How LEGO-Infused Biopic ‘Piece By Piece’ Builds Pharrell’s Cultural Narrative

After three decades soaring as an unorthodox visionary, Pharrell Williams is prepared to share the narrative behind his journey to cultural prominence.

Academy, Emmy, and Grammy award-winning director Morgan Neville has been enlisted by Williams as the musically inclined overseer for his biographical picture, Piece By Piece, which premiered in theaters on October 11. Williams, alongside Mimi Valdés, Caitrin Rogers, and Neville, are the executive producers of this abstract production. In the realm of hip-hop cinema, Piece By Piece stands out as an avant-garde production due to its innovative use of LEGO blocks to construct Williams’ life story.

The film offers an in-depth look at the most transformative moments of Williams career, from its infancy amid his hometown of Virginia Beach up until his evident cross-generational relevance in modern hip-hop culture and hollywood. Featuring LEGO-animated testimonies from the prominent figures of Williams’ most essential musical partnerships, including Missy Elliott, Teddy Riley, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Timberland, Snoop Dogg, Noreaga, Pusha T, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, and more—with each testimony underscoring the far-reaching impact of The Neptunes’ creative on the evolution of music and entertainment culture.

Neville, renowned for productions including Won’t You Be My Neighbor? and Muddy Waters: Can’t Be Satisfied, was bound to tackle a hip-hop project. His enthusiasm for Williams’ film concept stemmed not from concerns about soundtrack selection, given the artist’s extensive catalog and Neville’s knack for curating such, but from the challenge of accomplishing such a production during the pandemic. The concept was introduced to Neville by Pharrell four years ago amid the prime of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Nobody knew how to make anything at the beginning of the pandemic,” Neville states to Ekpo during Wednesday’s red carpet Piece By Piece premiere in New York City. “The first interview I did during the pandemic was with Missy Elliott, and I FedExed her a recorder to her house. Then I talked to her on the phone to tell her how to set it up. That was the first interview we did remotely.”

There was also the intriguing prospect of creating a LEGO-themed biopic of benign taste that can resonate with adults yet appeal to the youth.

“That was the thing that got me excited,” said Neville. “He had this crazy idea and crazy ideas can fail or they can be the biggest mountain you’ve ever climbed.”

“There is some subject matter in the hip-hop world that maybe isn’t child-friendly for an animated movie,” Neville continued. “We agreed in the beginning we weren’t gonna make it rated R, and so we just slowly, we got it down to PG-13 and then we weren’t that far from PG, so we got it—you see the PG spraying there—we got it to PG.”

PG is a fair rating for the film, considering some of the risqué projects Williams embarked on, particularly during the infancy of his professional career, thanks to Teddy Riley. Williams received his first big break in the music business as a songwriter through Riley, serving as an aid to Riley’s verse on Wreckx-n-Effect’s 1992 smash hit “Rump Shaker.” At just 19 years old, after an impressive performance at a Princess Anne High School talent show, Williams, alongside Chad Hugo, earned the opportunity to sign with Riley’s Future Records, making himself known at Riley’s Virginia Beach recording studio. This marked the official beginning of The Neptunes.

“We actually had talent shows at his high school,” Riley expressed to Ekpo. “That’s how we all started, and when they were performing, they didn’t do the typical thing. It was not the ordinary performance. It was like, ‘I’m going to grab this desk. I’m going to beat the drums. And then he’s going to rap. And he’s going to DJ. And he’s going to play the sax.’ And when I seen that, I seen the talent.”

“Most people came up there, the talent show, they were practicing,” Riley continued. “Everybody’s going for the, how you say, the Apollo high note. And thought that was going to win. And it didn’t win with me. I’ve seen it all the time. I’m from the Apollo. My house and my project is right around the corner from the Apollo. I’m used to that. I wanted something that I’m not used to.”

From an analytical standpoint, it is fair to conclude Williams played a pivotal role in revitalizing the careers of several established artists by helping them achieve chart-topping hits. His collaboration with Snoop Dogg on “Drop It Like It’s Hot” gave the rapper his first solo number-one hit after two decades in the industry. Williams also worked with Jay-Z on tracks like “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me),” showcasing his ability to hip-hop’s mainstream appeal amid its bling-bling era. For Gwen Stefani, his hand in “Hollaback Girl” and “Hella Good,” helped the punk-rock artist her transition to pop and achieve significant solo commercial success.

Pharrell’s production work on fellow Virginia Beach natives and childhood fellows, The Clipse’s “Grindin’” helped revive the duo’s career, particularly Pusha T’s solo desires, demonstrating his loyalty to longtime homies.

The host of the Drink Champs podcast, N.O.R.E., is a familiar face to many, but hip-hop enthusiasts know him as Noreaga, the Lefrak rapper from C-N-N. During our red carpet chat, he credited Pharrell with sharpening his emcee skills. Their collaboration on “Superthug” was a game-changer, propelling Pharrell into the spotlight and establishing Noreaga as a force in the rap scene.

“Pharrell made me who I am,” Noreaga told Ekpo. “I want to say I made him who he is too, but I might be can’t say that. I feel like he made me who I am. He made me a strong, powerful solo emcee. And he kept doing it. And we kept doing it, and we got 25 years of doing it together.”

“Let me keep it real,” N.O.R.E. continued. “He made me stronger. He came to me and he said, ‘You can stand on your own, and you ain’t got to lean on anybody.’ And I listened to him and I did it. And 25 years later, I’m here with the Platinum American Express card, having fun.”

The most glaring matter throughout Piece by Piece is gaining the opportunity to understand Pharrell’s signature approach and presentation as a visionary. There was a point in Pharrell’s career where it was challenging to define the visionary. Was he a producer or singer? Was he a rapper or songwriter? Was he a rapper or singer? What the LEGO-infused biopic makes clear is that this abstract creative has a severe knack for the pleasingly audible, and a taste that only those with an obsession with water can curate.

In the biopic, Jay-Z described a portion of Pharrell’s creative trajectory as an “affinity for hood shit,” which stands as an ultimate reflection of how he manages to balance his eclectic style and garner a form of street credibility.

“We all have very different tastes,” Pharrell told Ekpo. “One of the unfortunate things about the system is that they put you in boxes. Black people, you hear the stereotypes, we like chicken, we like watermelon, we’re creative, we’re talented. We also like the Sopranos. We also like Seinfeld. We also like Curb Your Enthusiasm. It’s the boxes that the system puts you in to figure out how to connect and sell you things.”

“I think this is one of those exercises that really demonstrates that really well,” Pharrell continues conceptualizing Piece By Piece. “It illustrates the fact that LEGO, it’s a toy and a building set that connects to a lot of different cultures and a lot of different demographics. And me being Black, and yes, I come from a marginalized community, but when you see us LEGO-fied and when you see us objectified like this, it tells a very universal story.”