During a stop at Zane Lowe’s Beats1 show “World Record,” Pharrell premiered the latest single off N*E*R*D’s forthcoming ‘No_One Ever Really Dies’ album. The single, “Don’t Don’t Do It” features Kendrick Lamar and is by far one of the most anticipated off the upcoming album.
“Don’t Don’t Do It” is inspired by Keith Lamont Scott, an African-American man, who was fatally killed by police in Charlotte, North Carolina last year. Scott was killed after police forcibly entered his apartment to search for an man with an outstanding warrant. He was killed in front of his wife.
Pharrell spoke on the single’s intro which was written by Frank Ocean, and the unfortunate situation that cost Scott his life saying, “She’s telling the authorities that her husband has a TBI, that’s a Traumatic Brain Injury. They’re telling him to put his hands up or whatever and she knows, you can tell in her voice that she sees what’s going to happen. She’s saying, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t do it Keith. Don’t don’t do it.’ And of course you know the way that turned out—he was killed.
While on the show Pharrell also commended and praised Kendrick Lamar with a comparison to Miles Davis saying, “To me Kendrick is like probably a jazz artist reincarnated,” he said. “The way that he handles the pen is kind of how Miles Davis handled the trumpet. Or how Coltrane fingers just shifted and sifted through his saxophone keys. It’s like his melodies are as prolific and what he has to say has so much harmony and so much color in it.”
N*E*R*D’s ‘No_One Ever Really Dies’ album will include additional features from Rihanna, Ed Sheeran, André 3000, Gucci Mane, Future, and more. It is their first since 2010’s ‘Nothing’ and will be released this Friday.
Listen below.
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