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Pharrell Speaks On So Ambitious (Video)

blame it on Meka September 17, 2009

“We wanted to make a record that speaks to kids. [1] There’s a couple of lewd words there, but I wanted to make sure that kids heard this record and felt inspired,” Williams told MTV News. “That’s why there’s a little bit of anger to it. There’s anger in his verses, there’s anger in my chorus. That’s why I say spiteful things at the top [of the record]. There’s anger there, because there’s heat. Because you’re young and people are telling you what you can and can’t do. Unacceptable.”

“We did it all by phone,” [2] Williams said. “One-hundred percent. Phone and e-mail. I’ve never done that before in my life. I just sent him the joint, ’cause he beat me up for the whole album. He was just kinda like, ‘I need something to really tell a story.’ And I was like, ‘OK.’ And I sent him this track. I said, ‘I’m sending you clouds with 808s [drums] under it.’ There’s just clouds, and it’s expansive. You can just speak. It’s a blank canvas. Then I sent him the hook and played it for him, and he lost his mind.”

Williams said the song was made the day Jay-Z was mastering his album, and he believes the rapper held off on completing his album until he finished the song. The result, according to Williams, is another classic.

“[Just] the attack on it,” he said of the song. “Ferocious.”

[1] So the line “I might hit two sisters” speaks to the kids to inspire them? Um, alright.

[2] I’ve never been a fan of emailing in songs, particularly if the artist and producer have already worked with each other in the past. I just feel that that energy and magic that comes from the producer and artist working in-studio is lost over the dot com era. But hey, that’s why I do this and I’m not a rapper or producer.

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