Pharrell Williams

Pharrell Lanscilo Williams is a musician, record producer, fashion designer, and entrepreneur born and raised in Virginia Beach, whose work has made him one of the most consequential figures ever to emerge from the city's Hampton Roads region. Born on April 5, 1973, he is the eldest of three sons of teacher Carolyn and handyman Pharoah Williams. From his early years in the Atlantis Apartments housing complex to his later role as a driving force behind some of the most ambitious redevelopment projects in Virginia Beach's history, Williams has remained deeply connected to the city that shaped him — and has channeled that connection into music, philanthropy, and urban development on a scale few artists attempt. He has won 13 Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year in 2004, 2014, and 2019.

Early Life in Virginia Beach

Much of Williams's early story is told through his childhood home in Atlantis Apartments in Seatack, where he established his love for music at a very young age. The address where Williams grew up, 1021 Atlantis, became well known through a 2005 Dateline report, and the surrounding neighborhood — where gunshots, drugs, and violence were common — formed the backdrop of his formative years. Despite those circumstances, Williams found an outlet in music early on. He used music as a getaway vehicle, and after entering a gifted program with other musically inclined outsiders, his family eventually moved to the predominantly white suburb of Windsor Woods, where new worlds opened for him.

The pivotal moment came when Williams attended a summer music camp at age 12, where he befriended a talented keyboardist and DJ named Chad Hugo. The two met at a summer camp for the school of the Gifted and Talented in Virginia Beach, where Williams played drums and Hugo played tenor saxophone. The duo would go on to become one of the most successful production teams in the history of popular music. Virginia Beach's unusually dense concentration of musical talent in those years also gave Williams close proximity to other future stars: Chad and Pharrell hung out with Pusha T and his brother Malice when the aspiring rappers attended Salem High School, where Timbaland was also a classmate.

Williams and Hugo named themselves the Neptunes as an homage to a city known for its annual Neptune festival and a gigantic statue of King Neptune that loomed over the ocean.

Princess Anne High School and Musical Discovery

Williams attended Princess Anne High School, graduating in the class of 1992, and remained a member of the school's marching band. While in high school, he and his Virginia Beach buddy and production partner Chad Hugo, collectively known as the Neptunes, were discovered by urban-pop producer Teddy Riley. They entered a high school talent show where they were discovered by Riley, whose studio was next to Princess Anne High School. Williams has spoken warmly of that period on multiple occasions. When he returned to the school in 2014, he told the assembled crowd: "My teachers here kept telling me I could. They didn't give up on me," said Williams, who was a member of the marching band.

Upon entering a local talent contest in 1991, the Neptunes were competing alongside childhood friends Missy Elliott, Timbaland, and Magoo, which led to the duo being discovered by record producer Teddy Riley, whose studio was close to Williams' school. Through working with Riley, Williams wrote Wreckx-n-Effect's 1992 song "Rump Shaker" while still in school. That early co-write on a major single marked the beginning of a production career that would reshape popular music across multiple genres.

The connection between Williams and Princess Anne High School has never faded. Virginia Beach state leaders proclaimed June 7 Pharrell Williams Day, and Mayor Sessoms presented Williams with the keys to the city. In 2019, ahead of the inaugural Something in the Water festival, Williams made a pit stop at his old stomping grounds to watch beach marching bands compete, and spoke to the crowd, describing his past in Virginia Beach and how much school staff inspired him with his music.

Career and the Virginia Beach Sound

Williams became known as one half of the music production duo The Neptunes, which he established alongside Chad Hugo in 1992. Fifteen of their productions peaked within the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, including four songs that reached number one. The pair's Virginia Beach upbringing infused their aesthetic in notable ways. In Virginia Beach, they soaked up hip-hop, 1970s rock, punk, and everything else in their parents' and neighbors' record collections, and by the early 1990s, they were performing around town.

Williams and Hugo also formed the rock and hip-hop band N.E.R.D. with Shay Haley in 1999, for which Williams served as lead vocalist. Williams co-founded the record label Star Trak Entertainment with Hugo in 2001, as an imprint of Arista Records. The Neptunes produced an era-defining string of hits: they produced Mystikal's single "Shake Ya Ass" (2000), Jay-Z's single "I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)" (2000), and Nelly's single "Hot in Herre" (2002). They also produced the Britney Spears songs "I'm a Slave 4 U" and "Boys" for her third studio album, Britney (2001).

As a solo artist, Williams is a two-time Academy Award nominee: in 2014 for Best Original Song for "Happy," and in 2017 for Best Picture as a producer of Hidden Figures. He has served as Men's Creative Director for Louis Vuitton since 2023.

Williams's Virginia Beach roots have been memorialized on screen. Princess Anne alumnus Pharrell Williams brought Virginia Beach and Princess Anne High School to movie screens across the country in his biopic Piece By Piece, ensuring the city would be remembered as a creative area bursting with musical talent. The film opens with sights of the beach, moving to the Oceanfront, boardwalk, and King Neptune's statue — all rendered in Lego — while Williams' love of skating is shown originating at Mount Trashmore's skatepark.

Something in the Water Festival

In March 2019, Williams and the city of Virginia Beach announced the launch of a three-day music and cultural festival titled Something in the Water, to be held during College Beach Weekend, April 26–28, on the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. The festival lineup included Travis Scott, Migos, Janelle Monáe, SZA, Rosalía, Anderson .Paak, Jhené Aiko, Mac DeMarco, Maggie Rogers, Lil Uzi Vert, Missy Elliott, Pusha T, Dave Matthews Band, and DRAM. Despite a weather cancellation on the first day, the event was a landmark for the city economically: it brought $22.8 million to the city, with $14.5 million of that going directly to businesses.

The festival was meant to take place for the second time in April 2020, but was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Further disruption came in March 2021, when Williams' cousin, Donovan Lynch, was shot and killed by a law enforcement officer who worked for the Virginia Beach Police Department. Lynch was 25 years old. As a result, Williams alleged that Virginia Beach was run by "toxic energy" and moved the festival to Washington, D.C.

The inaugural Something in the Water had taken place in Virginia Beach in 2019. After the pandemic postponed the fest for two years, it resurfaced in the Nation's Capital in 2022 due to the feud between Williams and Virginia Beach officials. By November 2022, the two sides had reconciled sufficiently for Williams to announce a return. The 2023 festival featured a lineup that included Lil Wayne, Lil Uzi Vert, and Kid Cudi. Unfortunately, the 2023 festival was one of the worst, weather-wise; programming on the first day experienced a five-hour delay due to rain, and the festival's last day was canceled altogether.

The festival's relationship with the city again became complicated in 2024. Williams announced that Something in the Water 2024 "just isn't ready yet," shocking city planners and Mayor Bobby Dyer, who stated: "I have a problem when a partner of ours fails to communicate and makes a unilateral decision that gives our city a black eye." Following that blindside, Virginia Beach's City Council drafted a contract with the event that would give the city more power in planning Something in the Water, and Dyer stated he would recommend the festival be canceled if Williams and his team did not sign it. Virginia Beach officials ultimately announced the cancellation of the festival for 2025.

Development Projects and Philanthropy

Beyond music, Williams has pursued major development and educational initiatives tied directly to Virginia Beach and the surrounding Hampton Roads region. The most significant is Atlantic Park, a project for which Virginia Beach issued $189 million in municipal bonds, with the $350 million development set to feature a surf park, entertainment venue, residences, offices, retail space, and restaurants. Atlantic Park, opening in summer 2025, will introduce the USA's first Wavegarden Cove, set on the 10.35-acre site of the former Virginia Beach Dome and including a live entertainment venue, modern offices, residences, and unique shopping and dining options.

Williams has spoken about the personal significance of the site. He said of the project: "In a way, this project started when I was a kid. When I was riding to work with my grandmother, I was always intrigued by the futuristic facade of the Dome building. It made my young imagination run wild. Today I have the opportunity to bring the Dome back to life in a way that's so inspiring." The Atlantic Park development is projected to be the biggest public-private partnership in the city's history.

On the educational front, Williams established the nonprofit YELLOW, which has pursued a range of youth-focused programs in Hampton Roads. Williams launched the YELLOWHAB initiative from his non-profit YELLOW, described as a "micro-school" offering a more personalized and hands-on approach to traditional learning. Williams expanded the education arm of YELLOW to include private schools aimed at serving low-income students in his hometown of Virginia, opening the first school in Norfolk's Ghent neighborhood, close to his Virginia Beach hometown. The school's curriculum carries a heavy emphasis on STEAM — science, technology, engineering, art, and math — with collaboration and hands-on learning emphasized throughout.

The impact of Williams's investment in the region has been noted widely by local observers. From Something in the Water and other multi-million-dollar developments to the non-profit YELLOW, the Grammy Award winner has been on track to make a lasting impact, creating economic impact through development projects and non-profits in the area. As one local figure told 13News Now: "He's been able to plow the ground and help it become more fertile to help take not only the city of Virginia Beach to the next 60 years but take Hampton Roads to the future."