| Product Summary | | Label: Arista Records | | UPC: 00828765129527 | | Release Date: 8/19/2003 | | Buy.com Sku: 60614273 | | Item#: MVXRNQ | Format:  CD |
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| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Intro ~ The Neptunes |  | | 2. Light Your A** On Fire - (with Busta Rhymes/Pharrell) ~ The Neptunes | | | 3. Blaze Of Glory - (with The Clipse/Pharrell/Ab-Liva) ~ The Neptunes | | | 4. It Wasn't Us - (with Ludacris/I-20) ~ The Neptunes | | | 5. Frontin - (with Pharrell/Jay-Z) ~ The Neptunes | | | 6. Good Girl - (with Vanessa Marquez) ~ The Neptunes | | | 7. If - (with Nelly) ~ The Neptunes | | | 8. Hot - (with Rosco P. Coldchain/Pusha T/Boo-Bonic) ~ The Neptunes | | | 9. It Blows My Mind - (with Snoop Dogg) ~ The Neptunes | | | 10. Half Steering - (with Spymob) ~ The Neptunes | | | 11. F**k N' Spend - (with High Speed Scene) ~ The Neptunes | | | 12. Loser - (with N.E.R.D.) ~ The Neptunes | | | 13. Rock N' Roll - (with Famlay) ~ The Neptunes | | | 14. Don Of Dons, The (Put De Ting Pon Dem) - (with Jadakiss/Supercat) ~ The Neptunes | | | 15. Hot Damn - (with The Clipse/Ab-Liva/Pharrell/Rosco P. Coldchain) ~ The Neptunes | | | 16. Put 'Em Up - (with N.O.R.E./Pharrell) ~ The Neptunes | | | 17. Pop Sh*t - (with Dirt McGirt/Pharrell) ~ The Neptunes | | | 18. Popular Thug - (with Kelis/Nas) ~ The Neptunes | |
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| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel includes: The Neptunes, Busta Rhymes, Pharrell, Ludacris, Jay Z, Vanessa Marquez, Nelly, Snoop Dogg, Jadakiss, Nas, I-20, Clipse, Ab-Liva. | | "Frontin'" was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. | | Recording information: Grandmaster Recorders, Ltd., Hollywood, CA; Hovercraft Recording Studios, VA; Sony Studios, New York, NY. | | Photographer: Sacha Waldman. | | When Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams are behind the boards, hit singles are expected, and hit singles are usually granted. For The Neptunes Present...Clones, the tables are somewhat turned; the producers aren't in need of any more hits, but they do the enlisting here, and they snare an all-star cast of featured players who are willing to join up and/or return the favor, all the while reaping the cachet that comes with being in such venerated company. If anything, Clones puts an end to any thought that the duo randomly selects a track from their beat bank when collaborating, since it ably demonstrates how their skills can adapt to any conceivable personality. Williams steps out with some help from Jay-Z on "Frontin'," one of the biggest Neptunes-related singles yet; the light, simple arrangement is ideally suited to Williams' lighthearted falsetto. (It also must be said that no one else could make the line "And I was gon' tear your ass up" seem so charming.) The spare cattle-prod funk of "Light Your Ass on Fire" pings and jolts with sharp zaps, accompanying Busta Rhymes' more sexually aggressive and explicit come-ons. Amidst whirling sirens, Dirt McGirt's turn, "Pop Shit," boasts a comical Looney Tunes-worthy arrangement. (It also must be said that no one but Williams could make a chorus like "Pop sh*t, n*gg*, what's up?" so effective.) "Popular Thug," originally a track on Kelis' import-only Wanderland, gets a deserved new look, with Pusha T's role bumped in favor of Nas, who proceeds to take the track over and knock Kelis into the supporting role. At 18 tracks, there's a little too much to digest, and not everything is top rate -- but knocking the disc for the fact that a few cuts aren't Top Ten material would only further illustrate how spoiled listeners have become, and how remarkable the Neps' run has been. Besides, you can whittle this disc down to your favorite dozen and have one of the year's best albums. Doing this would hopefully eradicate the middle patch of innocuous rock -- Spymob's "Half-Steering," the High Speed Scene's "F**k n' Spend" -- while retaining the aforementioned highlights, along with saving space for Vanessa Marquez' "Good Girl," which has to be the best ripoff of late-'80s Jam & Lewis-style production. Or you could just take the whole disc as is, as a strong if patchy reminder of the Neptunes' pop prowess. ~ Andy Kellman | | As if making their mark as one of the greatest pop and hip-hop production teams to come out of the late '90s wasn't enough, Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo took their Neptunes persona to the other side of the recording glass for CLONES. Having worked as producers for a broad array of artists including Britney Spears, Mystikal, Ice Cube, and Perry Farrell, the Neptunes were able to cash in quite a number of chips for this wide-ranging 2003 project. Fueled by the duo's trademark mix of beats and loops, numerous major names make this eclectic scene. | | Standouts include Busta Rhymes praising booties ("Light You're A** On Fire"), O.D.B. returning from jail as Dirt McGirt, spitting out rhymes over a sparse cut ("Pop Sh*t"), and Nelly slipping into a slick St. Lunatic-like groove ("If"). Williams and Hugo move easily from an infectious Kelis/Nas duet ("Popular Thug") and an ultra-funky Jay-Z jam ("Frontin'") to whip-smart dancehall reggae with Supercat ("The Don of Dons [Put De Ting Pon Dem]") and straightforward alt-pop by the High Speed Scene ("F**k n' Spend"). Eclectic with a capitol E, CLONES keeps with the Neptunes penchant for casting a wide creative net. |
Producer: The Neptunes |
Musical Guests | | Busta Rhymes | | Jay-Z | | Snoop Dogg | | Ludacris | | Nas | | Jadakiss | | Nelly | | Pharrell Williams |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 08/19/2003 | | Original Release Date : 2003 | | Catalog ID : 51295 | | Label : Star Trak/Arista | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00828765129527 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (9/4/03, p.136)
- 4 stars out of 5 - "...With appearances from most of the big-name rappers and wall-to-wall Neptunes beats, this should be the world's greatest hip-hop compilation--and much of the time it is..."Entertainment Weekly (8/22-29/03, p.130)
- "...Commitment to eclecticism is apparent throughout CLONES. The boys craft dizzingly carnivalesque sonic swirls for [Busta] Rhymes, Ludacris, Dirt McGirt [and others]..." - Rating: B Uncut (11/03, p.107)
- 4 stars out of 5 - "...This is berserk, this is brilliant, this is now..." Vibe (8/03, pp.147-8)
- 3.5 discs out of 5 - "...Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams remain defiantly oddball....the album is a tapestry of reggae, rock, jazz, gospel, and pop, loosely assembled on the duo's signature bass-and-rim-shot skeleton..." Mojo (Publisher)
(9/03, p.111)
- 3 stars out of 5 - "...Neptunes' grooves and collaborators score an impressive hit rate..." |
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