The Neptunes Chad Hugo helped define a new era of music.
Dont expect it to go to his head.
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The duo, comprising Virginia Beach utility players Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, has had an unbelievable run.
I dont get to hear from someone being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame every day.
How does it feel?Oh man, its an honor.
Im excited about it.
Its a good feeling to see people react to that and be a part of a community.
How did you get from high-school sax player to multi-instrumentalist super-producer?Oh, its just I love music.
My parents immigrated from the Philippines and moved to the United States.
They had nine-to-five jobs.
My dad was in the Navy, and my mother was a medical technologist.
They purchased a piano for our home.
I took piano lessons when I was a kid.
I wasnt really into it too much.
You learn all the classics, which Im appreciative of and grateful for now.
It goes back, I guess, to buying records.
That was, like, a thing that my family did.
We used to go to Roses, a department store, and pick up records.
Herbie Hancocks Rockit was awesome.
There was a four-track that I recorded on.
Pharrell came up with the name.
There was the local Neptune Festival, the planet Neptune, and king Neptune from Greek mythology.
It encompassed everything from underwater to outer space.
It sounded like something that wasnt strictly hip-hop.
It was out of the box.
It was kind of a slower hip-hop bang out of groove.
I sampled some drums from this record that my friendBinkgave me at the time theFunky Drummer break.
A lot of the sounds that were used in that record were chopped up from there.
I had it in the ASR-10.
We submitted it to Puff.
They were really feeling it.
I think we went to Quad Studios.
It was awesome, man.
Im showing my age right now, but I grew up in the Roxanne era.
One of my first hip-hop records wasThe Showstopper.A lot of the sounds that we used were not conventional.
We were using stock sounds on the keyboard, which mightve been out of the ordinary at the time.
We would take trips to New York, fly out, and pitch these songs to A&Rs.
We came up with hooks and rhythms and some songs there.
Ive just been blessed to be a part of the scene.
Its a sound that was sampled from a Hohner Clavinet D6.
If people dont know what that is, its the keyboard sound in Superstition by Stevie Wonder.
Not having access to an electric guitar at the time, we utilized that to get the idea out.
Pharrell started playing it.
We made the beat with drums from the breakbeat record that I sampled and chopped up.
Tammy Lucas sang the hook.
We were trying to reach all the demographics.
The hook borrowed from Heart of Glass.
The intro was a helicopter propeller, like how they found Manuel Noriega.
To this day, no ones heard anything like that.
I know the Filipino American community is amped up when DJs play it at clubs and parties.
Talk about putting on for Filipino Americans in hip-hop.As a community, we love music.
Nat King Cole sang a song back in the 60s thats calledDahil Sa Yo.Our roots are just everywhere.
I didnt realize you played sax on Jay-ZsCity Is MineoffIn My Lifetime, Vol.
He had a few records.
I remember hearing Who You Wit.
Jay was recording City Is Mine with Teddy, and Teddy invited me to play sax.
That was a good experience.
In 1999, you connected with Clipse and recorded an album calledExclusive Audio Footage.
What was the story with the album not coming out?There were lots of dope songs on there.
I dont know why it didnt come out.
I thought there were some good moments and some definitely out-of-the-box thinking there.
An album you worked on that did come out in 1999 was Keliss first album,Kaleidoscope.
Recently,she has saidshe didnt feel like the splits in that situation were fair.
Im curious what your response is.I heard about her sentiment toward that.
I mean, I dont handle that.
I usually hire business folks to help out with that kind of stuff.
We made some cool records back then with Kelis.
She was definitely eclectic and artsy, and she was nice.
Thats always the core: clubs and suburbs.
Itd be great to connect with her again somewhere down the line.
The Neptunes had rock records, Limp Bizkit remixes, and N.E.R.D.
You had NSYNCs Girlfriend and Britney Spearss Im a Slave 4 U.
You had hip-hop locked down.
Any way we can do that is my personal aim.
We just wanted to get out there, share music, and have our records heard on the radio.
The 20th anniversary of the first N.E.R.D.
We enjoyed the music they were recording for us.
Id pitched them to a label and had them signed.
Those guys were nice.
Brent and Christian and Eric and John on the vocals.
They kind of reminded us of a modern-day Steely Dan.
We wanted to record new sounds and get them played on rock radio.
We didnt think hip-hop radio as a format would be catered to with those kinds of all-over sounds.
The sounds were eclectic, and they were different.
There were a lot of changes.
It wasnt just a loop.
I mean, it was loop-based … but we didnt think that people would like it.
We were just trying different things, just trying to find the right words to say.
In the early aughts, the Neptunes started a label, Star Trak Entertainment.
You had anincredible roster, but a few years later, it sort of tapered off?
Was there a story there?Ive always been proud of the Star Trak affiliation.
Star Trak has been my heart and soul.
When Pharrell came up with the idea for Star Trak, we were fans of theStar Trekshow.
We used to watch that as kids, the 60s version.
I couldnt tell you what happened to the label.
I think itll live on how it has.
I was responsible for final mixdowns and studio work on a lot of those records.
Im grateful to have been a part of it.
One of my favorite Star Trak artists is Kenna.
He recorded a second album also,see to it You See My Face.
I thought it was a big deal that you were stepping out and producing that on your own.
I never understood why he didnt blow up in the way I expected.
It seemed like all the stars aligned.
I wonder if it had an effect on your thought process as far as endeavors outside of the N.E.R.D.
and Neptunes banners.At the time, Kenna and I werent really concerned about getting out there in the forefront.
We just wanted to make a project.
The first album was based on a lot of spiritual ideas.
It was a tribute to his mom.
It was really experimental, the way I chopped it up, the drum sounds.
I think there was conflict as far as Kennas motive for making it.
I think there was creative conflict.
Whats your process when youre producing an artist?
Its just being prepared for however an artist wants to approach it.
Theres this new thing called Audigo.
Its a portable microphone that syncs with your phone.
There are all these new ways that may be worthwhile to look into.
Its just a matter of being prepared to go about making a song.
You just have to be in agreement with people.
Sometimes you’re free to make it improvised and impromptu.
Some of the best songs made are never recorded.
There are jam sessions.
Karaoke moments can have magic.
I sing songs at home, but I was never, like, a recording vocalist.
I was grateful for being available to help in any way I can.
There are times when I sang background on some of the N.E.R.D.
One that was cool wasthe Internet.
Another group that said that wasBrockhampton.
They kind of did their thing, and now theyre going solo.
Its interesting that they came up with a plan, you know what I mean?
They came up with a timeline and just said, This is how were going to live our lives.
The whole thing has just been one mixtape.
Our life has been one mixtape.
I dont know if that answers the question.
Pharrell was definitely the vocalist and the spokesperson, the lyricist, and he wrote the hooks.
I did my thing and was glad to be a part of it.
I helped the best way I could at any time.
Its commendable, over a span of decades, to be able to say that.
But I felt like those beats were doing something smart.
They found this strange common ground between country and R&B.
People should start reworking things more often.
I like that the Beatles will sell an album full of studio sessions that shows bloopers and outtakes.
Theres been some speculation aboutwho actually wrotethe McDonalds Im Lovin It song.
What do you remember?Pusha T says that he wrote it, right?
I didnt know that.
I remember Justin singing the hook.
Justin sang the song.
Its a pretty cool song.
Were trying to work that out.
Was there a mix-up with the credits?I guess you could call it that.
Would you call it something else?We made some tunes.
There were some good vibes there.
We recorded it in Florida at a boathouse studio.
I played some keys here and there.
It sounded like primo 2000s Neptunes to me.
Thanks for clearing that up.
What are you working on these days?
Are you still in the studio all the time?Im in the studio all the time, yeah.
Right now, Im working on production with this artist named the BLSSM.
Shes, like, a pop-rock alt artist.
Im working with Dan the Automator on a Jo Koy comedy calledEaster Sunday.
I have a tune out with Denzel Curry.
There are different things that I havent put out yet.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
