Pharrell Looks Back on "Beautiful" Collab With Snoop Dogg: 'Girls Heard Me Singing That, I Heard Mickey Mouse'
Pharrell looks back on key moments from across his ever-broadening artistic journey in a new interview, at one point tucking in a hilarious Mickey Mouse comparison in connection with one of his and Snoop Dogg ’s collaborative hits.
Speaking with Kelefa Sanneh for CBS Sunday Morning, Pharrell, whose Lego-ified story will soon hit the big screen with Piece by Piece, first pointed to Teddy Riley as the lone reason he’s made it as far as he has. Per Pharrell, he “wouldn’t be sitting here right now” without Riley’s influence in his life, noting that there was “no music studio or music industry or anything like that” in Virginia Beach when he was younger.
Alongside Chad Hugo, of course, Pharrell broke out on the production side with The Neptunes , whose extensive discography boasts numerous Hot 100 hits. This period saw Pharrell himself becoming a full-fledged pop star on his own, something he reflected on with a touch of humor in his CBS chat.
“I had a song called ‘Beautiful’ with Snoop, right?” he said, referencing his and Snoop’s 2003 single, off the latter’s Paid tha Cost to Be da Bo$$ album. “Girls heard me singing that. I heard Mickey Mouse. ... I swear to you, when you just get a moment and you just listen, you’ll never be able to unhear it again."
The Neptunes-produced and Charlie Wilson-featuring track, which peaked at No. 6 on the Hot 100, sees Pharrell in full falsetto mode on the chorus. The song went on to bag two Grammy nominations at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards, where Pharrell and Chad were honored as Producers of the Year. Asked to clarify in his CBS chat whether he was hearing a “sexy Mickey Mouse” in the “Beautiful” chorus, Pharrell confirmed that he was instead simply hearing “regular” Mickey.
“Nah, not sexy,” he noted. “Just Mickey Mouse. It was wild for me.”
Elsewhere, Pharrell spoke candidly about getting to a point in the early 2000s where he started to feel “lost” due to no longe being “a student” in art. This led to work that started to feel “formulaic,” which he says was “troubling to my spirit” at the time. As is well-documented by now, Pharrell quickly righted the proverbial ship, ultimately landing several of the biggest hits of his career after shaking up his process. See more above.
Piece by Piece, helmed by Roadrunner director Morgan Neville, is out this Friday. Below, get an early look at what to expect from this inventive approach to the biography format.
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