Watch Pharrell Williams’ surprised response to listening to Maggie Rogers’ music in a 2106 NYU critique session: “It is like when the Wu Tang Clan got here out.”

In 2016, Pharrell Williams visited an NYU music class to critique scholar songs. When then-student Maggie Rogers had her flip, Williams sat and listened in surprised silence. When the music was over, he stated, “I’ve zero, zero, zero notes for that. And I will inform you why. It is since you’re doing your individual factor. It is singular. It is like when the Wu Tang Clan got here out, like nobody might actually choose it. You both favored it otherwise you did not, however you could not evaluate it to anything.”

A 12 months later, The Guardian described the encounter:

After insisting that it wants “a pair extra hours mixing and mastering”, Rogers performs Williams the results of her homework project – Alaska. The music, even to ears not as professional as Pharrell’s, is instantly placing. Its expertly crafted layers – an elastic, melodic beat, syncopated faucets and clicks, and the murmured pattern of a spoken voice – sit for a second earlier than the melody publicizes itself. “I used to be strolling by icy streams that took my breath away,” she sings, the people beginnings she outlined to Williams a number of moments earlier instantly evident, “… and I walked off you. And I walked off an outdated me.” Williams’s eyes widen, his mouth opens, and he glances over at her with an expression someplace between confused and astounded. “I’ve zero, zero, zero notes for that,” he says lastly. “I’ve by no means heard anybody such as you earlier than, and I’ve by no means heard anybody that feels like that.” The video went viral, and a report deal quickly adopted.

The Guardian additionally describes how Maggie Rogers’ profession took off after this encounter

When she met Williams, Rogers had solely simply emerged from two-and-a-half years of inventive stagnation. Throughout that interval, she did not write a single music. “I simply did not actually know who I used to be,” she says, “so I did not actually know what I seemed like. And so I did loads of writing, and I studied overseas and I fell in love, and like … I obtained to be like every other school scholar. It was type of good to simply not know for a short while.” It’s fortunate the inventive drought ended when it did, every week earlier than the masterclass, with Alaska tumbling out of her “in about quarter-hour”. If it hadn’t, the 12 months that adopted would have regarded very completely different. Prior to now 10 months, Rogers has graduated from school, signed with a serious label, launched an EP, performed her first competition, made her stay TV debut on The Tonight Present, and toured the US and Europe. She’s been in London for a number of days to play two sold-out membership reveals at Omeara, and when she is completed with this interview, she’s going to fly to Amsterdam. It has been unimaginable, she says, however she’s needed to study fairly quick find out how to put her foot down.

What a deal with to look at this alternate. The remainder, as they are saying, is historical past—Maggie Williams has, since that fateful day, gone on to have a terrific profession, creating two studio albums and 4 EPs, with loads extra to come back.