In 2010, 37-year old Pharrell Williams sat at his home in Laurel Hills, tucked deep away in the Santa Monica mountains. It was 2 a.m.. He was watching cartoons, and he could not stop wondering why Jack Johnson was chosen to compose music for an animated “Curious George” movie. This is what Williams dubbed his “leisure time”.
Leisure time or not, Williams always had a smile on his face. Whether he was in the studio working on the tenth combination of snares for a new track, or watching Tom in his never ending pursuit of Jerry, he did it with an unprecedented amount of joy. Maybe I am being fooled by his unreasonable high cheekbones and a face that is so clear and pristine that light is seemingly always reflecting off it, even when it has been dark outside for hours.
But why was Williams jealous of not being selected to work on “Curious George”? In the same year, 2010, he was named Producer of the Decade by Billboard. He had seemingly reached the top of his field... yet, he was yearning for more.
Williams was searching for new avenues his music could explore. He ventured away from the hip-hop and rap game, and shifted his focus to animated kids movies. At the peak of his producing, singing, artistic and creative prowess, he changed his outlook, but why?
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Now, 14 years later Williams has puzzled us again. Here’s what's weird: Williams legacy lies as an eccentric, yet wise figure in the music industry. He almost acts as a musical godfather in the sense that he has worked with so many musicians in the industry. Even if he is not directly in the studio, his influence is felt through the works of artists, both new and old. He has collaborated with Snoop Dogg, Jay Z, Justin Timberlake, Usher, just to name a few, and his techniques have inspired Tyler the Creator, Beyonce, and — whether they know it or not, — young and aspiring producers. Williams' stamp on the industry is here to stay; he is more famous than we could’ve imagined. He decided to release a biopic about his life, a common move for celebrities who have a story worthy of translating to the big screen. But here’s where it gets really weird, instead of following the molds of successful biographies such as Bohemian Rhapsody, Oppenheimer, or One Love — all examples where the protagonist is recast — Williams made the odd decision to tell his life story through Lego. Why would someone this famous and well regarded do something seemingly so counterintuitive to success?
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In order to understand how Williams became the industry unicorn he is today, we need to go back to the very beginning. He was born in the mud as he described it: Virginia Beach, Virginia on April 5, 1973. Williams grew up in the Atlantis Apartments, the heart of the housing projects. The suburbs thought it was the hood, but to Williams, it was magical. Everywhere he looked music bounced off the dusty, golden brown brick walls. Young girls rode by on neon roller skates with a boombox twice their size attached to their shoulder, older men played the trumpet, saxophone and drums with soulfulness that made it so you could hear the age in every note, families slapped bongos on their front door step and sun basked golden retrievers barked joyful to the sounds.
Gazing at the clouds above him Williams could see the Blue Angels. The Navy’s flight demonstration squadron would routinely zoom over the housing project Williams lived in, leaving behind only a vast white trail of smoke in the sky. When plates started to shake and rumble in cabinets, when cups of water started to bounce around with so much life they seemingly had a pulse, and the whooshing echo of jet engines could be felt in his stomach, it meant it was time to go outside and endlessly stare at the sky who was peeking down at him. Williams lived in the crash zone, he had the best view.
Music surrounded him, it was everywhere he looked. Music took up every form and shape around him. Inside his house his family had a record player. It transformed him. It mesmerized him. Seconds passed, minutes passed, hours passed, Williams didn’t move. He sat there all day, and he did not want to be anywhere else.
Williams had synesthesia; a condition that enabled him to see music in color.
“It is not something you can see with your physical eyes, it’s something that you see in your mind's eye,” Williams said.
Synesthesia, surprisingly enough, is present in 2-4% of the population. To understand what it looks and feels like in your mind, start by closing your eyes. Second, plug — or more likely connect to bluetooth — in some headphones. And third, pick one of your favorite songs — a Williams song is a great choice. Before pressing play, relax your mind, worry about nothing other than enjoying the sounds you are about to hear. And a quick disclaimer, it is not possible to completely feel the effects of synesthesia if you are not born with it, but hey, maybe you will discover that you are in a few short moments. Imagine immensely colorful squares, triangles, and squiggly lines of all shapes and sizes appearing everywhere you look, surrounding your mind, impeding your vision so you can not see, nor focus on anything else... this is what Williams pictures. Now press play, and really focus on every beat, every snare, every kick, every lyric, every background vocal, every guitar note and every drum beat. Williams experiences this phenomenon every time he hears a track.
Records played over and over as different shades of color triumphantly layered together in his mind. He sat inside, in front of the record player, doing whatever he could to hear “I Wish” by Stevie Wonder one more time; all while most kids in his neighborhood were walking over to a nearby skatepark, Mount Trashmore, or appreciating the beauty the nearby beach had to offer.
One thing was able to drag Williams out of his state of musical euphoria as a kid: the Oceanfront in Virginia Beach. Everybody in the city who was a creative went there. It was the place to make a name for yourself and build a reputation within the community. A young rapper, DJ Timmy Tim — now known as Timbaland — was a regular, throwing down bar after bar while the community gathered in circles around him, a sense of optimism in the air as they awaited his next verse. While Williams was overlooking it all, one man stood high above the rest of the crowd. A 34-foot tall, metallic bronze statue of King Neptune towered over the boardwalk. The statue represents the city's culture, located on the Oceanfront, it shows how closely the city, and Williams, is connected with the ocean.
In 1986, Williams was in his second year of seventh grade — he retook it because despite having good enough grades to barely pass, his mother did not believe simply passing was good enough. He had the opportunity to enroll in his middle school band. But, shockingly, he did not. Rather, the closest Williams came to music was lining up his grandmother’s couch cushions and using a cake mixer and a whisk as his drumsticks. Every pillow thumped and every cushion bumped ignited Williams’ mind in a way nothing else could. The same year, his grandmother bought him his first instrument, a snare drum, and encouraged him to join band when he went back to school.
In 1988, fifteen year-old Williams enrolled at Princess Anne High School. It was there he met his future best friend Chad Hugo, who understood his synesthesia. “Chad understood colors in music and we bonded on that,” Williams said. “Chad is literally like a savant. I’ve learned so much from him."
Hugo, Williams, Shay Haley, Pusha T and Missy Elliot — all attended the same high school, insane right — would admittedly miss “so much school” to go make music in Hugo’s garage. Every day new songs were created, before you knew it, Hugo and Williams were the ones performing their own futuristic music at the Oceanfront. After a long day of performing, the friends sat with their feet dangling weightlessly off the boardwalk. The two were trying to come up with a name for themselves when they performed. To their right, a large shadow emerged, it was King Neptune. From that point on, Hugo and Williams were The Neptunes.
In 1991, at the end of Williams’ junior year, mere blocks away from Princess Anne, Teddy Riley — the hottest music producer in the game at the time — moved his record label, Future Records, to their brand new home. Riley wore a large yellow hat and yellow suit, at a quick glance, you might mistake him for the Curious George Man in the Yellow Hat. His flashy appearance is not what made him stand out, however, it was his ability in the studio. He had co-produced Michael Jacksons’ album “Dangerous”, produced songs for the likes of Snoop Dogg and Jay Z, and had practically become Williams’ neighbor.
Williams’ high school board could sense there was some interest and after doing some convincing, Riley in an even mix of pessimism and intrigue, agreed to host a talent show where the winners would be granted access to all Future Records had to offer. Williams and Hugo jumped at the opportunity. Initially the show dragged on, countless kids had shown off their best skills but nothing stood out, nothing was different. Then came the last performers of the show, The Neptunes.
Williams was singing, he was dancing, he was playing the drums and when he was not playing those, he was playing the piano, he was performing, he was freestyling, he was confident, he was different. After a roar from the crowd, The Neptunes were approached by Riley and offered a role at Future Records, a mecca of hip-hop and rap.
“When I first took a liking to The Neptunes, I knew that there were something,” Riley later said in 2019. “I knew that they were so far ahead of their time it was like they were on Mars.”
Riley acknowledged this years later, but at the time, The Neptunes were nothing more than an afterthought at the record label. Williams was not the guy people went to for beats on a new track, or the guy people went to when they needed somebody to sing a hook; rather, he was the coffee guy. People in the building did not take them seriously, Future Records was looking to create the newest song on the Billboard charts and if you could not help them do that, they would not take up even a second of your time.
One late night at the studio — a time Williams was frequently present working on his own music — Riley showed up stumped on a track. Riley needed a rap and Pharrell was in the right place at the right time. He walked behind the glass, freestyled the lyrics and in one take, had spit bars with such rhythm and purpose, his job was already finished. With one line of advice, Williams encouraged Riley to “let it bounce” and that’s exactly what he did. In 1992, “Rump Shaker” was released, with Riley giving credit to Williams for the hook. This marked the first time Williams had been noticed on a national stage; he had an artistic itch that wasn’t going to stop.
However, years and years passed and more opportunities did not present themselves. Since they could not live at their parents’ houses forever, Williams and Hugo had to consider going back to school and pursuing another profession; music was not paying the bills.
It wasn’t until 1998, when Williams’ manager, Rob Walker, connected him with N.O.R.E.. Almost seven years after he had started to work for Riley, Williams got his chance to produce his first song “Superthug”. The record skyrocketed to No. 36 on the Billboard top 100 and claimed the top spot on the Hot Rap Songs chart. The production was futuristic, creating a sound mirroring an electric guitar topped off by an abrupt kick on the drums; the music was different, just like Williams.
Shortly after, for the first time, artists in the industry reached out to The Neptunes. Williams was no longer making phone calls, instead, he was answering them. Williams sent Jay Z the beat for “I Just Wanna Love U”, and it became the lead song for Jay Z’s fifth studio album and peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard top 100 and No. 1 for Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Then Gwen Stefani reached out to Williams, a pop star from Anaheim, California wanted in on the hottest producers in the game. “Hella Good”, a track Williams produced for Stefani, reached No. 13 on Billboard's top 100 chart. All the numbers showed success and meant money was flowing in, however, that isn’t what Williams cared about. In his collaborations with Stefani, he was able to bridge the gap between two entirely different types of fanbases — pop and hip-hop.
He was crafting music, the sound that gave him a sense of connectedness as a child, and bringing a new generation a new way to hopefully feel just an ounce of the passion he had.
Williams had become addicted to exploring new territories to craft the same feeling of connectedness. This meant working with new artists to create new sounds and venture into entirely new fields. Williams produced “Hollaback Girl” by Stefani, “Like I Love You” by Justin Timberlake, “Pass the Courvoisier Part II” by Busta Rhymes, “U Don’t Have to Call” by Usher, “Drop it Like Its Hot” by Snoop Dogg, “Milkshake” by Kelis, “Hot in Herre” by Nelly, “I’m a Slave 4 U” by Britney Spears, “Catch My Breath” by Kelly Clarkson and so much more all from 2001-2005. You would be lying to yourself if you knew Williams worked on every one of the songs listed above. His sound had infiltrated every crevice in the music industry. Everybody wanted to work with The Neptunes; who in 2004, won Producer of the Year at the Grammys.
“Pharrell used to come in there with such a hot hand. It was competitive,” Rhymes said. “I wanted to make sure I had a banger [track] too, nobody wanted to be the weak link in the crew.”
If you were wondering who The Neptunes were in the mid-2000s, you just had to turn on the radio to find out. They were in complete control of every genre, artists came to them looking to create a sound so different, they had never heard anything like it before.
In 2003, Williams rediscovered the beat for a track he had originally created for the late great Prince. At the time, Prince said no, and like so many of Williams’ beats, it was put on the backburner. However, he was unable to get this magical, transformative beat — that triggered the firing of an array of colors in his mind — off of his mind.
Kawan Prather, a music executive, did everything he could to convince Williams to give the beat to Usher.
“I tried my best to get this beat,” Prather said. “I begged him for that record.”
Prather knew Usher could take the record where it needed to go. At that moment, Williams decided it was time to show everybody what he could do, and that he could ‘take the song where it needed to go’. The song was called “Frontin’”, and it flew to the front of the charts, ultimately reaching No. 5 on the Billboard Top 100. Jay Z himself begged Williams to be on the track. “Frontin’” was a true showcase of all Williams could do; his patented four count, a catchy melody you find yourself lightly humming in the school library and a futuristic feeling that leaves you craving more. Fans had been blessed with experiencing his ability to sing, rap and produce on display all at once — it was a dream come true for ears all around the globe. All signs pointed to him becoming the next big solo artist. Yet, he didn’t release another solo song for three years.
Williams was afraid. He realized did not like being in the spotlight. The success of “Frontin’” forced him into a position where he felt vulnerable.
“I was afraid of [the success]. It scared me,” Williams said. ““Frontin’” put me in a place where I felt something and it was like, ‘I’m not built for that’. It was like ‘I think I’m ready not to be an artist’, I wasn’t. And maybe that's why I was never comfortable with my voice in the first place, because I wasn’t talking about anything. Maybe I didn’t want to be a solo artist ever again.”
He was not ready to become a standalone act. He was not comfortable with his voice; the experience showed him he preferred working in the shadows, and letting others reap the benefits of his musical expertise. The music Williams was producing did not invoke emotions such as happiness or sadness, it did not confront struggles and challenges, and it did not inspire changes to be made.
“Frontin is the missed opportunity of a lifetime,” Mimi Valdes, an acclaimed film producer said. “He was supposed to become a solo artist after that song. Everyone was waiting. Everyone was waiting for that. What happened?”
Pharrell wanted to focus his attention back solely on what he did best: producing. But at the same time, he wanted to continue to think outside of the box, even if it didn’t mean music. He felt like music was locking him into a box and throwing away the key. He was a self-described Maverick. Williams created a face cleanser, walked on fashion shows for Channel, created sunglasses for Louis Vuiton, created shoes for Adidas, and even the iconic da-da-da-da-daaaa for McDonald’s (something even Williams father didn’t know he did), he made his own fragrance called “Girl”, he created a pink, pepto-bismol looking liquor called “Qream”, and one time he left a recording studio with Justin Timberlake to go work on his own skateboard brand. There was a lot going on and it all seemed like a distraction, an attempt to stay relevant. Unlike his music, the mass products Williams was putting out were not all well received.
“The thing that happens after you get success is everybody has an opinion of how you should do things and what you should do,” Rhymes said. “That's when everybody comes in with the would’ve, could’ve, should’ve.”
Corporate minds, businessmen and brand promoters all infiltrated his inner circle and became the people he looked to. The people he loved creating with were gone, replaced by heartless executives. He had become consumed by greed and hubris. His joy and creativity were slowly dissipating, along with the relationships he had in place with his family and friends. Rather than making tracks where his creativity is showcased, Williams made tracks based on what sound he envisioned flying up the Billboard charts.
In this time, Williams also lost his grandmother, who influenced a young Williams to get into music
In 2005, the Neptunes broke up. Williams could not create a hit. He was looking to regenerate his past self. But for a man whose best ideas came from the future, his worst ones may come from his past. If you want to know just how bad it was, look up and listen to “All Eyes On Me” released in 2009 by Pusha T, Keri Helison and Williams. Be careful to find the 2009 version, they released another version in 2023, do not fall for the trick.
Pusha T admittedly believes it is the worst song he ever made.
“It’s so bad,” he said. “It was like ‘We’re going to have a record on pop radio and we're going to have a hot record in the streets... It was reaching.”
Williams was lost.
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In 2010, Kathy Nelson was Universal Studios’ music director. Years prior, in 2006, Williams worked with Nelson as the lead music producer on “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift”. At this time, Williams was working with every artist under the sun and was looking for a new field and sound to enter. Williams confessed to Nelson he had always wanted to create a soundtrack to connect with the side of himself that won’t ever grow up. Nelson casually told Williams she was working with Jack Johnson — an artist known for soft rock and pop — on a soundtrack for an animated “Curious George” movie, where Johnson would write and compose his own songs.
Williams wondered why he had not been chosen. Was it because he had divulged so deep into the rap and hip-hop genre people thought he couldn’t expand his reach? Had he become pigeonholed?
“You ask me for hip-hop records but you don’t ask me to do this,” Williams said. “I think everybody has the means to be diverse, but only some of us are adamant about it.”
Nelson saw the passion behind Williams' eyes and promised he would be the person she reached out to for her next project, which was “Despicable Me”.
I'm sure when Williams first made his request to Nelson, it was an afterthought in his mind. He was envious he wasn’t selected, but he was able to pivot and work on another project. Despite that, when the opportunity presented itself, it became something more. “Despicable Me” materialized in 2010 at a time when Williams had fallen out of favor in the music industry. It focused on the life of a villain who acts out to combat the neglect he faced as a child. The movie was animated, so the soundtrack needed to make characters come to life. As a completely new challenge, Williams' imagination was sparked. He had been in the hip-hop and rap industry for so long, his sound began to become saturated. This newfound opportunity allowed him to reconnect to his creative side, and just like that, the second chapter of Williams' career began.
I learned all of the intricacies of Williams’ life through Lego. That's right, the popular plastic interlocking-brick system gave me insight into his life with such detail, no other medium could have even dared to depict. The Blue Angels flying over his house, in Lego. His conversations with Jay Z, in Lego. His synesthesia, in Lego. Every last detail, anecdote, conversation, clothing choice, building, all shown through a kid’s toy.
It seemed like a curious decision. Many artists and celebrities had released biopics of their lives in a typical documentary style. Nobody had ever steered clear of that path. But as we now know, Williams never cared about taking the path most traveled; he needed to find a medium to represent his soul's truest form, just like “Despicable Me” was able to do. Choosing Lego was a bit of a mystery, the company had been involved in three movies, “The Lego Movie”, “The Lego Movie 2”, and “The Lego Batman Movie”, none of which told the life story of an eccentric presence in pop-culture. But Williams saw something in the near decade old company, he saw what makes Legos so unique, and therefore, the perfect medium to tell his story.
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Lego is an abbreviation of two Danish words: leg godt. In english, leg godt translates to ‘play well’. Since Lego was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen, a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, the company's focus was to create fun for children in any way, shape or form. I say this because the company was not always about making plastic bricks. In the beginning, they made wooden toys and specialized in wooden ducks. However, 1930s Danish people quickly grew unfound of wooden ducks — like everybody eventually would — and were looking for something new. The business was not profitable and Christiansen had to trade his toys for food to feed his family.
In 1947, Lego acquired plastic bricks from Kiddicraft, a company who had begun to take control of the plastic toy market. Lego saw what they created and bought a whole bunch. They printed their first batch and noticed a design flaw. On the bottom of a Kiddicraft and early Lego bricks, there was nothing, it was hollow. The bricks did not stay connected and could be warped if enough pressure was applied. Lego saw this and decided to add tubes to the bottom to combat the issue. It worked. New designs were infinitely more imaginative; they were no longer held back by their foundations.
This is what the opportunity to work on Despicable Me was to Williams, it was the three hollow tubs on the bottom of Lego bricks that nobody can see. It created a whole new world for him to design, create and explore. He once again found joy in what he did; his imagination was unlocked — he finally found that key to free himself from the box.
Those three tubes added on the bottom of Lego bricks, an area you never even look at, is why Lego is the brand we know today. In 1977, Kiddicraft sold their company and in the mid-1990s, Fisher-Price dropped the Kiddicraft brand. With this new “brick technology”, the Lego brand took off. Throughout the next 70 years, the company experienced ups and downs. Themes grew stale, audiences grew up, but Lego always knew how to adapt. In 1999, they collaborated with Star Wars, in 2001, Harry Potter, and in 2008 (and again in 2023), Indiana Jones. Now on top of original sets, they had brand deals with successful franchises. They could recreate popular scenes, characters and moments from peoples’ favorite movies. Nowadays, Lego is at the forefront of the toy industry. In 2020, Lego added an 18+ age designation to a select amount of sets. They imagined a world where adults and children alike could have their imaginations consumed by the beauty Lego has to offer. In 2020 Legos revenue was $6.5 billion, it reached $9.8 billion four years later, and is expected to cross $10 billion in 2024 — ahead of Mattel and Hasbro. Their vision has been fully imagined and then some. Legos have become popularized as a toy for all ages.
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In the summer of 2013 — after having successfully worked on the first film (Despicable Me grossed $971 million worldwide) — Despicable Me 2 released in theaters. On the movie's soundtrack was a record Williams had worked on over and over to no avail. Executives at Universal kept sending him back into the studio. Then one day (as it was shown in Piece by Piece), while Williams was holding his newborn son, Rocket, the room was slowly engulfed by sunshine yellow, and the beat came to him. The track was “Happy”. Produced and sung by Williams, the song was unlike anything he had created before. It made you feel fresh, appreciated, and loved. It made you feel like you deserved to approach every single day with our best foot forward.
This is the Williams I grew to love. He had rebranded himself. Although he had no hate or regret towards the rap/hip-hop scene; this was Williams’ truest version of his soul. “Happy” was my favorite song. If ten year-old me had a smile taking up every last inch of my face, I was probably listening to “Happy”. And now it might seem crazy what I’m about to say (“Happy” pun), I performed it in a duet in front of my elementary and middle school peers. I am no singer, I would not have done that with any other song. But with “Happy”, I didn’t even think about it. Being judged was thrown out the window, my classmates loved it and I was on cloud nine. Williams was the coolest person I knew. The creative and quirky elements he had in the 1990s and early 2000s were on display once again, and shining brighter than ever. He was loved for who he was — he was loved for creating something different.
The effects of “Happy” were felt worldwide. In an interview with Opera, Williams was brought to tears after being shown a montage of “Happy” being performed by countries all over the world. No matter what race, gender, or country, the song connected the entire planet.
The response to the song showed Williams how much struggle there is in the world. But nonetheless, people rallied behind the song because they have felt emotions like anger, sadness, and greed. Universally, it feels good to relish in happiness after overcoming so many negative emotions. People confessed to Williams they listened to it to overcome chemo or get through a loved one's passing. The power of connectivity was on full display.
Building off his message from “Happy”, in 2014 Williams released “Get Lucky” with Daft Punk. This record at first listen may sound like something you would enjoy hearing when you walk into an overcrowded club in LA. And although it is, the lyrics in the song represent something so much deeper for Williams.
The song reads, “We’ve come too far... to give up ... who we are. So let’s... raise the bar... and our cups... to the stars,”.
This is a reflection on Williams’ life. He had climbed the mountain of the music industry using what makes him different, his one-of-a-kind creativity, and ability to see things nobody else can. In the years leading up to “Despicable Me”, he had lost himself. He needed to get back to basics, and remember where he came from, to remember the kid who grew up in the projects playing music on his grandmother's couch cushions.
In June of 2024, Williams announced he would be releasing Piece by Piece, a biopic about his life in Lego form.The beauty of Piece by Piece is in its simplistic creativity. Lego brought elements to his life in a way only they could.
“We were able to expand the real world in a way you could never do,” Piece by Piece director Morgan Neville said.
Audiences could — for the first time — see the world as Williams sees it. His synesthesia was seen through 1x2 Lego bricks flying through the never ending creativity in Williams’ mind. I could understand what he saw and felt every time he played a track. As a kid he was inspired, and as he grew older, he did everything he could to recreate the feeling, and succeeded.
Lego, like Williams, is centered around seeing things that do not exist. When you open a Lego set and lay out the bricks, you have a pile of potential in front of you, mirroring what Williams sees every time he steps into a studio or behind a mic — all the pieces for a track are there, but nothing is created yet. We all can tap into this potential. It exists for us all in our own way, Williams encourages us to never place limitations on your mind, what you can do, and what you want to be.
“People would project single lanes for me and I never really had a one track mind,” Williams said. “A lot of people tend to have that mentality. You're either this or you're that. Now when you look, there are different kids everywhere. Whether you have on a purple sweatshirt or you have purple ombre hair. Everybody is different and that's the way the universe intended us to be, which is different. You do not know a person that only does one thing, that’s crazy.”
Whether we know it or not, we all have untapped potential. We all have things we love, things we hate, and things we’re just kind of ‘eh’ about. We are similar, yet amazingly different, that's the beauty of life. Some of us may find beauty in music, others may see beauty on the field, in the classroom, in the kitchen, or in the cartoons we watch at 2 am while wondering what the next step is going to be in our life.
Piece by Piece is just like Williams, one of a kind, a unicorn, a maverick. It shows his soul's intention.
“I don't know where life is going to lead me, but I'm just going to go for it,” Williams said.
At our core, humans rely on one another, we want to see others succeed.
“When I look up and see all the love and all the support, the people who just never left my side: my family, all my friends. The realization when everyone wants you to win. I’m like man, forget the trophy. The idea that you want me to win. When thinking like that and thinking about that, my heart could keep the lights on the earth,” Williams said.
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Piece by Piece released in theatres in October, 2024 to the tune of a $3.6 million dollar opening weekend. The film had a $16 million budget and ended its theatrical run grossing roughly $10.5 million. The movie did lose money, but it was never about that. Williams’ magnum opus received a 83% critics score and a 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Although he did not turn a profit, Williams’ Lego life inspired audience members to be proud of what makes them different, and never settle for what others say should make you happy. Let your creativity be free.
Even if you are seemingly at the top of your industry, field, game, creativeness, whatever it may be, just as Williams was in 2010, find what brings you joy. Do not allow yourself to go through days not loving what you do. Be around people you love, pursue your passions, and like Williams, find ways to share your love with the world to bring people together.
“Whether you’re 8 or 80 years old, it's never too late,” Williams said. “Now is a better word than never.”
You just have to start... piece by piece.
Sources:
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Mika. “Pharrell Williams Talks about Scoring ‘Despicable Me.’” The Neptunes #1 Fan Site, All about Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, 23 May 2022, theneptunes.org/2010/07/pharrell-williams-talks-about-scoring-despicable-me/.
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Piece by Piece. Directed by Morgan Neville, performances by Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Justin Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, Gwen Stefani, Warner Brothers, 2024.
“The Lego Group History - about Us.” The LEGO Group History - About Us - LEGO.Com, www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/lego-group/the-lego-group-history. Accessed 3 Nov. 2024.
Trust, Gary. “Pharrell Williams’ ‘Happy’ Hits No. 1 on Hot 100.” Billboard, Billboard, 26 Feb. 2014,
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