Snoop Dogg Guests on Pharrell and Scott Vener's OTHERtone Radio at ComplexCon

Pharrell and Scott Vener bring their Beats 1 radio show, OTHERtone, to ComplexCon for a special taping with Snoop Dogg.

OTHERtone Panel   Snoop Dogg and Pharrell 2
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

OTHERtone Panel   Snoop Dogg and Pharrell 2

For ComplexCon, Scott Vener and Pharrell Williams brought their Beats 1 radio show OTHERtone to Long Beach. This special live taping featured LBC native Snoop Dogg, who talked about shooting the video for "Beautiful" in Brazil, the making of "Drop It Like It's Hot" (including an a cappella performance of the track), and the potency of good energy in the studio (and good smoke). (You can read our live-tweet thread of the taping here.)

The conversation was warm and discursive, with the kind of rapport that you only find between old friends. Both relived the eye-opening experience of traveling to Brazil to shoot "Beautiful," which marked the first time Snoop collaborated with the Neptunes on a solo song. "I had never had a song like that, and you helped me tap into that side of myself," Snoop told Pharrell, meaning he'd never had a song written for women. In Brazil, they were both struck by the beauty of the nation's people. "Even the gas station people were beautiful," Snoop said. "Fine as a motherfucker. I kept going back to that gas station."

In Brazil, Pharrell heard music—Brazilian funk, as he described it—that inspired the Neptunes' beat for Kelis' "Milkshake."

Later in the conversation, which will be available via Beats 1 radio soon, Snoop touched on working with Dr. Dre as compared to working with Pharrell. "Dre is a perfectionist," Snoop said, "and to me it's like a professor as opposed to a teacher. Teacher is flexible and works with the student." Pharrell, according to Snoop, is more of a teacher.

OTHERtone Panel - Snoop Dogg and Pharrell

During a long, sometimes rambling and confounding audience Q&A after the conversation wrapped, an audience member asked Pharrell if there would be another N.E.R.D album. "There answer is yes," Pharrell said, to excited applause. He compared the creative process around that upcoming project to making wine, and added, "When it's time."

This description only scratches the surface of the long, illuminating conversation—you'd be crazy to miss it when it becomes available.

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