I Know This Part Ain’t Pretty but You Know I’ll be Busy

In the past decade, no one has had more influence on what the radio plays than the Neptunes production team. After a couple years of making hits for other artists, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo decides to make hits for themselves and released an album under the moniker N.E.R.D. (for those keeping track at home stands for Nobody Ever Really Dies), but their two albums were heavily ignored. Now Pharrell is out on his own for his first solo album, but unlike the N.E.R.D. projects that primarily used live musicians, In My Mind relies heavily on the beats that made him famous in the first place.

Even though this is a solo album, Pharrell does call in some favors from artists he made hits for like Jay-Z (Excuse Me Miss), Snoop Doggy Dogg (Drop it Like it’s Hot), Gwen Stefani (Hollaback Girl), and Nelly (Hot in Herre). He also brings around some artists from his record label including Slim Thug, Pusha T, and Lauren. And let’s be honest, there is a reason why Pharrell is know for his production, so he needs all the help he can get with his vocals.

What Pharrell is know for is making beats, but compared to his résumé, the ones on In My Mind are pretty weak and unmemorable. The best on the album is the drumline sounding How Does it Feel? but it still wouldn’t rank in the top twenty-five of his career. Another problem is that one of Pharrell’s endearing quality was his nerd (he did name his label Star Trak, get it?), skateboarding raps were much different that everything else going, but on this album he spends a lot of time raping about his bling, but just ends up sounding like every other rapper on the radio, but Pharrell’s flow just isn’t as good, well except for Nelly, even Aaron Carter can rap better than Nelly.

About half way through the album, Pharrell does give a try at being an R&B singer, but is about as successful as he is a rapper. Those song tend to be bogged down by cheesy early nineties lyrics like on Take it Off (Dim the Lights) where he tells us he’s a master at your bra. Um yeah, okay. He also occasionally tries to go with the Prince falsetto, but unlike the Purple One, can’t hit one note. Word has it that Pharrell delayed the release of this album multiple times because he wasn’t satisfied with the outcome but put it out now to meet fan demand. But after listening to it, he should have kept on working. The only thing worth listening to is Kanye West’s verse on Number One.

Song to Download - Number One

In My Mind gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.