POLLS: Are We Facing Pharrell Overload?

Pharrell Williams recently collaborated with colette to celebrate and pay homage to his slew of collaborations over recent months and years. Since transitioning from the music realm into the title of “King Collaborator” over numerous cultural fronts, Pharrell Williams has largely been able to circumvent any sort of negative ill will. After all, for many months and even years before, the age-resistant purveyor of all things cool and youthful was accepted with open arms and was subject to lavish praise from parties within HYPEBEAST culture and those whom his influenced spilled over with strategic collaborations.

However, after firing out collaborations at a frantic pace, it seems as followers of the cultural icon are starting to experience Phatigue. Don’t get us wrong, just as much as we’re bringing to light his apparent over saturation, we’re also beginning to come to terms with his transitional identity as not just the street-level cool guy and into the mainstream light. But it’s certain, his perception amongst his most ardent and loyal supporters and notably those who have known him the longest are changing. Despite the frantic pace of news, Pharrell is still immensely relevant and his projects are largely reflected by a generally well-chosen selection of brands firmly rooted in fashion.

This regular flow of Pharrel x (insert brand name here) has led to the obvious camp that states that the Virginia native has indeed pushed himself over the age and brought into disrepute his cool factor, while a smaller contingency would argue that outside of the HYPEBEAST world (and arguably entering into a more mainstream realm), Pharrell Williams has managed to position his projects carefully to ensure minimum overlap. Over at Complex, they’ve taken a decisive angle and stated that Pharrell is the “Ultimate Collaborator.”

Below are a series of points arguing both for and against Pharrell’s increasing presence across multiple channels.

“Pharrell, you’re doing the most…”

• While his projects may not overlap necessarily, seeing “Pharrell x Company A” on a weekly basis is grounds for general ambivalence.
• It’s become harder to get excited with each and every drop.
• We’re arguably still not even in full force with his adidas partnership.
• The increasing number of collabs raises the level of skepticism regarding Pharrell’s level of participation. How involved is Pharrell on these projects? Between touring, shooting episodes and taking time out to mentor aspiring musicians on “The Voice,” and now officially signing on as the executive producer of Snoop Dogg’s next album, one can rightfully question whether Pharrell is simply being given the credit because of his household name at the expense of a group effort.
• We’ve all read the stories about Kanye’s extensively long critique process in order to put out what he deems to be his best effort…in comparison to his adidas counterpart, the same spark is simply not there when one comes across news announcing Pharrell’s latest partnership.
• It’s difficult to separate Pharrell from music and fashion. For a generation that grew up to Pharrell musically, he was elusive and the rare appearance in music videos boosted his profile appropriately.
• BBC | ICE CREAM’s appeal in the beginning was due to its relative rarity which has changed significantly since it’s become more accessible.

“Pharrell, you’re cool man, don’t listen to the haters…”

• His projects are channel-adequate and don’t really overlap.
• However unaccepted his designs are to the HYPEBEAST world, they are arguably reflective of the target audience and his own aesthetic.
• His main product, music, has yet to suffer in quality.
• If you consider his music and fashion separately, it isn’t overkill; it just happens to be two realms in which he’s been successful, whereas most artists only have one.
• He actually hasn’t done as many non-BBC collaborations as you’d think and has only released work alongside adidas, Uniqlo, COMME des GARCONS, Kartell, Moynat and G-Star RAW in 2014.
• Considering the mainstream population have little to nothing to do with streetwear or hip-hop, Pharrell’s collaborations with massive brands such as Uniqlo and adidas are very noticeable and have gotten his name and face out there on the way to becoming a household name.
• Targeted collabs with brands like Laduree also get name recognition for Pharrell in non-traditional markets (e.g. with Laduree: female, 20s and 30s, middle- to upper-class, attuned to classics and high fashion) where streetwear and hip-hop have little penetration.