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While recording "Presidential" for Rick Ross' "God Forgives, I Don't," Pharrell explains how to balance both art and commerce.
In addition to his work with Rick Ross on tracks such as “Get Down,” and “MMG The World Is Ours (produced by Boi-1da),” Pharrell Williams has been at least partially responsible for no less than 10 number one singles and five Grammy Awards as a part of The Neptunes. Ross and Williams recently worked together on the song “Presidential” from Ross’ latest album, God Forgives, I Don’t. While recording the track, both artists explained how to maintain consistency while also being commercially successful.
“In the words of my ***** Wale, at this point, *****s just trying to be legendary,” Ross offered. “We’ve been getting money a minute now. Now it’s just time to go to that next level and continue to enjoy to do this shit. [Pharrell] is one of the few producers that I’m actually a fan of. This sit-down was long overdue, but I feel like it came at the right time to help us rewrite the books.”
Pharrell added that the appreciation is mutual, and he’s a fan of Ross’ focus and as a producer he wants to help Ross tell his story. Much like Ross, Pharrell also downplayed the financial aspects that come with repeated visits to the charts.
“Hot don’t come by saying to yourself that you wanna be hot,” Pharrell explained. “A ***** that wanna be hot don’t know nothing about fire. You just concentrate on shining and being a light and a vessel for good music and good shit that nobody’s thinking about to come out. You’ll naturally be hot…everyday I wake up thinking to myself, ‘Man this is missing. I want what this is going to sound like when I put this with that?’”
Source: hiphopdx.com