Man of the moment in terms of music production Pharrell Williams made what is widely viewed as a veiled comment on the situation in Ferguson, Missouri on Tuesday night’s American version of The Voice after a grand jury verdict on Monday exonerated Officer Darren Wilson. But the singer/producer was altogether less reticent in an earlier interview.
During his performance of the song Louis Armstrong made his own, What A Wonderful World, Pharrell replaced one line with “we need justice to unfurl”, which the Twittersphere jumped on immediately with comments like “I saw what you did there, @pharrell” and “@Pharrell weaving in a pointed lyric (“We need justice to unfurl”) during “What a Wonderful World” perf on @NBCTheVoice.”
In a long interview for Ebony magazine, Williams wondered why there wasn’t more discussion about why Michael Brown exhibited the behaviour he did in the convenience store, which the star described as “bullyish.”
“It looked very bullyish; that in itself I had a problem with,” Williams said, referring to released surveillance video that allegedly shows Brown forcefully stealing cigarillos from a store shortly before he was fatally shot by Officer Wilson. He went on to clarify: “Not with the kid, but with whatever happened in his life for him to arrive at a place where that behaviour is OK. Why aren’t we talking about that?”
However, Pharrell did say that Wilson should have been held accountable for shooting Brown. “I believe that [the] Ferguson officer should be punished and serve time. He used excessive force on a human being who was merely a child. He was a baby, man. The boy was walking in the middle of the street when the police supposedly told him to ‘get the f–k on the sidewalk.
“If you don’t listen to that, after just having pushed a storeowner, you’re asking for trouble. But you’re not asking to be killed. Some of these youth feel hunted and preyed upon, and that’s why that officer needs to be punished.”
The songwriter also blasted police departments’ use of force in the inner city, questioning their use of equipment—such as “mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles.” He also lamented the fact that President Barack Obama himself has not made an appearance in Ferguson.
“I felt like the president should have gone down there. I think sending Attorney General Eric Holder was a kind gesture, but the president should have gone. He didn’t have to go and take a side; all he needed to do was show his presence and everybody would have straightened up. But he didn’t go. I won’t fault him. He’s a man with a lot of weight on his shoulders, but I personally would have gone because being a ‘man of the people’ means you’re right there with them in it,” Williams said, citing the examples of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi.
