Pharrell Williams The GOAT?

[JustCKing]

First let me premise this with, I've been a huge Neptunes fan for now two decades and some change. I have them in my Top 10. As a cultrual icon, Pharrell is one of the biggest. That said, there seems like a push to put him on the same level as Dre as a producer. Like, there's been this campaign since the re-emergence of Pharrell in the mainstream to even put him above Dre. It jumped off with Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" featuring Pharrell, then "Blurred Lines" and then "Happy" put him through the roof. All of these were big songs. Then came "Freedom", which wasn't necessarily a hit especially not on the level of the others, but definitely pushed by Apple like it was as big as "Happy". There's Kendrick Lamar's "Alright", which was definitely a huge cultural score Pharrell. There's last year's big Clipse comeback, which plays more to my point.

Suddenly, The Clipse are getting comparisons to OutKast where folk are even going as far as to say they are better than Kast. Pharrell wins the first Dr. Dre award at the Grammys. Now we have Push being compared to Jadakiss. I don't think it's by accident. You can't make an argument for Pharrell being a GOAT if he never had a hand in curating an iconic act. The Clipse is the only Neptunes/Pharrell produced act that has the respect, but weren't necessarily commercial juggernauts.

Dre has Snoop, Game, Eminem, a solo career, and 50. RZA has Wu. Kanye has his solo career and pretty much made Twista mainstream and there's his own solo career. Timbaland even had Missy and solo career.

Pharrell has "Frontin'", which dropped at the height of The Neptunes dominance, but Clones only went Gold. "Happy" drops at the height of his commercial resurgence, but the album only goes Gold.

My verdict: I don't think he measures up to enter a Top 5 discussion.

 

[Sir Richard Spirit]

He has to be at this point. Out side of random Kanye songs there is nobody doing it on his level for so long. You may have a personal favorite, but Pharell hasn’t stopped.

 

[JustCKing]

He has to be at this point. Out side of random Kanye songs there is nobody doing it on his level for so long. You may have a personal favorite, but Pharell hasn’t stopped.

No, he doesn't.

Dr. Dre- 80's, 90's, '00's, and even early part of 10's

Timbaland- 90's, '00's, 10's, part of the 20's

Kanye- '00's, 10's, 20's

Can't really say Pharrell was exactly on in the 90's outside of "Superthug", Mase's "Lookin At Me", and ODB's "I Got Your Money". I'll give yiu Kelis's Kaleidoscope, but that came at the tail end of the 90's and is still slept on.

 

[Elim Garak]

No

 

[Sir Richard Spirit]

No, he doesn't.

Dr. Dre- 80's, 90's, '00's, and even early part of 10's

Timbaland- 90's, '00's, 10's, part of the 20's

Kanye- '00's, 10's, 20's

Can't really say Pharrell was exactly on in the 90's outside of "Superthug", Mase's "Lookin At Me", and ODB's "I Got Your Money". I'll give yiu Kelis's Kaleidoscope, but that came at the tail end of the 90's and is still slept on

So from the late 90s until 2026. Who’s still going at his level?

 

[Chip Skylark]

No

 

[JustCKing]

So from the late 90s until 2026. Who’s still going at his level?

Breh, Pharrell hasn't been on a run since the late 90's. All you're doing now is pushing recency bias which plays more to the point of what I was making. Pharrell's work, especially as a solo producer does not hold up. More to the point, it would be like putting No I.D. over DJ Premier and RZA simply because he's had bigger moments more recently than they have even though he's from their era or when people put Alchemist over Havoc or another GOAT level producer from the 90's based strictly off output rather than impact, influence, body of work, etc.

 

[Whips-n-Chains]

Not even remotely close in my book, but I'm not a big Pharell/Neptunes fan...their beats are always flash in the pan to me, and get tiring quick