“i can only aspire to be someone who people learn as much from as they’ve learned from Carl Sagan” it’s amazing that Pharrell has fulfilled that wish, and Tyler the Creator is evidence
Pharrell clearly doesn’t like his first impression of Nardwuar. He grinds him about his name and Nardwuar just rolls through. It doesn’t take long for Pharrell to realize that when you’re great at what you do, you call the shots. It’s kind of like going to shithole looking restaurant, regretting being there, then eating the best meal of your life. Pharrell doesn’t even want to do an interview part way through, he just wants to shower Nardwuar with praise!
The biggest tragedy was Pharrell gave Nard an interview with Jay Z only giving him 8 hours to prepare and OVER hypes him. Watching the interview Jay Z had his guard up and was expecting a spiritual journey
Holy fuck when Nardwuar mentioned Aladdin's Castle Arcade EVEN I WAS SHOOK. As a kid mom would drop me off there at the mall and I'd play Tekken with this big ass tall black dude that was hella nice.
Kinda funny how impressed everyone is because of the research and trinkets he brings to interviews, but he really fails to get them to really elaborate on these things. Why is Rumpshaker so important to him? Why doesn’t Carl Sagan resonate so much with Pharrell in particular? The reactions are great but so many missed opportunities here.
The beginning of this interview into the transition is so fascinating to me. You have two giants of their craft, one who knows where it's going, and one who thinks it's a normal interview, I can see Nard feeling the tension, so he brings himself down and makes fun of himself, knowing he has about 10 trap cards in his back pocket, and Pharrell naively takes the bait. Then the outer shell of Pharrell drops, which you normally need for bad interviewers trying to get a soundbite for TMZ, as soon as Nard starts bringing out the old memories. It's an incredibly interesting power dynamic to me that resolves from mutual antagonizing to mutual respect, one of my favorite interviews ever. I loved both Pharrell's music and Nardwuar's interview before I saw this, but the interview just cemented those.
Nardwuar is the best but where is the rest of the interview? as Pharrell is holding an Incredible Bongo Band record at the end which they most have spoken about?
I really like that he wanted to know about Nardwuar’s name, such a small detail but you can genuinely hear the curiosity in his voice. That’s often not something he receives on his end.
