Produced by the Neptunes

From the late 90s to the late 00s, no producer or production team literally owned the charts quite as consistently as the Neptunes. The duo of childhood friends Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo were first discovered by veteran producer Teddy Riley in the early 90s and got their first production gig working on “Tonight’s the Night” for his group BLACKstreet in 1994 (though it bore little similarity to what would become their signature sound)

After continuing to work in the background for the following few years, they finally got their first hit with N.O.R.E.’s “Superthug” (sadly, not on Spotify) in 1998 before achieving a proper breakthrough with Kelis’ “Kaleidoscope” album the following year which was a huge success critically and cemented the Neptunes as one of the hottest young producers around.

As their reputation grew, so too did the level of the artists that they went on to work with: Beyoncé, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z and Usher to name just a few. They, well, Pharrell, was also one of the first producers to step out from behind the mixing desk and into the spotlight; singing on countless tracks and appearing in many of the music videos before finally making his solo debut in 2006 with his album “In My Mind”. Pharrell and Chad would also team up with old friend Shay on the N*E*R*D* project who released its 4th album, “Nothing” in 2010.

The Neptunes are one of the most successful producers of all time having released a staggering 128 charting singles in the US, 20 of which went to number one. It’s been tough to filter these down to a manageable size and there’s been some difficult decisions, see for yourself what made the cut!