Not Your Typical N.E.R.D.: Pharrell Williams, Bound by Chords

SUN VALLEY, Calif.

Pharrell Williams is in love.

Maybe it won't last a lifetime or even a few years or, for that matter, the next five minutes. But at the moment, the man is smitten, and he'd like the world to know it. At minimum, he'd like the Latino babe in the clingy gray sweat pants to know it, since she's the one he's in love with.

"Sweat pants," he sighs, massaging a few sentimental chords on a white piano. "I see you, you're looking good in those . . . sweat pants."

With luck, "Maybe" will turn up soon and often on MTV's "Total Request Live," which just might perk up the tepid sales of N.E.R.D.'s second album, "Fly or Die." So far, the band has yet to launch a truly monster hit single, which is odd because launching monster hit singles is what Pharrell Williams does, it seems, in his sleep. As one-half of a production duo known as the Neptunes -- the other half is his high school buddy and N.E.R.D. band mate Chad Hugo -- Williams has programmed the beats and/or written songs for Nelly ("Hot in Herre"), Britney Spears ("I'm a Slave 4 U"), Jay-Z, Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake and Usher, to name a few. Rock acts such as No Doubt, Garbage and Marilyn Manson have hired the Neptunes, too.

The output has been so constant and so successful that the hip-hop charts have rarely been Neptunes-free in the last few years. And not just in the United States. Last year, a survey found that one in five songs on English radio was the handiwork of Williams and Hugo. In February, the pair pocketed the Grammy for producers of the year, making them, officially, the smokingest beat-makers in the business. Now, Williams is seeking megaband status for N.E.R.D., a feat that would make him (and Hugo) the rarest of pop creatures: sought-after producers with a side project that sells.

That status is just about the only thing eluding the 31-year-old Williams these days. Unless you count the Latina at this video shoot -- though she might not be eluding him for long.

"Cut," shouts the director, after a long take.

"Sweat pants," Williams croons, picking up right where he left off. "I see you, you're looking good in those . . . sweat pants."

Williams is wearing a turquoise blazer with military ribbons over a T-shirt that reads "Billionaire Boys Club." When the filming breaks for lunch, he is soon chatting away with the inspiration for his improvised ditty, a woman, it turns out, he met for the first time last night. Then he's huddling with a team from Virgin Records, which is N.E.R.D.'s label, then the video director. Everyone wants Pharrell, and he's sharing.

This is unfortunate because at the moment Williams is supposed to be sitting in a nearby mobile home, listening to his 10 favorite songs and explaining what he loves about each tune. He provided The Post with a list of his best-loved tunes a few days earlier, and the plan was to play the music on a boombox and get him talking about himself and the artists and bands that shaped him.

In theory, it could be a fascinating hour. N.E.R.D. draws liberally from hip-hop, rock, jazz and soul, but those elements are jumbled in such original configurations that every attempt to tag the band feels foolish. It makes you wonder: Musically speaking, where did this guy come from?

The answer will have to wait. At 12:30, the stars of MTV's "Viva la Bam," a spinoff of "Jackass," visit Pharrell to shoot a quick promo with him in the parking lot of the soundstage. Someone hands him a trucker's baseball hat, which, for some reason, the "Viva" cast ritually stomps three times. Then, with the cameras rolling, Williams calls Snoop Dogg on his cell phone.

"Tell him we want a dog-bone-size blunt!" yells Bam Margera, one of the stars. Williams conveys the message.

The Neptunes' Orbit

In pop, every age has its sound and few producers have shaped the sound of today as much as Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. Their work is distinctly digital age, comprising hard, flat tones, repetitive electronic hooks and arrangements that make use of the silence between the beats. The Neptunes might well be the Phil Spectors of their era, but where Spector added, the Neptunes subtract. There's nothing extra on a song like "Slave 4 U." You get enough to make you dance and nothing more.