2024 has shaped up to be a remarkable year for Snoop Dogg, who has gone from inspiring global memes during the Paris Summer Olympics to appearing as a judge on Season 26 of The Voice. Now, he is making waves with a memorable segment in Focus Features’ animated biopic, Piece By Piece, which tells the story of artist Pharrell Williams.
Morgan Neville, the Academy Award-winning director, recently discussed this amusing and cleverly crafted scene with NBC Insider. This moment portrays the day when Snoop Dogg and his entourage arrived at Pharrell’s studio, setting the stage for a historic collaboration in music.
During the early 2000s, Pharrell Williams and his collaborator Chad Hugo, known as the Neptunes, were instrumental in shaping hits for major artists including Gwen Stefani and Jay-Z. In a pivotal moment captured in Piece By Piece, Snoop Dogg reached out to the Neptunes in 2004 to help him explore new musical styles. Together, they created the iconic mouth click percussion loop and co-wrote “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” one of Snoop’s most successful tracks.
This pivotal moment in Pharrell’s career stands out in the film. Neville and his team navigated the more adult themes associated with Snoop Dogg’s persona by incorporating a visual gag to maintain a family-friendly tone. As the “smoke” surrounding Snoop and his crew fills the studio, LEGO versions of Pharrell and Chad use a humorous PG spray to keep the environment appropriate.
Reflecting on the creativity behind this scene, Neville noted that it successfully addressed several objectives for the film. He explained, “With animation, you can time travel in a way. I could take the stems to ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’ and hear Pharrell creating these sounds, making it feel like you’re in the booth with him during that moment of creation.”
He also shared a light-hearted moment regarding the film’s R rating dilemma, stating, “One thing I agreed on at the very beginning when we made this film was that we weren’t going to make an R-rated film. So, we had the smoke problem… and finally, we came up with the idea of giving them a can of PG spray, which became one of my favorite little jokes in the film.”
Piece By Piece is currently playing in theaters.