A few days ago, Pharrell Williams' 2019 edition of Something In The Water went down in Virgina Beach, with performances from Pusha T, Travis Scott, SZA, Migos, Lil Uzi Vert, J Balvin, Missy Elliott, Jhene Aiko and more. Going down as another one for the books, Skateboard P recently sat down with "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King for a deep dive into the festival's origins and ultimate raison d'etre.
"I feel like there's just been so much, like, divisiveness in the air," Williams explains. "In our country. The spirit of division … We have to come together and not only celebrate our differences, but recognize that, you know, through celebrating each other we can do great things." He also cites a desire to inspire those of all inclinations, from creatives, to business-types, to creative business-types.
"'Cause we have a lot of CEOs, CMOs, CBOs, CCOs flying down here to look around to see what's going on and see the incredible opportunity here. For them, listen, we have wanted, as an area, the NCAA championship to come here," he reveals. "And we've not gotten that opportunity yet. But who wins the NCAA this year? UVA. So for us, it's like this is what we're doing this for. We just want to raise the awareness that, like, Virginia is here and we are open for business."
"We're like a cul-de-sac in the middle of the East Coast of America," Williams explains. "And we've had our people, but we've never really congregated in a way where it – you just see us as a unit. So we had the ambition to do things differently. You know Timbaland as he makes music, he makes it very differently. I mean, look and listen to Missy Elliott, you know? She's very different. We celebrate our differences. So we just wanted the opportunity to do that here and have music be the thread but not the entire fabric."
For more from Pharrell Williams, check out the original source of the interview right here, via CBS.
