Jay-Z (left) and Pharrell Williams (right) are featured in filmmaker Morgan Neville’s “Piece By Piece” (Photo Credit: Courtesy of Focus Features/2024 Focus Features, LLC).
(“Piece By Piece” trailer courtesy of Focus Features)
No one has ever described super music producer/artist Pharrell Williams as dull, boring or predictable.
Alongside his The Neptunes producer partner Chad Hugo, the Virginia Beach, Va. native dominated the hip-hop scene of the early 21st century with futuristic sounding hits by artists like Jay-Z and Mystikal.
Therefore, when the legend sat down to tell his story via a documentary, anyone following the dude for the last quarter century should have known that they would not get the typical boring doc.
What fans and others will get with “Piece by Piece” is a different type of documentary for a different type of creative, which will inspire many creatives to follow their vision and dare to be different.
Fans of The Neptunes music production team might already know the story of how Williams and Hugo rose to fame.
The childhood friends got their first big break working with super producer Teddy Riley when he set up camp in Virginia Beach, Va. and not his hometown of New York City.
Almost single-handedly, Riley ushered in the New Jack Swing era of R&B, writing and producing hits for Bobby Brown and his own R&B trio, Guy, which featured Timmy Gatling (later replaced by Damion Hall) and lead singer, Aaron Hall.
Although “Piece by Piece” does not mention it, Riley also cut his production teeth working with pioneering rappers like Kool Moe Dee and Dougie Fresh in the mid to late 1980s.
However, by the early 1990s, Riley had become the most in-demand producer in pop music, working with The Jacksons and later Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” album, which came out in 1991.
While Riley had all the production talent, he could not rap to save his life.
Therefore, when Riley needed a rap for the song “Rump Shaker” by his brother’s group Wreckx-n-Effect, Williams came in to save the day creating one of the most iconic rap verses of the early 1990s.
What fans of The Neptunes might not know and will get to know because of “Piece by Piece,” is that although they helped create a classic with “Rump Shaker,” success did not become regular and consistent until many years later.
Like many creatives, Williams and Hugo road the roller coaster that is the entertainment industry, even contemplating getting regular jobs at one point.
And while Williams does not always wear his faith on his sleeve while making music, “Piece by Piece” makes it obvious how important his faith in God is and how the words of clergy and his grandmother got him through the tough times during the beginning of his music career.
Because of that faith, Williams never let no be the final word.
More importantly, he never let failure stop him from being his authentic self or from creating the music that he felt in his heart.
Wise people often say a person can get a million nos.
However, all it takes is that one big yes and their dreams can become a reality before they know it.
The Neptunes got that one big yes from rapper N.O.R.E with hits like “Superthug,” which broke a lot of rules to hitmaking like its iconic chorus of N.OR.E chanting the word “what” repetitively.
After that breakthrough, the hits did not stop coming for a long time thanks to collaborations with rappers like Busta Rhymes as well as pop singers like Gwen Stefani and Justin Timberlake.
Unfortunately, what goes up must come down.
But in “Piece by Piece,” it becomes obvious that the tough road to success, combined with the lessons learned from his grandmother and pastor, had built Williams for the up-and-down nature of the music business.
As a result, no one seemed at all surprised when he eventually rose from the ashes like a phoenix and created one of the most popular songs of the 21st century with the anthemic, “Happy.”
But what might be extremely surprising to some is the fact that Williams went to grade school with legendary rapper/singer/producer Missy Elliot and super producer/rapper Timbaland, who also worked as a producer for Timberlake.
For so much talent to come out of one school and for them all to embrace the futuristic and eccentric side of music is amazing.
Like Elliott said in “Piece by Piece,” people think there is something in the Virginia Beach, Va. water to produce so many unique musical artists around the same period.
Williams, Elliott and Timbaland all going to the same school at the same time is reminiscent of Prince and Jimmy Jam being in the same music middle school class in Minneapolis or Jay-Z, The Notorious B.IG. and Busta Rhymes all attending the same high school in New York.
Having that much talent in one building at one time seems unfair to the rest of the world.
But as “Piece by Piece” shows, maybe Williams is not of this world.
Since a young age, he saw things that other kids did not see from colors to sounds.
That vision allowed him to see music in a different way and it allows him to see filmmaking in a different way, for better or worse.
While “Piece by Piece” reinforces his eccentricities, which might be too weird for some, it shows that thinking outside the box is why he became, and remains, so successful.
Instead of the usual documentary using footage of interviews, music videos, studio session, concerts and still images as B-roll, “Piece by Piece” is presented with Legos as the artists and music executives getting interviewed.
Williams’ reason for using Legos in “Piece by Piece” is because he wonders if nothing on Earth is new.
What if everything in life is just borrowed pieces and people get to put these pieces into whatever place that they see fit?
Visuals of Legos and the reasoning behind it for a documentary is definitely not boring or predictable.
And fans, old and new, will be happy that Williams presented “Piece by Piece” in a way that is the polar opposite of dull.
REGAL RATINGS
FOUR CROWNS=EXCELLENT
THREE CROWNS=GOOD
TWO CROWNS=AVERAGE
ONE CROWN=POOR
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