The Neptunes Productions

If you're even thinking of sparking our club-clobbering collection of Neptunes beats, better make sure you have a solid set of speakers first. After all, we're talking about the renegades of pop, rap, and R&B here — a pair of future-shocked pioneers best-known for Gwen Stefani's bleacher-stomping breakthrough (“Hollaback Girl”), Snoop Dogg’s first chart-topping smash (the sleek keyboards and hollow-tongue clicks of “Drop It Like It’s Hot”), and the GRAMMY®-nominated solo debut of Justin Timberlake (“Like I Love You,” a pitch-perfect nod to such soul icons as Marvin Gaye and Al Green).

As for our Next Steps, they raise the curtain on a guitar-slinging alter ego (N.E.R.D.) and enough straight-up jams to keep a party going 'til dawn.

As if cashing six-figure beats weren’t enough to keep the Neptunes busy, the former skaters also indulge rock-star fantasies in N.E.R.D. That’d be the gold-certified side project responsible for the sputtering drums of “Spaz,” the tempo-shifting soul of “She Wants To Move,” and the trampoline-busting rhythms of “Lapdance.” And if you need a break from all those piston-powered grooves, we’ve also included such instant Neptunes classics as a guitar-guided *NSYNC remix (“Girlfriend”), a neo-soul duet between Common and Mary J. Blige (“Come Close”), and a Snoop Dogg-chased single from Mariah Carey’s comeback trail (“Say Somethin’).

Some of the same names change the game in our Deep Cuts as well, right next to everyone from Ciara to Cee-Lo.

While our Deep Cuts usually involves a quick retreat underground, the Neptunes have a hard time writing anything but hits. In fact, they’ve written so many floor-fillers over the past couple decades that quite a few career highlights have gotten lost in the stacks. Songs like “In My Head,” a rocksteady No Doubt tune that’s driven by nothing but spare blips and beeps. And then there's the beehive hooks of “Bossman,” the laser-canon chords of “Light Your Ass On Fire,” and a couple of demented moments behind the boards for Ol’ Dirty Bastard (“Recognize,” “Cold Blooded”). Those’ll leave your head spinning and your feet moving.

As talented as today's beat conductors are, only three can lay claim to the title of super-producer — Dr. Dre, Timbaland, and the Neptunes. As you're about to hear, that last one's got a sound so distinct you know it's them every time you hear them, as the Virginia natives whip up a future-shocked world where basslines detonate dance floors like smart bombs and synth lines swoop in like a flock of wild-eyed bald eagles. And that’s just the duo's certified banger side, a stereo-pounding pop, rap, and R&B playlist that includes such minimalist masterpieces as “Milkshake,” “Grindin’,” and “Southern Hospitality.” Elsewhere, Chad Hugo and Pharrell Willams lead the rap-rock charge of N.E.R.D. and bring our pulse rate down alongside LL Cool J (“Luv U Better”), Kanye West (“Number One”), and enough A-listers to fill the front row at the GRAMMY® Awards ceremony.