In my eyes, the duo of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, known as The Neptunes, are brilliant. Their works are solid sonically, creative, original and show an overall musicianship paralleled by very few hip-hop producers. Their Star Trak label is a solidly built foundation providing a mound of artistic resources. They have the street credible The Clipse; 4-man rock group Spymob; legendary dancehall artist Super Cat; female R&B singer Vanessa Marquez; a solo male rapper Rosco P. Coldchain and as if that lineup weren't diverse enough, they've added female rapper/R&B'er Kelis.

Clones is an impressive collage of representative Neptunes produced works. The trend seems to be that no matter whom The Neptunes work with, they always yield hotness. For example, when some were saying that Busta Rhymes was losing clout, suddenly he's been reborn with hot Neptune produced joints like 'Light Your Ass on Fire.'

The simple Rosco P. Coldchain song 'Hot' is one of my favorites, as its monotone chorus is brilliant. Fam-Lay's hit single, 'Rock N Roll' features one of the album's hottest beats and had me reminiscing on the creativity seen in The Clipse's 'Grindin'. N.E.R.D.'s 'Loser' provides a funky fusion of rock and hip-hop. And damn I've been saying 'Hot Damn' an awful lot lately. The album's weakest track is by far Nelly's 'If.' Yes, even O.D.B. aka Dirt McGirt outshines Nelly with his 'Pop Shit'.

As much as I'd like to hate The Neptunes for having gained so much mainstream success so quickly, I can't. Clones yields some hot gems, but falls short overall. Regardless, the sheer brilliance exuberated within The Neptunes' diverse works leaves them without a trademark sound, making for beats fresher than a Glade plug in.

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