a b Pappademas, Alex (April 2002). "Playing With Your Mind". Spin. New York. 18 (4): 113 . Retrieved January 16, 2014.

The performances from Pharrell and Shay are both great. Sure, Pharrell's singing has that occasional moment where it stumbles a bit, but his verses are great, and when his singing is good, he stands well on his own as a singer, with Shay also getting a few great rap verses in there to prove himself as a valuable member of the group, which tends to be debated amongst N*E*R*D fans. There's also some great guest performances throughout the album. Lee Harvey has a great guest verse on "Lapdance", with a memorable and catchy hook done in part from Vita to boot. Kelis and Pusha T both have great parts on "Truth or Dare", and Malice has a good guest verse on "Am I High" Fly or Die was released in March 2004. The album debuted at number six on the Billboard 200, selling 119,000 copies in its first week. [20] The album sold 412,000 copies in the United States and was certified Gold by the RIAA. [16] [21] The first single, " She Wants to Move", has gone top 5 in the United Kingdom, top 20 in Norway, Ireland, and Denmark, and top 40 in Australia and the Netherlands. The music videos for "She Wants to Move" and its follow-up single, " Maybe", have received strong support from the digital cable network VH1 Soul in America. For as long as the production duo of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo (also known as The Neptunes) have been working, trendsetting and hit-making have been their prerogatives. Producing for the likes of Jay-Z, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and more, their legacy was bound for greatness very early on. But when The Neptunes joined forces with fellow Virginia native and rapper Shay Haley to form N.E.R.D., it brought about a whole new level of creativity that diversified one of hip-hop’s most impressive resumés.

Companies, etc.

Browne, David (March 11, 2002). "In Search Of..." Entertainment Weekly. New York. Archived from the original on May 10, 2017 . Retrieved February 14, 2016. Chartverfolgung – N.E.R.D." Musicline.de. Archived from the original on 2005-05-27 . Retrieved 2009-04-08.

Hip-hop's glittering touchstone". The Australian. News Corporation. 2009-02-27. Archived from the original on 2009-03-04 . Retrieved 2009-03-11. This kind of genre-hopping and fusing of styles is now par for the course in both hip-hop, pop and dance music and as usual, Williams was ahead of his time. ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2004 Albums" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association . Retrieved December 27, 2021.During the recording of the 2002 release, Pharrell was across town chopping up an album with Brandy, likely 2002’s Full Moon, as Chad and Shae handled more of the day-to-day. But at the end of each night, Pharrell would show up at the studio to hear what Spymob would be cooking up. Martens, Todd (2002-03-21). " 'O Brother' Still Finds Itself On Top". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media. Archived from the original on February 21, 2009 . Retrieved 2009-04-05. a b Walters, Barry (March 28, 2002). "Recordings: N.E.R.D., In Search Of..., 4 Stars". Rolling Stone. New York. Archived from the original on August 26, 2002 . Retrieved January 16, 2014. From April to June 2008, the band toured with Kanye West as an opening act along with Rihanna and Lupe Fiasco as part of the Glow in the Dark Tour. On June 13, they gave an energetic performance at the Isle of Wight festival, however they almost missed their scheduled show because they didn't know where the island was. [24] On June 25, they performed in front of 40,000 people at the Isle of MTV 2008 at the Floriana granaries, Malta with free admission. [25] [26] We thought that we would present these to the guys and they’d be like, ‘Oh yeah, Spymob. That’s so cool. It’s got Spymob on it.’ But when we pulled the sessions up, I remember Chad just went. ‘Yeah, nah. Let’s just have fun here.’ Those guys just really trust the moment,” Fawcett recalls of the summer 2001 sessions, which were more spur-of-the-moment than he expected. “I think about good hiring practices in businesses—you can save yourself a lot of work and worry later on if you just hire the right person. Part of the magic of what Chad and Pharrell do is that they choose who they work with [in the same] way that they’ll choose a paint or they’ll build the palette. And so if they choose the right blue, they’re not going to worry how the blue’s going to perform when it hits the canvas or how it’s going to perform tomorrow. Just bring the blue. And I think that’s what they did with us.”

Hip Hop Album Sales: Week Ending 6/15/08". HipHopDX. June 18, 2008. Archived from the original on May 24, 2015 . Retrieved May 24, 2015. a b "RIAA – Gold & Platinum". RIAA. Archived from the original on 2015-10-19 . Retrieved 2009-01-30.Edwards, Gavin (2002-06-21). "In Search of... Pharrell Williams". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media. Archived from the original on January 6, 2007 . Retrieved 2009-04-05. For their part, Spymob filled in previously empty spaces on the demo version with muted drums, translating electronic guitar riffs to the real deal, and even moaning during the re-recording of “Things are Getting Better.” Listen closely, you’ll hear Fawcett, alright. N*E*R*D Concert Setlist at Milton Keynes National Bowl, Milton Keynes on June 29, 2008 - setlist.fm". setlist.fm . Retrieved 29 October 2015. Chad Hugo is sitting on the other end of the phone in Virginia as he tells me all about a talk he just had with his son. It wasn’t “the talk” that parents have with their kids when they reach a certain age. His son is 23. Instead, it was the type of talk that only a member of Virginia’s very own N.E.R.D. can share with his kid, about a debut album that—two decades after its release—is still inspiring young creatives and impacting culture.