Since N*E*R*D launched their debut album, In Search Of…, on August 6, 2001, rappers (and loads of non-rappers) have chased after their very own rap-rock traditional. An earnest, funkadelic hybrid that bounces quickly from songs about intercourse acts and strip golf equipment to traditional evocations of pink roses and high-school loves, In Search Of… is emblematic of hip-hop’s energy to embody all genres. It’s a singular album not solely as a result of it captures N*E*R*D earlier than they turned stars on the world’s stage, but in addition as a result of it stays the standard-bearer for elusive, genre-hybrid hip-hop albums.
Even with their outsized affect on hip-hop, N*E*R*D didn’t make Pharrell Williams a family identify. Alongside along with his solo profession, Pharrell is legendary for being one half of the prolific manufacturing duo The Neptunes, together with Chad Hugo, who prefers a lower-key strategy to public life. When the duo determined to start out a side-project, in 1991, they recruited childhood good friend Sheldon “Shay” Haley to affix their futuristic collective, N*E*R*D (No-One Ever Actually Dies).
Pharrell is the general public face of the group, however it’s Haley that seems on In Search Of…’s authentic cowl. It’s 2001: Shay’s casually hanging on a sofa taking part in a PlayStation, and nobody concerned within the album, not even Kelis or Clipse, may think about how huge issues would get. In Search Of… stays a time capsule of that first wave of expertise Pharrell and The Neptunes could be related to.
Shifting the needle
In Search Of… got here at a time when The Neptunes have been nonetheless slicing their enamel as career-making producers for different artists. It was first launched in Europe, the place Kelis’ Neptunes-produced 2001 album, Wanderland, had seen the type of success they wouldn’t expertise stateside for nearly 20 years.
When it got here to the album’s worldwide launch, lower than a yr later, N*E*R*D reworked the manufacturing to tell apart it from Pharrell and Hugo’s work as The Neptunes. On March 12, 2002, the “rock version” of the album hit the cabinets, swapping out the unique electronic-heavy manufacturing for reside guitars and drums supplied by funk-rock band Spymob. The group not solely served because the backing band for the album, however joined N*E*R*D on their subsequent tour.
In Search Of… didn’t get pleasure from the identical stage of economic success as among the big-name artists The Neptunes had produced, however each “Rock Star” and “Lapdance” made the UK singles chart, at No.15 and No.20, respectively. Even when they weren’t transferring data on a mass scale, they have been transferring the needle, culturally talking.
A rap-rock landmark
Hip-hop’s fixation with rock can not solely be attributed to of In Search Of…, however the album was actually one of many preliminary driving forces behind the development’s resurgence within the early 00s – each sonically and aesthetically.
Jay Z and Linkin Park chased after the identical sound on Collision Course, in 2004, however that mission ended up being extra consultant of the mash-up development on the time, relatively than true genre-hopping experimentation. After Tha Carter III made Lil Wayne one of many greatest figurative rock stars within the nation, he took a really literal strategy to rap-rock on Rebirth. Be mindful: all that is taking place as N*E*R*D are releasing their follow-up albums and Pharrell is turning into a celebrity. The Neptunes’ work with Gwen Stefani was nearer to the rap-rock sound than most different rappers achieved on their very own. In Search Of…’s legacy was radioactive.
Making all the things else attainable
Even when one other rap-rock album by no means generates as a lot acclaim, In Search Of… is likely one of the data that paved the way in which for rappers to be rock stars – not solely of their sound, however in the way in which they assumed a cultural significance often reserved for conventional rock, from one-hit wonders like Store Boyz’s “Party Like A Rockstar” to probably the most influential pioneers of the long run, like Tyler, The Creator’s extremely influential Cherry Bomb. Even when every of N*E*R*D’s subsequent releases felt like an occasion, it was In Search Of… that made all of it attainable.
Each forward-thinking by way of type and substance, In Search Of…’s title appears all that extra prescient twenty years later, contemplating everybody could be seeking to replicate the album’s sound for years to come back.
Purchase or stream In Search Of….
