N.E.R.D.

Childhood friends Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo shaped the face of pop music in the 2000s as production duo Neptunes, lending their signature smooth, infectiously funky sound to huge hits for Kelis, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, while retaining the respect of their hip-hop roots. Teaming up with singer Shay Haley, they took the name N.E.R.D ('No-one Ever Really Dies') and stepped forward from behind the mixing desk to reinvent themselves as a strutting funk rock trio capable of setting dance floors alight with sexy, pumping, party anthems - such as UK Top 20 singles Lapdance, Rock Star and Provider. Debut album In Search Of... (2001) won them the Shortlist Music Prize and established Pharrell as a charismatic front man, before its follow-up Fly Or Die (2004) broke into the UK and US Top 10 and produced the hit single She Wants To Move. Pharrell had solo success with the US Number 3 album In My Mind (2006) and featured on Number 1 singles by Snoop Dogg and Ludacris, but returned for the band's third album Seeing Sounds (2008).