#Neptunes clones Patch#

On “It Wasn’t Us”, with Ludacris on the mic, bike bells, coffee can percussion, firing rockets, zooming cars, and random screams blip by the background and provide necessary side roads to the beat. Many of the songs are populated with drive-by cartoon noises, bionic sounds, or a firing range of intergalactic weaponry. Not to mention the track’s smooth threat of a chorus: “I’m Da Vinci, don’t make me draw your pain”. Coldchain’s “Hot” is a minimal masterpiece, with sludge-warped turntabling that sounds like a pair of rubbing corduroys hooked up to an amp. When Clones does its duty, the results are like having lightning snare kicked into your veins. The result is an uneven album with moments of thunderous fun and more than a few flatlined missteps. Clones is essentially a mixtape of like-minded grooves, a revolving lineup of side projects and pop-rap superstars submitting to the hump-thumping vision of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo. Given their somewhat shoddy taste in collaboration, this is always a godsend. Frequently, the overriding beat erases the necessity of paying attention to the words or the person singing. The beats are simple, tactile and instantly demand a head nod, an ass shake, and an almost demonic surrender. You can recognize a Neptunes track by the way that the song’s bones are lifted to the surface and pounded out like a giant’s footfalls. Like hip-hop auteur, Timbaland, once the Neptunes have laid healing hands on a song, it’s indisputably their own. Or you could just take the whole disc as is, as a strong if patchy reminder of the Neptunes' pop prowess.Let me first get out of the way how incredible I think the Neptunes are.

#Neptunes clones Patch#

Doing this would hopefully eradicate the middle patch of innocuous rock - Spymob's 'Half-Steering,' the High Speed Scene's 'F**k n' Spend' - while retaining the aforementioned highlights, along with saving space for Vanessa Marquez' 'Good Girl,' which has to be the best ripoff of late-'80s Jam & Lewis-style production. Besides, you can whittle this disc down to your favorite dozen and have one of the year's best albums. At 18 tracks, there's a little too much to digest, and not everything is top rate - but knocking the disc for the fact that a few cuts aren't Top Ten material would only further illustrate how spoiled listeners have become, and how remarkable the Neps' run has been. (It also must be said that no one but Williams could make a chorus like 'Pop sh*t, n*gg*, what's up?' so effective.) 'Popular Thug,' originally a track on Kelis' import-only Wanderland, gets a deserved new look, with Pusha T's role bumped in favor of Nas, who proceeds to take the track over and knock Kelis into the supporting role. Amidst whirling sirens, Dirt McGirt's turn, 'Pop Shit,' boasts a comical Looney Tunes-worthy arrangement. (It also must be said that no one else could make the line 'And I was gon' tear your ass up' seem so charming.) The spare cattle-prod funk of 'Light Your Ass on Fire' pings and jolts with sharp zaps, accompanying Busta Rhymes' more sexually aggressive and explicit come-ons. Williams steps out with some help from Jay-Z on 'Frontin',' one of the biggest Neptunes-related singles yet the light, simple arrangement is ideally suited to Williams' lighthearted falsetto. If anything, Clones puts an end to any thought that the duo randomly selects a track from their beat bank when collaborating, since it ably demonstrates how their skills can adapt to any conceivable personality.

For The Neptunes Present.Clones, the tables are somewhat turned the producers aren't in need of any more hits, but they do the enlisting here, and they snare an all-star cast of featured players who are willing to join up and/or return the favor, all the while reaping the cachet that comes with being in such venerated company.

When Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams are behind the boards, hit singles are expected, and hit singles are usually granted.