Earlier this October Skateboard P made his debut appearance as Artist in Residence with NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and he sat down with NYU professor and NPR Music’s “I’ll Take You There” host Jason King for a career-spanning, two-hour retrospective interview. Throughout their time together, Pharrell spoke on nearly everything: from growing up in Virginia Beach, he and Chad Hugo‘s early production days (reunite The Neptunes, please) with Teddy Riley, racial stereotypes, Kelis, Trump, Hilary, me, you, your mother and your cousin too, no stone was left unturned.

Some choice quotes:

On Kelis

“She was and is, to me, like one of the most forward-thinking people ever. She was a huge influence. And she was actually the one that, like, started me in, like, just sort of dressing a bit different. OK? At that point, everything was Ralph Lauren Polo for me – everything. Because where I was from, that’s like what all the hustlers wore… I was a backpacker, but I had a Polo backpack. You know, it was kind of like everything. And she was just like, no, listen, you know, there’s something called Prada.”

On the moment her wanted to pursue music

“A Tribe Called Quest had put out their first record, and I heard ‘Bonita Applebum‘ and I thought, ‘Man, what is this record?’ Because they looped a part of the song, and they just made it. And I noticed that the loop kept giving this continuous feeling and that was just like blowing my mind as something that was just happening over and over again.”