During the Pharrell Williams set at Odd Future's Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival in Los Angeles last night (Nov. 8), Chad Hugo and Shay Haley joined the "Happy" singer onstage, reuniting the rock/hip-hop trio N.E.R.D. for the first time in awhile.
The group performed "Rock Star" from their 2001 debut album In Search Of ... to a crowd of enthusiastic fans, Pitchfork notes. Odd Future's Tyler, The Creator had a fanboy moment when the trio hit the stage, tweeting "full tears when they came out." He wasn't joking either. You can see the rapper in the video below holding his head in disbelief in the front row of the audience.
N.E.R.D.'s last album, Nothing, peaked at 21 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and climbed to number 5 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums list. Reviews of the album were mixed. "So the fact that Nothing, their fourth album, is a parade of deliriously bad ideas-- terrible ones realized with fervent conviction, half-promising ones botched by disastrous execution-- shouldn't even really be held against it," Pitchfork wrote. "That's sort of a N.E.R.D. album's reason for existing."
In September, Haley joined Pharrell onstage in London and the pair hinted at a new N.E.R.D. album.
"It feels good to be back in London. When we released our first album back in 2001 and first crossed the Atlantic, this was the first place to embrace us," Haley said. "You're gonna like this sh*t we're gonna release..."
Last year, Pharrell also made it clear that he was still committed to making music with his band. "N.E.R.D. is the special thing. You don't just throw that [new music] out there. You take your time and you get it right," he told BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat
