N.E.R.D.

Childhood friends Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo shaped the face of pop music in the 2000s as production duo Neptunes, lending their signature smooth, infectiously funky sound to huge hits for Kelis, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, while retaining the respect of their hip-hop roots. Teaming up with singer Shay Haley they took the name N.E.R.D (No-one Ever Really Dies) and stepped forward from behind the mixing desk to reinvent themselves as a strutting funk-rock trio capable of setting dance floors alight with sexy, pumping, party anthems such as the UK top 20 singles 'Lapdance', 'Rock Star' and 'Provider'.

Their debut album 'In Search Of...' won them the Shortlist Music Prize in 2002 and established Pharrell as a charismatic frontman, before its follow-up 'Fly Or Die' in 2004 broke into the UK and US top ten and produced the hit single 'She Wants to Move'. Pharrell had solo success with the US number three album 'In My Mind' in 2006 and featured on number one singles by Snoop Dogg and Ludacris, but returned for the band's third album 'Seeing Sounds' in 2008.

Their fourth album 'Nothing' appeared in 2010 followed by a North America tour on which they supported Gorillaz. Although Pharrell has gone on to achieve super-stardom in his own right, he continues to work with his N.E.R.D. bandmates, with their fifth album 'No One Ever Really Dies', preceded by the singles 'Lemon', '1000' and 'Don't Do It', released in 2017.