Pharrell Williams' Piece by Piece documentary tells the life story of the Virginia native in a format equally loved by adult Neptunes fans and children whose entry point to the superproducer was 2013's slap "Happy." Told over 90 minutes, the film uses stop motion like past Lego films (Batman is a must-see), and delivers a story that reveals what makes Pharrell tick.
Executive produced by Skateboard P and his long-time creative partner Mimi Valdez, the film unveils how one of the most forward-thinking beings in music and fashion sees songs and melody through color. It's an abstract concept to a layperson but director Morgan Neville (also a producer) and animation director Howard E. Baker illustrate his genius instrumentals by making them tangible Legos.
"At one point, we even thought that the beats would become characters," Baker told Animation World Network. "We had this one beat that was “the Happy beat” who was following Pharrell around all the time, waiting to be discovered, and was always like, “Hey! What about me?” Those ideas never came to anything. But we were wanting to make something visual out of something that was just a sound."
"We also took into account Pharrell’s synesthesia, where he experiences colors when listening to music," added Neville, also speaking to Animation World Network. "So, he has some sense of what a beat would look like in terms of blocks of color. We wanted it to feel authentic to what he saw in his head."
MACRO's newsletter, UpRising, sat with another of Pharrell's creative partners, Kawan "KP" Prather to get some insight on the documentary. That conversation covered a bevy of topics. A standout anecdote told was KP trying to convince Pharrell to give up "Frontin'" to Usher for 8701.
UpRising: The first time we hear from you in the film, you briefly discuss trying to get Pharrell to give you “Frontin’” for Usher. Can you expand on that anecdote?
I was doing Usher's project for 8701 and he had sent a record called “I Don't Know” that we ended up using. That was the song that I heard first and we were like, "This is really good." I get to the studio and me and [Pharrell] are going over what I was looking for, what he was doing. It was a fast friends [vibe]. And he was like, "oh, let me play you these other records I did." The first record he played is “U Don't Have to Call.” I remember calling L.A. [Reid] like, "I know the records you like, but I think I found the one." We do the record and after we finish [Pharrell's] like, "I want to play you my stuff."
He played “Frontin’”. Keep in mind that he’s been on [Jay-Z's] “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me),” and [Mystikal's ] “Shake Ya Ass,” so his voice is recognizable now. But it's not like he’s done any [full] records. N.E.R.D. was a thing, but it wasn't R&B. So I'm like, "Bro, you gotta let me get that one, too. This would make this album the biggest album of all-time. This is feeling like [Michael Jackson's] Off the Wall right now." We went through this whole thing, but he was like, "Nah man, it's my time."
"But are you going to go out, promote, and perform, or go back to the studio? You don't even like being famous like that!"
You have to look at [superstars] like cars. Ferraris—you have to put the best gas in them for them to travel properly. And I was like, "You have the Super Premium 93 good shit. Lemme put it in this car over here." He was like, "No, I'm a Ferrari. I am a La Ferrari." Our relationship was established in that moment because it was legit.
Prather also discussed the full origins of "Happy," which came at a time when Pharrell was cold but would get red-hot with a trifecta of smashes that included Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" and Daft Punk's "Get Lucky":
UpRising: What was it like for you, KP the DJ, when "Happy" was at its full power?
I was working at Atlantic Records at the time doing the Cee-Lo project. I had a writing camp that we did. We flew everybody to The Bahamas. I asked if Pharrell would come. He came and it wasn't like this was one of those baller super luxurious trips. It was beautiful but it was mosquitoes for days. Label thought he wouldn't do it, like "Pharrell wouldn't travel, blah, blah, blah." But that's my brother. And on top of that, he wanted to do it. So we get there and the first record he played was "Happy".
I'm like, "oh my God, this is world [music]." And so we go cut it. We did about 20 more records with him and other people that week. But all I could think about was this record. I loved how different it sounded. It wasn't necessarily a club record, it just felt great. I get back to the label excited to play it. No energy [was shown], and I'm like, "oh."
They say "we need a hit. That's not a hit, that's a gospel record. Why would we do that? His last record was 'Fuck You'." I was like, "but black people have all these feelings." Somebody said to me, "who wants to say happy over and over?" Who doesn't like [to say they're happy?]"
The record didn't fly. Eventually Pharrell tried to put other people on it. Again, he didn't want to be the artist. His whole mission on this song was to get a superstar to record it: Cee Lo, Janelle Monet. And then finally we had a conversation. I was like, "bro, you should just do this shit yourself." And he was like, "I don't want to be an artist." I told him I think you can do this as a cartoon. It doesn't require you as much. He was like, yeah, fuck it. The studio loved the song. Mimi Valdez went and had this video done and "Happy" became "Happy."
At its peak I was at Atlantic. I left Atlantic behind that record because Cee Lo went on the radio and said that that was his record first. Someone at my label said they'd never heard it before. They tried to say I didn't present it. And that day I was like, "this is weird and I don't like the energy of the possibility of you throwing me under the bus like that." That's when I left Atlantic and called Pharrell [to tell him]. And he was like, great, you should come over here and run this. So that's when I started working with Pharrell. "Happy" is that thing for us.
While documentaries don't do the outsized numbers of feature films, Piece by Piece's $7.9 million purse is impressive but more importantly it provides a new approach for documentary storytelling. While Prather agrees the doc does innovate, he hopes future creatives will continue to build on what they've done and continue to reimagine how documentaries are delivered.
"It's supposed to inspire people to figure out other ways," Prather told UpRising. "We've seen enough people sit down in front of a recording, like a mixing board and explain being creative in the studio. I don't know if that's as helpful for the next generation of people because the technology is going to be different. [The old way] puts a timestamp on it whereas what this does is show creativity in whatever era."