I’ve watched it at least eleven times. It’s the one video that defines what I hope is the future of art and how creators can firmly stand out. It was filmed in 2016. The location was NYU. Legendary rapper-producer, Pharrell Williams, stopped by a classroom to provide feedback on the latest creations of a group of budding musicians. In the first two demos he was asked to critique, Pharrell went through the motions without showing much emotion. The third person he’s introduced to though, a 21-year-old folk singer-songwriter, clearly hit something different.

I once heard Pharrell say the moment Daft Punk’s record, Random Access Memories, came out, he drove to a cliff that overlooked the ocean and allowed each track to take him away. I like the visual of that. I imagine his facial gestures and body movements in his car mirrored the way he moved when listening to the woman’s song in the classroom. He shifts a lot. He’s clearly moved. The ecstasy definitely kicked in.

“I have zero, zero, zero notes for that,” he begins once the track is done moving the woman’s eyes from nervous to frozen open. “And I’ll tell you why. It’s because you’re doing your own thing. It’s singular.”

To become singular, take two things and make a third

Since that fateful encounter, the young woman, Maggie Rogers has skyrocketed. From sold-out venues to a top-charting record, in the span of a second, she went from nameless to famous. 

Some could argue Maggie got lucky with Pharrell. Her latest track was ready to go. One of the greatest producers of our generation walked through the door. But regardless of her good fortune and Pharrell’s platinum touch, Maggie Rogers had already arrived. This is for the simple, yet not so easy reason she had the guts to allow the world to guide her into new spaces and places.

Prior to her tipping point, Maggie studied in France and took a hiatus from folk. During this time, to her surprise, she finally understood the draw to dance music and what she’d once felt as the most unnatural thing in the world, began to feel very natural.

When she started to write songs again, her decision to step out of her past and into the present ultimately wrote her future. She couldn’t stop creating. The words and accompanying beats were flowing. This new love of dance music, combined with her old love of folk, led Rogers to meld the two genres together to create a sound no one had ever heard before.

“I’ve never heard anyone like you before and I’ve never heard anything that sounds like that…..  and that’s like a drug to me.” - Pharrell Williams

To be the best kind of drug, give people something they can’t get anywhere else

Think about your favorite creators. The ones you can’t get enough of. The ones you click on whatever they make no matter the title. The ones you consume like the best kind of drug and you can’t think of a single reason as to why you should quit the addiction.

What is it about them? How do they do it? The “it” that defines those that keep us coming back for more isn’t one thing, but a combination of qualities. And the more you can get those qualities to contract each other to complement each other the more singular you’ll become. Just like the world is full of folk writers and dance music creators, one thing it isn’t full of is people who can pull off marrying the two together. 

“The Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup is the most incredible invention of all time. And it seems very simple…. Chocolate on its own is amazing. But so is peanut butter. But somehow, someone said - ‘clap’ - and one of the most amazing things happened and two things made a third.” - Pharrell Williams

Be influenced. Don’t be influenced. 

It’s natural to want to emulate the people you admire. It’s a good way to start as following someone else’s voice will allow you to uncover your own. 

There should come a point though, when you’re done being influenced and your primary driver is taking your past and your present to create your own future where you confidently stand on the edges and say this is me.

The content creator revolution has begun.

That means one day it will die.

My bet is the ones who will make the cut will be the ones who make a commitment to being themselves.

Those who make a commitment to honesty.

And those, who Pharrell alluded to in the video below, make a commitment to doing what’s not exactly popular in their unique quest to make their art.

Maggie Rogers and Pharrell Williams