After a seven-year hiatus, hip-hop super producers N.E.R.D. burst on the scene last week with a hot new song called "Lemon," featuring Rihanna spitting crazy bars over an insane track like only Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo, and Shay Haley could create.
On Saturday night, the group took the stage at ComplexCon in Long Beach to treat the audience to a surprise listening party for their new album, No_One Ever Really Dies. In addition to several dope tracks featuring icons like Andre 3000, Gucci Mane, Ed Sheeran and Wale, the group revealed a more somber track featuring Kendrick Lamar called, "Don't Don't Do It."
Inspired by the murder of Keith Scott, one of a string of unarmed black men killed by police in 2016, the tragic ballad borrows it's title from Scott's wife's final plea to police officers before they fatally shot her husband – "Don't, don't do it!" During his set, Williams spoke about how he felt watching the incident unfold. "I thought to myself: 'She knows her husband is gonna die," he said. "I knew in my mind, man that's a chorus."
We see you Pharrell turning our pain into art. Stay up.