N.E.R.D

Released: March 23, 2004

Songwriter: Pharrell Williams Chad Hugo

Producer: The Neptunes

[Hook]
Drill sergeant I don't work for you
I'm not going to war (I'm not going to war)
I'm a cashier wielding books
I work at the Barnes & Noble store (Barnes & Noble store!)
You must think you're Orson Welles and this is 1954
You don't understand liberty until
Someone speaks for yours (someone speaks for yours)

[Verse 1: Pharrell]
Shame on you
Singing 'serve your country' while I'm young
Shame on you
Mixing my mind up, handing me guns
Bye bye mom and dad and all
Just in case there is failure
I could be blaming you
But I got something to tell ya

[Hook]
Drill sergeant I don't work for you
I'm not going to war (I'm not going to war)
I'm a cashier wielding books
I work at the Barnes & Noble store (Barnes & Noble store!)
You must think you're Orson Welles and this is 1954
You don't understand liberty until
Someone speaks for yours (someone speaks for yours)

[Verse 2: Pharrell]
Aim on you
Level their buildings, destroy their soil
Aim on you
Did you finally figure where to run that oil, fuck it
Why cry if man should die?
When there's probable failure or
I could just aim on you
But I got something to tell ya

[Hook]
Drill sergeant I don't work for you
I'm not going to war (I'm not going to war)
I'm a cashier wielding books
I work at the Barnes & Noble store (Barnes & Noble store!)
You must think you're Orson Welles and this is 1954
You don't understand liberty until
Someone speaks for yours (someone speaks for yours)

[Bridge]
Maybe there's another way
That we can bond, bond, bond, bond, bond, bond, bond, bond, bond
Maybe there's another way
That we can bond, bond, bond, bond, bond, bond, bond, bond, bond
Maybe there's another way
That we can bond, bond, bond, bond, bond, bond, bond, bond, bond
Maybe there's another way
That we can bond, bond, bond, bond, bond, bond, bond, bond, bond

[Hook]
Drill sergeant I don't work for you
I'm not going to war (I'm not going to war)
I'm a cashier wielding books
I work at the Barnes & Noble store (Barnes & Noble store!)
You must think you're Orson Welles and this is 1954
You don't understand Liberty until
Someone speaks for yours (someone speaks for yours)

[Outro]
I'm not going to war...

N.E.R.D. (officially stylized as NER*D, as seen on their covers) is a backronym that stands for No-One Ever Really Dies.

N.E.R.D. is a hip-hop and rock band whose members include Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, also known as The Neptunes, and Shae Haley. The band was formed as a side project by the Neptunes in 1999. Williams and Hugo had known each other since 1985 when they were 12, and they met Shae Haley a few years later in high school. Hugo and Williams signed a deal when they graduated high school in 1992 and eventually, Hailey joined them when N.E.R.D. was formed.

In September 2001 the band released their first album, In Search Of in Europe. They used digital production for the project but when they prepared for the worldwide release a year later they opted to re-record the album with a live funk rock band known as Spymob. Two years later in March of 2004, they released their second album, Fly or Die. Unfortunately, the two albums didn’t have nearly as much success as The Neptunes production work—collectively the two albums barely broke a million copies sold. In 2005 the group supposedly disbanded because of a dispute with Virgin Records, but Pharrell contradicted this claim in an April 2008

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