In honor of the new Clipse album coming out, we wanted to kick it back to our original episode on Piece by Piece, a fun and inspirational LEGO® movie about the creativity and career of Pharrell Williams!

Topics discussed:

🧱 What better way to tell the story of Pharrell Williams' vivid life than through LEGO bricks?

🤩 He has produced and written so many great songs, you could easily forget just how many!

📈 How Pharrell overcame adversity is a good lesson for all.

Also check out:

Former HHMC guest of the show: Leaving the Theater with Ronald Young Jr. 

Credits

Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your HHMCs JB, BooGie, and DynoWright. Theme music by BooGie.

And remember:

Don't hate...be great!

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Our next live event is FRIDAY 30th anniversary screening (on a Friday!), August 15th at 8pm. Throwback set at 7:30 by none other than DJ ARM 18.

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Welcome to Hip Hop Movie Club, the show

2

that harmonizes the rhythm of hip hop

with the magic of movies.

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We just watched Piece by Piece

in the theater, and this is like our

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our homage to Leaving the Theater

with Ronald Young

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because we just left the theater.

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I'm DynoWright, podcaster,

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filmmaker, longtime hip hop fan,

and this is my first LEGO movie.

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Oops.

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I'm JB.

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80s and 90s nostalgia junkie,

and I've seen a few LEGO movies and,

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I'm happy right now.

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Yeah. What's up?

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I'm Boogie DJ, long time

hip hop fan, and I'm also a fan

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of the LEGO movies and LEGO in general.

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All right, so we just watched the movie.

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I'll hand it to our

point guard to start us off.

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All right.

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Yeah.

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So Piece By Piece is a LEGO movie,

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which is a biopic of Pharrell Williams

life story.

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And I just thought it was really

well done, and it was just fun.

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It had a lot of cameos and everybody

that was influential in his life, starting

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from when he was a child, is influenced

by the music of Stevie Wonder.

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Michael Jackson, among others.

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And,

I think this is a great story behind it.

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As you know, you can be your own person.

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You don't have to follow a set path. And,

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you just live through the creative spirit

and feel inspired afterwards.

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What do you think about that Boogie?

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Yeah.

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So I think it was

it was visually stunning, to be honest.

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You know, you think of LEGO and you think

it's like it's just strictly for kids.

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But as an adult watching it,

I was just like, wow.

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Like, they put a lot of thought

into the visuals.

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And as he was telling his story,

so you actually could feel

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the emotion that he was putting

out as he was speaking.

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It was it was really good.

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It was very well done.

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Gave me a lot of emotions, you know,

because I like rooting for the little guys

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and the underdogs and he showed how,

you know, he actually got into music.

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And what made him steer towards

music was that, you know, you got,

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you got the high school and was just,

I mean, middle school

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and just kind of felt lost a little bit

academically and struggling, but,

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you know, trying his way

because the suggestion for him to,

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to start taking up music and he found

his way in front of a lot of creatives and

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it just, you know,

it was good to see that story, you know,

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put out on a screen even though it wasn't

even a lot of action.

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You know, you can definitely feel

like you were there.

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You can follow along.

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And the cameos were great.

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You know, I love the cameos.

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And as a DJ, you know, I play that

like I swear every song that was that was

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that was featured in the movie,

that was his.

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I play those songs

and they're all bangers,

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and I've didn’t even like,

I don't know why I forgot,

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but it's just like, oh, that's

right he did produce that he did produce that

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because it was just a string of hits

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where he was just putting them out

like bangers after one after the other.

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I mean, from hip hop to rock

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to alternative to his own stuff,

you know, with him on the vocals.

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And it was just great to see that story.

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I highly recommend it. Definitely see it.

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Yeah, this is definitely a must watch,

or at least spend the time to go see it.

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It is definitely worth watching.

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For me,

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the story arc was really nicely done,

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and you would think a guy

with a hit like “Happy”

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there could have ended it there

and they would have been fine.

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But, you really saw

some of the darker stuff

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that he had to come through

to get to where “Happy” was.

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And then right after it was, I love it.

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I can't breathe stuff

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Server: Thank you

and have a great night.

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Thank you. Thank you.

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As we record this in a diner,

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Life gets.

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Life finds a way.

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And so it was really

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great to watch,

and it was really well constructed.

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I thought,

and like Boogie said, it's just visually

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really, really

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fun to watch.

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It's visually stunning.

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And, yeah, the LEGO part of

it really makes for some cool storytelling.

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Yeah.

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And you can see,

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more of his influences and

more of the folks he collaborated with,

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and it was just cool to see them as LEGO

images, too.

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Folks like Missy Elliott, N.O.R.E.,

Timbaland, Justin

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Timberlake, Busta Rhymes, these are all,

you know, LEGO characters in here.

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Telling their story.

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I think you mentioned Gwen Stefani

and No Doubt,

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Daft Punk, in their gear.

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It was so creative.

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It was almost like a magical experience

to to see, like you said, the career arc,

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his influences and again,

the moral of the story is like,

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hey, march to your own beat, creating.

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He created so many beats

for so many people, so influential.

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He was inspired by Carl Sagan,

famous astronomer.

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And,

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he has that kind of space mentality.

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And you can see

all the different elements come together.

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And he starts off by being inspired

by water, you know, being in water

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as a child and, and through space

and all these elements.

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He's really a spiritual person.

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And it comes out in his music

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and it's kind of like,

he went through a lot of difficulties,

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but in the end,

it was emotional as Boogie said,

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because he was like, man, you know what?

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As far down as I was,

people were rooting for me.

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People were really rooting for me.

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And, I think there is a lot of,

goodness in humanity if you can just,

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you know, see through the negativity

and there's a lot of negativity out there.

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But if you just,

you know, stick to your guns and

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kind of find

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what's inside you that drives

you and follow your passion,

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good things could happen.

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And like,

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so I mean, being from Virginia Beach,

there's like a

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there was a strong tie to to Neptune

and Poseidon and ocean and water.

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So you know he definitely kept his

head down and kept swimming.

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And he found success.

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And that was just

it was really cool to see that.

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And I didn't realize,

you know, it's funny because, you know,

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you don't know what people are going

through as successful as they seem.

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And I had no idea that he was going

through that dark period.

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Even as he had reached the top.

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There was a point where he almost hit

rock bottom,

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mentally, he wasn't putting out the hits

that he was used to,

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you know, he was trying to conform to

what, you know, others wanted him to be.

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He's oh, you know, this song is a song

it's going to be for the women in

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this song is going to be for the guys,

and this is going to be a hip hop song.

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This is going to be a rock song, you know?

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And it was all those,

you know, different types of songs

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that he was trying

to, to do were horrible.

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You mean like Pusha

T said that he put out his worst

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song

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in that period,

and it was actually sort of

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he got the beat from Pharrell

and it was like, wow, really?

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You know, so you think about

stuff like that and how it could have

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really damaged his career,

but he was able to bounce back

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by just sticking to his roots

and just saying, you know what?

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You know,

when I was putting out those hits

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for everybody,

I wasn't trying to make a song just for,

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you know, this type of this genre or this,

you know, gender or whatever.

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It was just like,

I'm going to make my music.

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And he just flowed in.

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Everybody kind of latched on to it

at that point.

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And once he realized that that's what

made him a superstar producer and artist,

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he was able to bounce back, you know,

just stick to your guns, be yourself.

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You know?

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Yeah.

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It was a good lesson.

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And and staying true to yourself.

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And, even in your depths,

as long as the people around

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you support you, you know,

you got lucky with “Get Lucky”.

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And that brought him to “Happy”.

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And so it was kind of a nice little art

mini arc within the whole story that,

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you know, he had he had a little luck

to get through, and then he did,

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and then he got to “Happy”,

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which I think is one of the great

songs of the 21st century.

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And yeah, I think,

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another fortuitous thing

that happened to Pharrell was that Teddy

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Riley moved into his town, and it was in

walking distance with his studio.

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And, you know,

because he was putting out these beats

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and he wasn't really getting anywhere,

really.

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And Teddy Riley comes through, and

he starts having these talent competitions

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and the Neptunes just blew away,

and he was super impressed.

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And, another thing is,

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his, Pharrell's

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tenacity,

the way he just refused to give up,

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and he was dancing on tables in front of

record producers, going door to door.

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The people that produced the big

hip hop acts.

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And he just wouldn't give up.

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He just wouldn't give up.

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And then all of a sudden, you know, he

he has a breakthrough, with N.O.R.E.

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And then everybody's calling him.

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So, so many life lessons in this movie.

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Don't give up.

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Stick to your guns, stay true to yourself,

but also help out your your fellow man.

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Also, because Pusha T was at a low

point too, he wrote a song just for him.

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He said, if you don't act now, I'm

going to give this to Jay-Z.

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Yeah.

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He came out with “Grinding”,

which was a huge hit.

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Yeah.

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So man,

I mean, Pharrell is a national treasure.

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And I think this LEGO movie version Piece

By Piece,

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really

puts it on display for everybody to see.

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So I guess I do encourage

everybody to go see it.

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Yeah, I think the one

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piggyback you know, on on Jay,

we say that at one point with,

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the talent competition at the high school,

you know,

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everybody was trying to be like

the next Whitney Houston

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and or, you know,

seeing all the same types of songs.

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And then what got Teddy Riley's attention

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was the fact that, The Neptunes,

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at the time they were calling them

the band was The Neptunes.

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They were different.

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Like they came out,

they looked completely different.

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You know, you had,

you know, Pharrell at one point, he's

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singing vocals and he's rapping and he's

singing again, and he's playing the drums,

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and then he's playing this instrument.

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And that instrument.

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everybody was kind of like switching

around and doing different things.

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And that's what got his attention

was the fact that he was different

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from the beginning,

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you know, is what got him

got his foot in the door to begin with.

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So, yeah, there goes that lesson again.

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Stick to your guns. Be yourself.

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Just a whole lot of little nuggets.

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You know,

I wish I was in there taking notes

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as I was watching the movie

because there were so many quotables

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in that movie, like, like quotables

that, you know, came from his parents

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and came from his grandmother

and came from the pastor at the church,

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you know, so many quotables,

you know, watch.

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Watch it with a notepad

and a pencil.

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If you can.

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I did have a notepad with me,

and I was able to write down a few things.

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The one thing that one of the things

that really stuck with me was,

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and I forget exactly

who said it at the time,

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but in his darkest times,

he was trying to stay relevant.

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And the quote was

“Relevance is a drug.” And for

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for us as creators and,

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it, it is a grind

to have to try to stay relevant

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and to try to appeal to the masses,

or at least some kind of audience.

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And, sometimes you just gotta go

your own way. And,

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this movie, nicely illustrated that.

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Yeah.

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And, another point towards the end is

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that we're all just, like,

molecules vibrating in this earth.

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And, if you take a step back

and look at it from,

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like, a space type view,

I mean, that's all we are.

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We're just specks in here, and,

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you just try to make the best

of what you can on this life.

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What are you going to give back,

to your fellow man and to society?

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And, Pharrell's given us so much.

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In fact, I didn't even realize that he was

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instrumental

on the loop in Kendrick Lamar's

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Alright, which became, you know,

the anthem for Black Lives Matter.

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So there's a reason

that political commentary in there also

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that plus, you know, like you said,

“Happy” became an international sensation.

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It just uplifted so many people

when they're having a bad day.

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They've been through a lot of stuff,

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and you have people

all throughout the world saying,

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you helped my mother

when she was going through chemo.

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You know, you helped this person.

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Just feeling that emotion.

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So I mean, to have that lasting impact,

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from a child who struggled on his own,

you know, had to repeat

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seventh grade, was lost for quite a while.

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And, it's just a a wonderful,

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wonderful message and and beautifully done

with the LEGO concept also.

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Yeah.

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I mean, you know, personal testimonial.

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I'm not going to get too deep into it,

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but that “Happy” song got me through

a pretty dark place, you know, personally.

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So I definitely know the power

of that song and I appreciate it.

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just to think about, you know, how

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how big a song could be

and how much it can help people.

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Just one song, you know,

and the emotions that it invokes and

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it was just amazing, you know, and at that

period of time and even, like, now,

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every now and, and I'll put the song on

and I'll just dance to it.

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No, not even, nothing choreo

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I just, just put it on

and really just freely just dance to it

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because it's such a great song and even,

you know, “Get Lucky”.

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That's another song.

I love that song. That's a great song.

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I love those songs, and those are

the songs that they don't really have

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a specific genre to them.

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It's just like, all right, let's put

some music out and some feel good music.

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You know, I love that feel good music,

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especially.

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And then I

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didn't know this before the movie,

but he was instrumental in “Rump Shaker”

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by Wreckx-N-Effect, one of the great songs

of the 20th century.

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Yes, yes. Yeah.

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He wrote

Teddy Riley's part in the beginning.

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Teddy, Teddy with the 1, 2 check.

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It's so funny because they do the LEGO

version of like the video.

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You can see all the girls out there

on the beach and, they even did like

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LEGO version of, like, Kendrick

Lamar up on the lamp post, street post.

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So yeah, it's so cool to see like that.

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Yeah,

the little clips with the LEGO version

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of the videos, you see like,

oh no, cameo looks like a little montage.

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And you see like Britney

Spears, Justin Timberlake, N.O.R.E.,

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You know, Snoop, of course,

you know, Snoop's going to have a little,

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little bit in.

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with “Drop It Like It's Hot”, but

like it was cool to see the little video

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cameos of the LEGO

versions of the videos in the movie.

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That was so fun.

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It was really great.

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We, highly recommend it.

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I don't think we need to elaborate

on on, so,

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bring the funky flick back

or leave it in the vault, but

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I think we all know that we are

bringing this funky flick back.

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Yes. I should tell my Pharrell story.

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So I did meet Pharrell once,

and this was the first N.E.R.D.

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tour. And we were.

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He was in Philly, and naturally,

we went to Pat’s Steaks.

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And so my friends and I,

before we discovered the better

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cheesesteak places in Philadelphia.

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But he was there,

and he was there with Kelis.

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He was not there with Chad.

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Hugo, who had been home, with a newborn.

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So, Pharrell was very, pro

fatherhood, like, you know, very cool

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with him being, you know, off the road

and taking care of his family.

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And, Yeah, he was there at Pat's Steaks.

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And, the show was awesome.

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So there you go.

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Go see it.

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Go see this film.

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Absolutely. Recommend it. Go see it.

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Go see it. Go see it.

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Matter of fact, I'm going to see it again.

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All right.

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Hip Hop Movie Club is produced by your

HH emcees JB, BooGie and DynoWright.

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Theme music by Boogie.

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Come out to SteelStacks

November 13th for

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Boyz n the Hood 4K screening

and a special panel

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discussion with professors

from around the Lehigh Valley.

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And whether you're watching from

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YouTube or listening to us on the podcast,

please give us a follow.

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It’s real power-up for us.

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Remember, don't hate.

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Be great. Be great.

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Absolutely be. Great.

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Like Pharrell Williams.

Like Pharrell Williams.

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Yes, sir.