Pharrell Williams Originally Made "Frontin'" & "Happy" For Prince & Cee-Lo

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Pharrell Williams performs onstage during the 7th Biennial UNICEF Ball on April 14, 2018 in Beverly Hills, California.

Pharrell still believes that "Happy" would've been better if it went to Cee-Lo.

Pharrell is undoubtedly one of the most innovative minds in hip-hop. Much of that has to do with his willingness to step outside of the box and push himself further as well as his emphasis on collaborating with other artists. In a recent interview, Pharrell revealed that two of his biggest hits were meant for two legendary artists.

Pharrell recently sat down with Clash Music for an in-depth conversation about his career. One particularly interesting part of the interview is when he spoke on his collaborative process. P explained that some of the biggest songs he's written and released were meant for other artists, particularly "Happy" and "Frontin'."

"All of my biggest songs were songs that I did with or for other people. Collaboration has always been part of my DNA." He said, "and, to be clear and to be honest, songs that I ended up putting out by myself were always songs that I wrote for other people. I made ‘Frontin’ for Prince, and even ‘Happy’, I wrote that for CeeLo [Green]."

Despite the two singles having major success, it seems as if Pharrell would still be curious in hearing how those two records, in particular, would've sounded if they were sung by the people they were initially meant for.

"Still to this day I feel like CeeLo would have done a much better job on ‘Happy’ than me," he said. "And imagine if Prince had sung ‘Frontin’? I mean, come on!"

 


About The Author
Aron A. is a features editor for HotNewHipHop. Beginning his tenure at HotNewHipHop in July 2017, he has comprehensively documented the biggest stories in the culture over the past few years. Throughout his time, Aron’s helped introduce a number of buzzing up-and-coming artists to our audience, identifying regional trends and highlighting hip-hop from across the globe. As a Canadian-based music journalist, he has also made a concerted effort to put spotlights on artists hailing from North of the border as part of Rise & Grind, the weekly interview series that he created and launched in 2021. Aron also broke a number of stories through his extensive interviews with beloved figures in the culture. These include industry vets (Quality Control co-founder Kevin "Coach K" Lee, Wayno Clark), definitive producers (DJ Paul, Hit-Boy, Zaytoven), cultural disruptors (Soulja Boy), lyrical heavyweights (Pusha T, Styles P, Danny Brown), cultural pioneers (Dapper Dan, Big Daddy Kane), and the next generation of stars (Lil Durk, Latto, Fivio Foreign, Denzel Curry). Aron also penned cover stories with the likes of Rick Ross, Central Cee, Moneybagg Yo, Vince Staples, and Bobby Shmurda.