N.E.R.D

The Virginia trio is back for the third time. Is that the elusive smell of success? If you don’t nose, now you nose.

By Brendan Frederick; Illustrations by KAWS; Photographs by Matt Doyle; Styling by Anoma Ya Whittaker NERD

REMEMBER HOW WEIRD THE NEPTUNES USED TO BE?
And then how, when they hooked up with their boy and formed a rock group, you couldn’t figure out what they were going for? Well, they’re still weird—at least compared to the baggy-jeaned aesthetic that ruled hip-hop when they first came around—but their brand of weird has become the new center. From fringe to mainstream, Pharrell and Chad remade hypebeasts in their own images. When it comes to N.E.R.D., though, they’re still searching.

How is it that their beats for-hire business has been a gold mine for years, yet their do-for-self mission has been so hit-and-miss? Easy answer: Weirdness is a risky business. When they provide the backdrop and let someone else deliver the message, they’re a novelty, and an infectious one. When they’re delivering their own message, though, it’s a lot harder—being at the vanguard is lonely when no one can match your speed.

They&rsquore doing their best to bring people up to tempo, though; their most recent record, June’s Seeing Sounds, adds a sprinkling of high-energy dancefloor sounds to their usual stew. And as an act on ’Ye’s phenomenally successful Glow in the Dark Tour, they’ve inundated the country with “Everybody Nose,” their ode to nasal candy and the eye candy that loves it.

Bottom line: Weirdness is the cousin of genius. Madness and artistry go hand in hand, and it’s what’s made them design icons in addition to just musical ones (LV, BBC, Bape—should we go on?). And most important, they’re just being themselves. You might not understand it, but you gotta respect it. N.E.R.D. = life, son!

Besides this shoot, I heard that KAWS recreated the Sistine Chapel in your house using Smurfs. Is that true?

Pharrell: Yeah. I’m a huge Smurfs fan. And he did some Family Guy stuff for me, and he also did SpongeBob. There’s a bunch of that kind of stuff in my room.

What is it about his stuff that you like?

Pharrell: I like his mentality, I like how he approaches things—he makes use of negative space. But I think he does it in a great cartoon way. Are there any artists or designers that you think are really underrated? Shay: There’s this group out in Ohio, and they started a clothing line called Fresco. It’s a dope brand—I rocked one of their shirts in the [“Everybody Nose”] video. They have dope quotes across the back. Chad: I think Pharrell Williams, as a designer. I think people are sleeping on that.