“You’ve done so many classics”: Pharrell and Timbaland debate who is the better producer in wholesome video
At Swizz Beatz’s party, Timbaland is filmed calling Pharrell “the prince,” while Pharrell calls Timbaland “the king” in a friendly exchange.
Credit: Getty / Kevin Mazur
It’s an age-old argument: who really has produced the best Jay-Z songs? Well, it’s very much still up for debate, it seems. Iconic producers Timbaland and Pharrell Williams have been captured in a video exchange at Swizz Beatz’s birthday party debating over who produced best out of the two.
The video, originally posted to Instagram by Swizz Beatz, at first seems as though each producer is arguing their case that they themselves are better, while it soon becomes apparent it’s the other way round.
“Don’t do this to me!” Shouts Timbaland in the video.
“Are you done?” asks Pharrell. “Dirt Off Your Shoulder. What are we doing? Dirt Off Your Shoulder. Yeah, exactly.”
“I’m still thinking because you’ve done so many,” responds Timbaland, who himself has worked with Justin Timberlake, Missy Elliott, Jay-Z, Drake, Rihanna and Beyoncé.
“Do you know why you stopped?” Pharrell chimes in. “Because you’ve done so many classics, you’re just going through your rolodex right now. The greatest Jay-Z records. Timbaland, the king. Period.” Pharrell says.
“No. Pharrell, the prince.”
“You hear what he said? Do you hear what he said?” Asks Pharell. “He said ‘Pharrell the prince, Timbaland the king’.”
One comment reads, “Fucking LOVE this!! We need more of THIS & less ego!!” while another fan writes “Two super producers having Black Excellence Dinner Debates over Candlelit Dinners 🤯🤝🏾🤯🙌🏾 🙌🏾”. Another writes: “This is the ONLY drunken male back-and-forth, that I am willing to sit and listen to.”
While it’s fair to say Timbaland has slowed down in recent years, 50-year-old Pharrell, besides being appointed as men’s creative director of Louis Vuitton, is apparently making more music as N.E.R.D.
In an interview with Tyler, The Creator for GQ in August, he said on the new material: “They’re big choruses, but you know, out of nowhere, I’ll just come out of nowhere with the three-bar, crazy-nuts chords that go three-bar to four-bar to eight-bar. It’s good bro, it’s good.”
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