The Neptunes
| The Neptunes | |
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | Williams and Hugo |
| Origin | Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1992–present |
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| Awards won | 6 | |||||||||||||
| Nominations | 18 | |||||||||||||
The Neptunes are an American production duo, composed of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, who are credited with contributing the sound for many successful hip hop and R&B artists in the late-1990s and 2000s. The Neptunes' sound is a distinctive brand of off-kilter, stripped-down electronic funk with sounds from Middle Eastern and Asian music including percussion and woodwind. Pharrell sings and (later) raps on records and appears in videos, unlike his production partner Chad, who tends to stay behind the scenes.
Before gaining success and forming The Neptunes, Williams and Hugo along with local producer Timbaland and rapper Magoo formed a group "Surrounded by Idiots" in the late '90s, but disbanded before even recording together. Later, The Neptunes emerged and Timbaland & Magoo emerged as a hip hop duo, occasionally collaborating.
The Neptunes are estimated to have a net worth of $160 million and are considered one of the most successful producers in music history, noted by twenty-four Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hits during the late 1990s and 2000s. In 2009, Billboard ranked The Neptunes number one on their list of the top 10 producers of the decade. Readers of Vibe named The Neptunes as the third greatest hip-hop producers of all time behind Dr. Dre and DJ Premier.
Pharrell and Chad met at a summer camp for the school of The Gifted and Talented in Virginia Beach, where Williams was a drummer and Hugo played tenor saxophone. They were also both members of a marching band; Pharrell played kettle drum and Chad was a student conductor. In 1990 Chad and Pharrell formed a 4-piece "R&B type" group along with friends Shay and Mike Etheridge, which they named The Neptunes. Upon entering a local talent contest, they were discovered by Teddy Riley, whose studio was close to Pharrell's school. After graduating from high school, they signed with Riley as a group.
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