. No joke he can list the twelfth actor in a movie or a one hit wonder from 1982 like people recite there names. Yet, when I told him that this week's entry was on the Neptunes, he asked me who they were. Shocking? Absolutely. Poignant? Without question. The second story involves my friend and the girl he is currently dating. When we were talking about my blog one night, they asked who the next post was being written about. Their response about the Neptunes? "Wow, great choice. They are awesome and no one ever talks about them!" I could rest my case solely based on those two situations, but I'm not going to. For some reason when one thinks of the most successful hip-hop and rap producers of all time the same two people come to mind; Dr. Dre and Timbaland, and rightfully so. They definitely deserve the props, fame and recognition they get because they have consistently churned out extremely successful,popular songs and albums over the years, while helping several artists achieve mainstream status. However, the Neptunes fail to get their due for some unknown reason. What's especially surprising is the number of hits they have produced that you didn't know they were behind. It's about time that the Neptunes start getting appreciated for being awesome and are recognized as the most successful producers in hip-hop and rap today.
I think a lot of the problem when it comes to the Neptunes is that people seem to get them and N.E.R.D. confused, which is somewhat understandable. The difference between the two? N.E.R.D. (No one Ever Really Dies) is the hip-hop group that consists of Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, and Shay Haley. The Neptunes is the name of the production group of Williams and Hugo. So to sum up, N.E.R.D. is the music group and the Neptunes are the producers and Haley only performs. Got it? In a move that might not surprise you, the Neptunes have produced every song and album that N.E.R.D. has ever made. Since they choose to have two different groups and that are associated with each other and involve almost the same people, a lot of the world usually assumes that they are the same thing. Due to the fact that N.E.R.D. is more well-known because of such hits as "Lapdance" and "She Wants To Move" usually the credit is only given to N.E.R.D. However, it takes two different kinds of musical talent to make music and to produce music and while N.E.R.D. is appreciated for the awesome skills making music, the Neptunes are not given such credit for producing music, when they should be.
One of the things I love and totally respect the Neptunes for is that they don't just limit themselves to one genre. They could easily produce for just hip-hop and rap, which is clearly where they excel. However, they often tend to step out of their element producing pop hits like Nsync's "Girlfriend" (reached fifth in the U.S. charts), rock songs for Papa Roach, and they even took a swing at the indie scene producing songs for The Hives. I think the reason why they cross over genres so successfully is due to their unique sound. The Neptunes' sound involves a heavy use of synthesizer riffs, loud drum beats, and falsetto hooks that make up a funk-like hip-hop. It's so different than anything else out there that so many artists want it on their tracks. They also do more then produce and make music. Williams and Hugo are credited as the writers for the song "Hella Good" by No Doubt which reached 13 on the pop charts. The Neptunes also are so awesomely versatile that they even produced the "I'm Loving It" theme song that you hear during McDonald's commercials...and why wouldn't they? Obviously McDonald's was trying to make themselves look hip and cool after the whole Supersize Me scandal, so they decided to hire the awesomest, hippest, coolest, most popular producers around to fit this image. And when I mean the awesomest, hippest, coolest, and most popular producers around, I mean it. A survey in August 2003 found the Neptunes produced almost 43% of songs played on U.S. radio. That is just absurdiculously awesome as far as I am concerned. You can also make the argument that the Neptunes helped launch several careers. The were responsible for Mystikal's biggest hits in "Danger" and "Shake Ya ***" and making Kelis a household name with her breakout hit "Milkshake." They also have produced every album by the Clipse and have introduced them to a national audience as well. However, they are so awesome, that their awesomeness doesn't stop there.
Most of the time in the music industry, people like to let their body of work speak for themselves in terms of how talented they are. If you are to take this literally, the Neptunes would have a conversation that would last 40 days and 40 nights. Seriously, the amount of hits that are behind might make your head explode, and I am putting the over-under at two for the amount of songs you knew they produced. If someone was to tell me they knew more than four, they better be Pharrell or Hugo themselves or the world's biggest liar. They got their first break in 1997 producing Mase's hit "Lookin' At Me", which peaked as the number eight rap song in the United States. However, they really didn't hit it big until 1999 when they produced the crowd pleasing hit by Ol' Dirty Bastard, "Got Your Money," which at one point was the 26th most popular song in the country. This lead to collaborating with Jay-Z for "I Just Wanna Luv U (Give It 2 Me)", which at one point was the #1 hip-hop song in the country, and Busta Rhymes on "Pass The Courvoisier pt. 2." Once those were released, it was official; the Neptunes owned the world, musically producing speaking. The helped Ludacris with "Southern Hospitality," then tore up the charts with Fabolous' hit Young'n (Holla Back), and produced one of the most highly anticipated (and awesome) albums of all-time, Justin Timberlake's debut solo album, Justified. This album just went on to win two Grammy awards for the Neptunes and sell more than seven million copies worldwide. This helped lead them to a success they never could have imagined.
The Neptunes have produced several number one hits in the United States. These hits include, Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl," Jay-Z's "Excuse Me Miss," LL Cool J's "Luv U Better," Nelly's "Hot In Herre," Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot," and Usher's "U Don't Have To Call." (Side note: I guarantee you that you just read that list and said either "Wow" or "I didn't know they produced that") However, their most awesome, biggest hit, Britney Spear's "I'm A Slave 4 U" went number one in the world. Now I know what you're thinking, they produced a song for Britney Spears during her peak popularity, of course it was going to go number one worldwide. Well let me respond by posing the following question; do you think Brit-Brit would let anyone produce a song of hers when she was on top of the world? Of course not! If anything was going to bring Britney down, it was going to be her social life, and certainly not her music. She was going to hire awesome producers to produce her tracks, which is why she chose the Neptunes. She knew they were awesome and respected their talent and skill to produce a hit, and produce a hit they did.
When I was writing this article, I kept wondering if producers should stay behind the scenes and not step in the lime light. However, then I realized how much producers are involved in music and should be appreciated and recognized for all the hard work they do. The Neptunes deserve to be appreciated for their awesomeness by people as much as they get it within the music industry. In 2008 and 2009 the Neptunes got the biggest compliments they could get when they went out of this world mainstream. They spent time producing their specific sound for all-time musical legends like Madonna on her Hard Candy album, the first lady of the Underappreciated Awesome Celebrity Blog, Shakira on her She Wolf album, and the late great Michael Jackson on The Remix Suite album. Clearly, this is a sign that the Neptunes should be recognized for being on the list of all-time best musical producers ever. And why not? Besides being name as Producers of the Year at The Source and Billboard Music Awards in 2001, and the aforementioned Grammy wins, they won another for producing the Best Rap Song of the Year for Ludacris' "Money Maker" and were at least nominated for Best Producers every year from 2004 to 2007. I could only think what if there was a Grammy award for most Underappreciated Awesome Producers? I have no doubt that they would win the Lifetime Achievement Award.
