In March, Pharrell hosted a masterclass for students at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He was there to offer constructive criticism to budding recording artists, but for one student, named Maggie Rogers, he had nothing but praise. And, OK, a reservoir of tears. You can skip to the clip around the 18:23 mark.
Let’s enjoy the various stages of Pharrell’s face as he first registers total disbelief, then the raw emotional power of Maggie’s music:
Wait for it.
Wait for it.
Aaand, tears.
“I have zero, zero, zero notes for that,” he said, as an astonished Maggie looks on. “You’re doing your own thing. It’s singular.” He then compared her music to that of Wu-Tang Clan (“You either liked it, or you didn’t, but you couldn’t compare it to anything else”), a line of praise that Maggie will hopefully repeat to herself whenever she feels down.
I don’t know what it is about Pharrell, but when he cries, I cry. Interestingly, John Boehner never had that effect on me.
(h/t digg)