Pharrell Williams Says ‘The Greatest Gift Ever Is Turning Expression Into A Living’ As ‘All Day I Dream About Sport’ Screens For HBCU Students

Pharrell Williams continues to defy all odds in various mediums, including fashion, film and beyond.

Recently, the Virginia native’s contributions to society were acknowledged during the 37th Annual Morehouse College “A Candle in the Dark” Gala, where he was honored with the Candle in Arts and Entertainment Award.

Ahead of the event, Williams appeared at The High Museum of Art for a special conversation to support his latest endeavor, All Day I Dream About Sport (ADIDAS), a film led by both Williams and director Gabriel Moses, which serves as a “visual love letter to West African culture steeped in the everyday experience of life in Senegal,” per a description.

After a crowd of eager students from surrounding HBCUs that make up the Atlanta University Center Consortium, including Spelman College, Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, were able to screen the 20-minute film, Williams took to the stage alongside James Whitner, the founder of The Whitaker Group, for a conversation centered on the intersection of fashion, music and the future of the industry, moderated by Aria Hughes, the editor-in-chief of Complex.

“I don’t know what I would be without the different platforms I’ve been able to operate in artistically because they’re all means of expression. They’re all different centers of opportunity for you to express yourself,” Williams, who admitted he was humbled to be sharing space with the crowd, said. “Whether it’s music or fashion or content, and it continues to go on and on, but the idea that we get to express ourselves is amazing.”

He added, “But then the concept that you can, like, put the machinery behind your ideas and your desires and your ways of expressing yourself and generate a living is the greatest gift ever. You know, when kids ask me for advice, it’s usually the first thing I’m trying to tell them, like, man, I know your parents are telling you one thing, but it would be nice if you could try to find the vocation connected to something that you love so much that you would do it for free because if so, you’d never work a day in your life. And if that’s a vocation that could service other people, well, then you have the universal job that pays you for just waking up every day and doing what you love to do.”

When asked about the collaboration process with Moses, Williams said he continues to follow the example of Def Jam Recordings co-founder and producer Rick Rubin.

“I’m a different kind of collaborator,” he explained. “I’m a producer, but Rick Rubin has said this before that he’s a reducer, and I agree with that. I reduce myself in the room when I’m with the talent because I want the talent to be the talent. My job is to be a mirror for their blind spots and show them things they’ve never seen before or that they’ve overlooked different parts of their voices or different parts of the way they write in terms of perspective and angle. That’s my job.”

“My job is to say, hey, you know, for example, Beyoncé, hey, you never really … that’s not a good one because she really uses all parts of her voice, but I’m just imagining someone who only sings in one space and never explores the rest of their voice,” he continued. “My job is to say, ‘Hey, try that. I know it feels uncomfortable. Let’s work on that a little bit.’ And if so, let’s squeeze a record out in this direction.”

Williams is okay with taking a step back to help whomever he’s working with shine the light that resides within them at a level that they never have before. In this case, he took the same approach with Moses as well as long-time friend and collaborator Pusha T, who is featured on the riveting track “Mike Tyson Blow to the Face,” which is included in the ADIDAS score alongside other original songs by Williams titled “Snowglobe” and “All Day I Dream About Sport.”

“My job is to hold up the mirror, and then when you find strength in yourself, in terms of confidence, to approach your craft in a unique way that you’ve not done before and is more successful than the one you know,” the “Happy” crooner said. “That’s why when you think of André 3000, he’s so great because he had it in him to try things when other people wouldn’t. He would bring his hood, Blackness and unique experience on this planet with him in a verse, but just attack it in so many different ways. Not everybody wakes up in the morning and any verse he does is going to be amazing — not everybody can do that. Some people really need producers to do that, and that’s where I belong, if that makes sense.”

Similar to Williams’ approach to collaboration and working together, Whitner’s space in the fashion world is rooted in community.

In 2005, Whitner launched his first fashion and sneaker boutique in Charlotte, North Carolina. Since then, the company has evolved into a network of more than 26 stores and spaces across 13 cities, with a new brick-and-mortar coming to Atlanta soon. Whitner has found a way to integrate luxury retail with cultural storytelling and social impact.

“It’s at the center, because if we’re not at the center of our own narrative, how can we expect to be at the center of everybody else’s narrative? So it has to be at the heart of everything we do,” Whitner said of cultivating spaces with a foundation that is built on community. “It’s the most important thing that we do.”