This film outlines Williams’ life story in the music industry, looking pure and childish from the outside, but the true themes and depth of his life are captivating. “Piece by Piece” is a LEGO animated movie about music legend Pharrell Williams.
Williams starts by saying, “What if nothing is new; what if life is like a Lego set and you can put ‘em together whatever way you want, but you’re borrowing from colors that already existed.”
Williams, from Virginia Beach, lived in a project. He’s always loved the water and everything to do with the ocean. Throughout the film, water and ocean imagery are portrayed, which becomes a powerful symbol through the aspects of Williams’ life. Williams describes his neighborhood as magical, with music bouncing off the walls.
He states, “You couldn’t tell me that life was not amazing.”
Williams wasn’t kidding about music bouncing off the walls. He grew up in the same neighborhood as major artists like Pusha T, Timbaland, and Missy Elliot. Due to all this creativity, their group would skip school to work on their music with Williams’ best friend Chad Hugo, with whom Williams would form his band “The Neptunes”.
Williams’ grandmother was a major influence in his life, pushing him to join the school band, buying him a drum set, and encouraging him and The Neptunes to enter the talent show, which is where music producer Teddy Riley was scouting out talent.
The Neptunes won the show and gained a music contract as a result, allowing Williams to work with Teddy Riley in his studio and land a co-writing on Riley’s “Rump Shaker,” with Williams teaching Riley how to rap.
After 5 years in Riley’s studio, Williams was able to co-write “Superthug” with artist N.O.R.E., launching his career and bringing him to Jay-Z, where he wrote “Frontin”. Williams also bridged the gap between punk and hip-hop audiences through working with Gwen Stefani and producing “Hella Good” and “Hollaback Girl”, creating a new culture around music.
Gwen Stefani stated, “Two cultures turned into a collision of beauty.”
By bringing in his experience with Hip-hop to Stafani’s punk band, people were brought together like never before.
Williams states, “The most common thread between different worlds is a feeling, people just wanna feel good.”
Once Williams released “Frontin” with Jay-Z, he went quiet for 3 years with music, only working on Mc Donalnd’s’ “I’m Lovin’ It” ad and doing clothing designs. He explains he was afraid he wasn’t talking about anything in his music.
Williams wasn’t in projects anymore; he was in the business world, which came crashing down when Williams got a call. His grandmother, the woman who pushed him to pursue music, join the band, and go to church, had passed away. The movie ties in the previous ocean imagery to portray Williams’ sense of drowning, furthering the emotional connection to the subject.
After her passing, the Neptunes broke up. Williams was no longer producing hits or working on his solo career.
Williams’ grandma told him, “Find something you love to do and you’ll know when it’s right when you can find a purpose for humanity in it”.
This quote paints Pharrell’s turning point. Like many of us, when we appeal to what the world expects of us, it’s not fulfilling; it leads to drowning.
Williams is drowning but addicted to the water, addicted to people’s approval, and because of that, his suffering is inevitable. One small action, one call, can shatter us if we are built on fragility. If the work we do doesn’t have a purpose for humanity, there’s no way it can give us life.
Williams states, “Relevance is a drug and staying relevant will have you doing all kinds of things that you regret just to win.”
He finally realized he needed to give the purest of his spirit. This was when he produced “Get Lucky” with Daft Punk, which revived his music career, and he finally married the woman who would become his wife, Helen Lasichanh.
In the song “Happy,” written for “Despicable Me,” Williams explains the success by saying, “People were celebrating an emotion; they felt it because they had been through shit.” He had finally made a song that spoke to his values, and people around the world were responding to it.
After “Happy”, it got dark; George Floyd’s murder changed Williams’ outlook on what it means to be Black. He states, “Being black is in juxtaposition with the entire system,” leading him to work on Kendrick Lamar’s song “Alright.” Through that record, the chords itself to every struggle and became a symbol for the Black Lives Matter movement.
It’s undeniable that Williams brought something needed to the music industry, but when asked what he’s focusing on now, he says he’s into the “deeper stuff.” He says he wants to take life apart, brick by brick, and put it back together so it makes sense. He states, “We’re just vibrating, buzzing molecules. Light. Sound. Life is much bigger than you.”
He asks the question, “How do I serve this thing called life?”
Through his experience, Williams realized that dreams and aspirations, yes, get you where you want to go, but ultimately, they teach you the lessons you need to learn. Williams was majorly successful by business standards, but that only led him to realize life is less than outward fame; it’s simply just buzzing.
We are all just buzzing, little bricks that have been built piece by piece, and it’s our job to honor the pieces that made us.