N.E.R.D. which is an acronym stands for “No One Ever Really Dies” and definitely not “nerd” took the stage with fire and fury, first hyped by a blunt waving youtuber extolling the audience with “EYES CURED” later flashing on the screen.

The video cued the audience that this wasn’t the Pharrell Williams of “Get Happy” fame, but a darker, cynical side of the acclaimed music producer juiced by by Black Lives Matter themes.Programming N.E.R.D. to headline tonight is a serious shift for festival organizers who also booked Kendrick Lamar for Saturday night. This shows the new power hip-hop has over the pop music charts, and never mind Post-Malone was also headlining the White Stage.

So here we are, already stunned by the intro video and now the whole N.E.R.D crew storm the stage for “Anti-matter” with Pharrell and hype man Shae Haley flanked by a dozen back up dancers. It’s harder than expected and definitely not the funk band of old as live-mixed background visuals show exploding volcanoes, alien space ships and dinosaurs. It all appears to be live video mixing on three screens aid by slim on-stage columns lights.

Despite professing great love for Japan and calling it a second home, Pharrell was in full confrontation mood, and it wasn’t just follow up songs “Kill Joy” and “Deep Down Body Thurst”, but at least three times in the set where he implored the audience to make a circle pit and threatening to with hold music unless twenty people were crowd surfing.

And then there was a Neptunes medley which included samples from “Drop it Like It’s Hot” and “Alright” and then going around the world like Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” and even Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky”.

Alot of hip-hop uses backing tracks now relying on performers to be basically hype men, and sing crucial parts of song such as chorus, or final three words of a lyric. Pharrell definitely did this and wasn’t shy about it. He admitted to suffering from a sore throat before the show, and what he missed vocally, he more than made up for through his aerobic dance routing.

For Pharrell he’s definitely got something to prove as the long delay in N.E.R.D. recording and touring is over, and he’s now coming for hip-hop royalty like Jay-Z, Lamar, and Kayne. Pharrell has already proven he has the chops such as with breakout “Rockstar” complete with a video of a gold plated Big Mac meal spinning, and he’s hoping his double dose of “Lemon” at the end will keep him in the conversation.