Producers Who Shape-Shift

The members of N.E.R.D. can’t make it from one end of the Four Seasons hotel bar to the other without being buttonholed by music-biz machers who want to schmooze.

First up is Macy Gray’s manager, who gives Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo and Sheldon Haley, whose stage name is Shay, big bear hugs and an even bigger earful about some hush-hush industry scuttlebutt.

Three tables down, it’s LL Cool J who wants to confab. Williams and Hugo, who form the producing duo the Neptunes, produced the first single from LL’s forthcoming album, but the rap star seems to want more. “I want you guys to think about those other tracks, all right?” he says in his most ingenuous voice. “Yo, we’re on it,” Williams says. “No problem.”

Writers and producers of a string of innovative rap and R&B; records, the Neptunes have achieved that critical mass that means label representatives absolutely, positively have to have them for their projects and A-list artists beep their pagers with work offers.

Since 1993, the Neptunes have built a resume that includes Britney Spears’ “I’m a Slave 4 You,” Mystikal’s exercise in Redd Foxxian hip-hop “Shake Your Ass,” Jay-Z’s “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It to Me),” Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Got Your Money,” and remixes for a long list of artists ranging from the Backstreet Boys to Limp Bizkit.

Even Williams readily admits that the Neptunes’ success can be attributed to the hype. But, he adds, “that’s OK, ‘cause every time you come for the hype, we’ll give you something that will enlighten you. It’s amazing to us that all of this happened, but we don’t want to be the hot producers. We just want to work.”

No worries there. After a decade in the control booth, the Neptunes have formed their own band, N.E.R.D. (for No One Ever Really Dies), with high school buddy Haley. N.E.R.D.’s debut album, “In Search of ... ,” due in stores Tuesday from Virgin Records, is that rare hip-hop paradigm-shifter, an album that calls into question every current precept of what good hip-hop is supposed to be, then provides a jarring antidote.

The first single, “Lapdance,” in which Williams equates strippers with money-mad politicians, is powered by a clipped metal riff. “Things Are Getting Better” is a thick slice of straight-up, P-Funk-style booty-thump; “Baby Doll” has a peppy new-wave feel. It goes on like this for the duration of the album, a shape-shifting survey of styles held together by N.E.R.D’s wicked humor and sly melodic feints.

“In Search of ...” is a call to arms, an album that lays bare the myopia of hip-hop and points the way toward a more ecumenical future, where the boundaries between musical genres are blurred to the point of indeterminacy.

“We’re entering an age of difference and exploration,” says Williams, joining Haley and Hugo for a late-afternoon lunch in a quiet anteroom behind the clamorous bar. “Look at OutKast. They did what they wanted to do and they didn’t care. That’s what music is all about. The radio is full of songs about robbing and killing, but a lot of the songs that we loved as kids were just about, you know, what the artist did that day, and that’s OK!”

While the trio isn’t a household word, anticipation has been running high for the album in hip-hop circles.

“I think that based on their track record, people will automatically be interested in the N.E.R.D. album, even thought it strays so far from everything the Neptunes are known for,” says Shani Saxon, music editor of Vibe magazine. “This album shows how innovative, and how willing to experiment, they are.”

The anticipation has been stretched for a long time. N.E.R.D. originally recorded “In Search of ...” with drum loops and samples, but the band was afraid it would create the wrong first impression.

“We wanted to make an alternative album that wasn’t strictly hip-hop or R&B;,” says Hugo, whose quiet manner contrasts sharply with Williams’ jive-talking trickster persona and Haley’s barbed wit. “So the first album became kind of a blueprint for us.”

Williams and Hugo hired a young Minneapolis rock band called Spymob and had them re-record the grooves to give “In Search of ...” the raw immediacy the rough draft lacked. The result is a thrilling example of cross-genre hybridization. N.E.R.D. wants “In Search of

To hear Williams tell it, popular music is pigeonholed because listeners have been conditioned to harbor prejudices about genres that aren’t a staple of their steady diet.

“In the ‘80s, Tears for Fears was played on black radio stations,” Williams says. “So was ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ and the Art of Noise. They don’t do that no more.”

Williams, Shay and Hugo certainly don’t fit any hip-hop stereotype. Born and reared in Virginia Beach, Va., the three attended different high schools for gifted children, where they studied music theory and played in their school marching bands. “We would see each other at school sporting events,” Williams says.

Hugo, whose Filipino father was stationed at the local Navy base, and Williams listened to Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder and Chicago records, hung out with fellow hip-hop fanatic and future super-producer Tim “Timbaland” Mosely, and eventually formed a band with buddies Shay and Mike Etheridge. In 1990, the foursome, by then called the Neptunes, entered a talent show mounted by hip-hop producer Teddy Riley, who had recently moved to Virginia and was looking for some new recruits to develop and record.

“We performed and it was great,” Hugo says. “He gave us a break and it kind of took off from there.”

But instead of recording their own project, Riley assigned Williams and Hugo to produce outside artists. In 1992, they scored a Top 5 hit with Wreckx-N-Effect’s “Rumpshaker.” Williams and Hugo also produced a few tracks for the 1994 debut album from Riley’s group Blackstreet. But the workload wasn’t enough, and in 1993 the Neptunes struck out on their own with their first outside production, SWV’s “Use Your Heart.”

“When we hooked up with Riley, we were still finding ourselves and our sound,” says Shay, who was put on a kind of informal retainer by Williams and Hugo until they had the time to record “In Search of

N.E.R.D. hopes to do for younger artists what Riley did for them. They have a long list of releases due this year, including Spymob’s debut and an album from a young rapper named Roscoe P. Coldchain. It’s all part and parcel of N.E.R.D’s mission to break down the walls between genres and set popular music free.

“The only thing that separates people are themselves,” Williams says. “I don’t care what color you are--everyone knows the theme to ‘The Dukes of Hazzard,’ man! Popular music is the most universal language in the world ... and everyone can count a beat.”

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Marc Weingarten is a regular contributor to Calendar.