The Sad Death Of The Neptunes (Star Trak Entertainment)

before Fel Williams was the fashion icon

that was appointed by Louis Vuitton to

become their creative director or the

extremely wealthy businessman who's had

tons of massive deals or an

award-winning musician and artist Fel

was half of the production duo The

Neptunes with his buddy Chad Hugo from

their hometown of Virginia Beach

Virginia while entering a local talent

contest in 1992 as the Neptunes verell

and Chad were discovered by New York

City producer Teddy Riley who had

relocated to Virginia and had his Studio

situated near forel's high school with

Teddy Riley taking the duo under his

wing The Neptunes wrote the 1992 Mega

hit Rump Shaker for Rex and effects

while they were still high school

students they also worked with Teddy

Riley's group black street to co-write

the single tonight's the night by the

time farell and Chad Hugo started their

own label Star Trek entertainment with

their business partner Rob Walker the

year was 2001 as the Neptunes they were

in high demand as the producers that

were changing the sound of the radio

making hits for Jay-Z like I just want

to love you beanie man's girls them

sugar Britney Spears I'm a slave for you

and jiss knock yourself out with their

exciting new style in fact by 2003 The

Neptunes were said to be responsible for

43% of the songs on the radio in the US

the formula tended to be customizing

their simple like futuristic Sonics to

rappers and singers across genres with

farell not shy about providing

additional vocals and Chad Hugo more

comfortable staying behind the scenes

playing off of a love for the classic

science fiction franchise Star Trek the

Star Trek record label had major label

backing from inner scope as a world

famous production unit that constructed

Club bangers and radio songs for Beyonce

Nori Justin Timberlake tii Nelly

ludicrous Robin Thick Gwen Stefani and

Snoop Dogg just to name a few The

Neptunes continued to explode in the

2000s getting called the number one

producers of the decade by billboard in

2009 considering that by January 2020

The Neptunes were announced to be

inducted into the songwriters Hall of

Fame as part of the 2020 class how did

their record label Star Trek rise in

2001 with their Virginia Beach friends

the clips the duo of Brothers malice and

push a te to the entire company being

defunct in 2014 Star Trek entertainment

first landed in front of audiences with

nerd no one ever really dies The Hip Hop

rock band that was formed by farel Chad

Hugo and their friend sheay Haley not

only did their kind of rock songs

produce a gold album in search of in

2001 but it was also the first step in

separating what farel and Chad did as

hitmakers the Neptunes it opened up

their Lane wider than rap in R&B getting

their fans ready for the wild genre

merging ride that they were going to

take them on Star Trek was ready to

bring in rock musicians and pop singers

to join the roster with lyrically

Advanced rappers from the streets like

the clips and alternative soul songs

sung by kaliss ND became the major label

version of a garage band of high school

friends making fun authentic songs it

wasn't forced down audien's ears you

were either a fan or you weren't the

first four nerd albums were released

under the Star Trek imprint but they

only happened ever so often their second

Gold album fly or die almost three years

later in 2004 then there was seeing

sound in 2008 and nothing in 2010 their

genre bending sound wasn't for everybody

but it was bold enough to build up a

niche cult fan base following Beyond The

Neptunes and bring Star Trek two of

their first five gold album plaques how

many Duos are there in hip-hop that are

not equally great in holding their own

weight on the mic but also Brothers

there really isn't other than push and

Malice also now known as no malice of

the clips growing up in Virginia Beach

they grew up working on music with farel

and Chad and became Star Trek's Flagship

group capturing the streets more than

anyone else on the label at the time

Clips was like yin and yang No Malice or

malice at the time was the wise older

brother with strong strong religious

references that can be found in their

album titles that are often derived from

Biblical scriptures like Lord willing

Hell hath no fury until the casket drops

there was even supposedly going to be

another Clips album called as God as my

witness push on the other hand was like

the wild younger brother without

discipline or restraint who seemed more

attracted to material wealth than

seeking forgiveness for his sins all

three of the clips' Star Trek albums

each had a different major label

distributor showing the level of label

politics that was interfering with the

ability to release material on a regular

basis their first album Lord willing was

distributed by Arista and was the only

project to clear enough sales to earn a

gold certification their classic Anthem

grinding tapped into their firsthand

experiences as part of a crew allegedly

tied to drug dealing it would be the

real life fears of federal arrest that

would later break up the crew and reduce

the duo clips into solo careers for the

two brothers after the clips' first Star

Trek release which was entirely produced

by The Neptunes ended its run it would

take four more years before their new

offering hell ha no fury this time with

Jive handling distribution a business

relationship that the clips would grow

to hate this is because Arista records

artists in the urban Department were

transferred to its sister label Jive as

part of a merger between Sony Music

Entertainment and BMG Clips was

contractually forced to stay with Jive

while the rest of Star Trek's roster

moved to Inner scope push and Malice

felt that jive was more focused on their

pop music acts and kept overlooking the

clips and delaying the release of hell

no fury the clips got fed up enough to

ask to be released from Jive and when

that didn't happen they sued the label

by the time they dropped their last

Clips album with Star Trek Columbia they

had broken up not because the brothers

had beef with each other it was because

the coke dealer lifestyle that they

constantly wrapped about was catching up

to them malice was so overwhelmed by the

pressure coming from a federal

investigation of his friends that he

stepped away from it all and put both

feet all the way in the church malice

explained the moment that made him leave

the music industry and the street Ties

That that he felt would either have him

in prison or

dead that story it runs deep they were

picking up all of our friends at

different times I had a friend he just

had a baby he's wheelchairing his wife

who's holding the baby while coming out

of the hospital and Bam they got him I

have another friend he's driving on the

interstate with this girl and his

daughter in the car and the police come

crash their car into his to make him

pull over they were coming for everybody

there was a whole bunch of stuff

happening we didn't know who was going

to get picked up next they were kicking

in doors and making M and wives get on

the floor it was just crazy when I was

on the plane and I didn't see my brother

get on the plane I knew what was up

because we never miss flights we were

never late we're usually calling each

other and double-checking and all that I

hadn't heard none of that I'm sitting on

the plane and at the very last minute he

comes stumbling in the door I stood up

in the middle of the aisle in front of

all those people on the plane and I told

them yo I don't know if you thought I

was joking I don't know if you thought I

was playing I'm letting you know I ain't

doing this no more eventually the

Federal investig ation gave the clips

manager Anthony Gonzalez a prison

sentence of 32 years in 2010 after

admitting he was the head of a $2

million drug ring on drug trafficking

charges but he ended up getting out a

bit

earlier the alternative soul singer

Kalise met the Neptunes through a mutual

friend at performing art school when she

was only 19 and by a year 20 she had her

debut album Kaleidoscope totally

produced by them with the followup

Wonderland K's third album Tasty

ironically became the first project from

the singer that was on the Star Trek

entertainment label and also the first

project that wasn't completely produced

by her label bosses The Neptunes a

situation that she has since said made

them unhappy it would also be the only

album kise would have on Star Trek even

with her numerous appearances for songs

by ND and the clips maybe part of kise's

resistance to having the Neptunes handle

the whole tasty album is that she has

publicly accused them of taking all her

publishing income via contract that they

had her sign and her not seeing any

royalty revenue from her first two

albums kaleidoscope and Wonderland

Kalise stated I thought it was a

beautiful and pure creating safe space

but it ended up not being that at all I

was told we were going to split the

whole thing 33 33 33 which we didn't do

blatantly lied to and tricked The

Neptunes and their management and their

lawyers and all that stuff and just the

fact that I wasn't poor felt like enough

their argument is well you signed it I'm

like yeah I signed what I was told and I

was too young and too stupid to double

check

it unfortunately another female artist

from that was also signed to Star Trek

early in her career also felt led down

by them the rapper singer Tiana Taylor

Tiana signed to Star Trek as a teenager

in parted ways with the label in 2012

with no album released heading over to

Kanye West good music instead although

Tiana Taylor has since cleared the air

with farel Williams and expressed that

there are no hard feelings held on her

end Tiana still felt disappointed by her

experience with farel during her star

track days stating I had a really really

really really deep and honest

conversation with farel because you know

you know he was the first person to sign

me he was skateboard p i was skateboard

T you cannot tell me that wasn't my Pops

I really looked up to him he didn't have

kids at the time and he wanted kids he'd

be like yo she call me her pops he was

really proud of that for me I was like

his baby twin he's not confrontational

at all he's literally one of the

sweetest people in just the whole wide

world you know what I'm saying so it

wasn't that he didn't protect me it's

just that a lot of hands started going

into the cookie jar it's p he not about

to be like no y'all back up maybe he was

hurt about some things you don't know it

could have been a thing of Pride and ego

at the time we don't know to me as a

15-year-old it was you didn't protect me

you let everyone mishandle me I signed

to you you let everybody get in the way

and everybody break us apart you didn't

protect

me in mid2 2004 Star Trek signed rap

Legends Snoop dogs company doggy style

records to a distribution deal and

released Snoop Dog album RNG Rhythm and

Gangsta the masterpiece which was led by

Drop It Like It's Hot which would be yet

another hit single for the label this

album would go platinum in the US and

put Star Trek in such a surplus that

they were able to add another season

rapper to their roster Slim Thug coming

out of Virginia it was time for Star

Trek to tap into the South especially

with Talent from Georgia Texas and

Tennessee exploding Slim Thug proved to

be the right fit a Houston rapper who

had already proved the star power having

released many mixtapes and collaborative

albums with his Boss Hog Outlaws crew

signing Slim Thug for his debut album

already Platinum proved to be a gamble

worth betting on with gold selling

results in 2005 the same year Slim Thug

was featured on Beyonce's album for her

Platinum song check on it the Slim Thug

relationship with Star Trek only ended

up being a oneandone situation same as

with Snoop Dogg but these successful

projects still really strengthen their

catalog in July of 2006 farell took a

huge step away from the familiar comfort

of the Neptune's established brand this

this marked the moment that he ventured

out on his own with his debut solo album

in my mind not only did Fel stand out in

front of the microphone as a vocalist

without Chad Hugo and sheay Haley of ner

backing him up but he also produced the

entire in My Mind album by himself

without Chad Hugo as a creative safety

net his first time tackling a full

project totally on his own unfortunately

the practically guaranteed success that

his Star Trek audio Universe had been

getting up until this point now showed

signs of wear and tear with forel's solo

project how did the captain of the Star

Trek Enterprise failed to go platinum or

even gold after giving his audience

years of getting used to his catchy

songs on the choruses of his clients

first of all none of his four singles

became hits to make matters worse three

of those four singles had aess features

and still didn't strike the jackpot can

I have it like that had Gwen Stefani

number one featured Kanye West and Snoop

Dogg hopped on that girl there's even a

slightly odd song called young girl

featuring Jay-Z where Jay raps about 11

to 19-year-old which in a post me to

movement world didn't really age that

well and definitely wouldn't have made

it out of the studio today on top of the

lagging sales the critical reviews were

pretty much mid to low with e-weekly

giving it a c a 2.5 from Rolling Stone

and a staggeringly low 3.9 out of 10

from Pitchfork no matter how confident

Fel may or may not have been back then

in 2006 after the reaction to in my mind

the fact of the matter was that Fel

Williams wouldn't release another solo

album again for 8 years which was his

much improved gold selling album girl

with the lead off single being his

Global Smash Hit happy a song that moved

over 11 million units in the us

alone there were also Five Star Trek

signings that were more reflective of

forel's and Chad's eclectic taste in

music and less commercially obvious

first off there was spy mob a four-piece

alternative pop rock band for

Minneapolis Sky mob were the live

musicians that provided backing

instrumentals for the 2002 Deb album of

farel and Chad's band ND aside from

appearing on the 2003 compilation album

by The Neptunes called clones Sky mob

only had one album pushed out by Star

Trek that same year and that was sitting

around keeping score without making

noise this would complete their time on

the label with their next two projects

released independently Sky mob still

managed to be a backing band in 2008 for

nd's third studio album seeing sounds

the second minor Star Trek Edition was

the highspeed scene a band who like sky

had a sound that had nothing to do with

the chart topping R&B and hip-hop that

the Neptunes were known for the

high-speed scene put out one album on St

track that was more in line with the

punk rock music edges that filtered into

forel's and Chad's band being described

as a subgenre known as quote power poop

a mixture of kind of cheerful Rock and

pop music similar to The Beach Boys the

high-speed scene put out their

self-titled debut album with Star Trek

in March of 2005 aside from two other

songs getting video game placements the

D Rock Z was featured in MVP baseball

2005 and all about it was placed in the

MLB 2006 there wasn't much hype around

this album the third lesser known artist

signed to Star Trek was Ken an Ethiopian

American singer songwriter in the indie

rock meets kind of Electronica a vein

Kenna actually grew up with farel

Williams and Chad Hugo in Virginia Beach

and dropped both a three song project

for promotional use called The Black

Goodbye EP in 2007 and then a full

length album titled make sure they see

my face in the same year the single say

goodbye to love gained a Grammy

nomination the album even had a feature

from Justin Timberlake but after putting

out one low selling album Kenna faded

away from Star Trek and went on to keep

working with Chad Hugo outside the

label the fourth more obscure signing on

the Neptune Star Trek label is the

Teriyaki boys a Japanese hip-hop group

from Tokyo the five member Squad

consisted of artists from different

groups including Omari and r z from rip

slime verbal from from mlow rapper wise

and terryaki boy DJ who also happened to

be the famed fashion brand owner nego of

Bape their only Star Trek album serious

Japanese had some serious American stars

there was production from the Neptunes

themselves Kanye West ad Rock from the

Beasty Boys Germaine Dupri Mark Ronson

Super Dave West and Japanese producers

toat from dlight and Cornelius but even

with all of these A-list features from

farel yay Buster Rhymes big Shawn push a

t Chris Brown and AD Rock the Teriyaki

Boys album only made most of its noise

in

Japan number five out of Star Trek's

lesser known artist with albums on the

label is Chester French two Indie pop

musicians that met each other while they

were ivy league students at Harvard in

the dining hall when they were freshmen

the group consists of David Andrew W da

and multi-instrumentalist and songwriter

Maxwell drummy who cut demo songs on

campus in their dorm's basement Studio

Chester French signed with Star Trek

after turning down offers from De Jam

good music and so so deaf and put out

their debut album love the future in

April of 2009 what was it like meeting

forel for the first time da wallik

described it by saying the first time we

met forell was in New York in the lobby

of the Four Seasons Hotel and it was

surreal I'm such a fan and always Happ

been our meeting was just a sit down we

were in the lobby of this hotel and Fel

had Star Trek at the time and so the

premise of the meeting was pretty clear

he wanted to meet us to see if we were

worthy of a record deal or something it

was a really cool meeting one thing that

stands out pretty strongly is that

farell has an incredible memory and what

he had ultimately got from us at the

time was a CD a burn CD with about 15 to

18 songs on it it was like a substantial

number of songs and when we sat down

with him he was like oh track 3 7 and 14

were my favorites and on track 14 at the

second half of the bridge was amazing he

had these savant-like details that that

he could pull out from only having

listened to the CD like once or twice

and it was sort of just like wow this

guy's a

genius even though Chester French's

album love the future didn't blow a big

with any gold or platinum certifications

the Duos brand managed to tap into this

hipster era of the late 2000s and early

2010s helping them be liked by industry

taste makers their performance

opportunities were wide open touring

with everybody from Lady Gaga and Fel to

Blink 182 and Weezer but after their

debut album their subsequent projects

were released directly through in scope

and then independently until da wallik

went to work for Spotify and Maxwell

drummy worked as an in demand musici for

artists such as Lauren Hill with none of

the Five Star Trek entertainment

signings of Sky mob the high-speed scene

Kenna Teriyaki boys and Chester French

panning out as really strong profitable

or hits they may have taken away from

the company's Financial bottom line but

taking a chance at such a wide array of

styles and genres did prove to the world

that this was an unpredictable record

label that truly represented the mission

and taste of the Neptunes to bring all

cultural backgrounds

together Robin Thick the son of actor

Allen thick from the television series

Growing Pains was signed to Star Trek in

2005 after farell expressed to Jimmy

iven that he was interested in his

talent forel's assumption would prove to

be right with Robin Thick's first album

going platinum and releasing six more

through Star Trek most of which were

gold making Robin Thick the most

successful s to the label and the only

real artist other than any Rd released

albums on Star Trek after the clips is

left after their 2009 album but in 2013

the Robin Thick song Blurred Lines would

prove to be the demise of his creative

partnership with Star Trek this massive

Diamond certified hit Blurred Lines

would become the biggest of Robin

Thick's career however it would also be

the last release on Star Trek

entertainment with a crazy extended

court case that grabbed the music

industry's undivided attention Fel

finally decided to dissolve Star Trek

entertainment in 2014 in the midst of

Blurred Lines producer farell Williams

and singer Robin th getting sued by the

family of mtown Legend Marvin Gay over a

dispute of perceived copyright

infringement due to what was thought to

be similarities between Blurred Lines

and Marvin Gay's 1977 hit got to give it

up the legal battle lasted 5 years and

sent fear throughout the music industry

because the case seemed to be setting a

dangerous precedent that artists could

be sued for being inspired by the

feeling of a song without stealing from

it directly Marvin Gay's family was

ultimately awarded a final Judgment of

close to $5 million against the primary

Riders of Blurred Lines Robin Thick and

Fel

Williams Robin Thick farel and farell

Williams Publishing Company were

required to pay the estate damages of

nearly 2.9 Million Robin Thick was also

ordered to pay more than 1.7 million and

Fel and his publishing company had to

pay

357,000 in separate Awards to Marvin

Gay's Estates and Gay's family would

also receive prejudgment interest on the

damages and 50% of the royalties from

Blurred Lines as well however forel was

doing a lot beyond the music in 2003

forel had teamed up with the Japanese

fashion designer nego who's the founder

of the lucrative Bape clothing brand

which launched Billionaire Boys Club

which fused street wear high fashion and

Hip-Hop ice cream was then added as a

subsidiary fashion label founded by Fel

with a price point more affordable than

BBC as Star Trek entertainment faded

away in 2014 Fel founded the multimedia

creative Collective I am other which

Sony Music later partnered up with

YouTube to launch the I am other channel

as part of YouTube's hundred million

plan to push original content Fel also

launched a podcast called othertone

dedicated to culture and art

conversations with co-host Scott Viner

and fam L the podcast has also hosted

events and live recordings othertone

entered into a deal with Apple radio to

Launch othertone Radio on Apple music

one which used to be called beats one

along with a long list of film

television fashion literary business and

art projects the likelihood of farel

making time in his extremely busy

schedule at this point to restart Star

Trek entertainment became even less

likely when he became a father to his

son in 2008 married his wife fashion

designer Helen in 2013 and expanded

their family with the birth of triplets

in 2017 there was also no stopping the

creative opportunities that farel went

into outside of the music industry such

as his 2017 sneaker collaboration with

Chanel and Adidas designing Footwear

that cost

€10,000 then in 2019 the Communication

Company Verizon partnered with forel to

launch a tech inspired music curriculum

for their Verizon Foundation Learning

schools working to offer free internet

access as well as Technology Solutions

and curriculum to underserved middle

schools but on Valentine's Day of 2023

Louis Vuitton made it known to the world

that farell was appointed as the luxury

fashion House's new men's creative

director filling in the position that

became vacant after the death of Virgil

ablo in 2021 forel's Louis Vuitton

clothing collection is set to be

displayed during Paris Men's Fashion

Week in 2023 forel's collection was set

to be displayed during the Paris men's

fashion week in June of 2023 and when it

was all said and done the rise of Star

Trek entertainment marks a memorable

moment in the 2000s and early

2010s that provided a colorful and very

inclusive alternative to Jay-Z's

rockefella Eminem Shady Records

Cameron's dip set 50 cents gunit and

even Birdman's cash money that and even

young money after that that paved the

way for Drake and Nikki the sound was

just far different from all of these

while still fitting into

it the decline of Star Trek was probably

inevitable when you consider just how

different Fel and Chad's Lifestyles and

priorities were as well as how long the

label had lasted up until that point