Robin Thicke has been making music for over 20 years, but "Blurred Lines" is his first certified smash-- and he couldn't be happier about it. Thicke stopped by Power 105's The Breakfast Club to speak about his newfound success, the controversy around the single, Pharrell's hand in writing it, and working with 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar.
The x-rated video and creepy lyrics of the song have been deemed "rapey" by some critics, a point which Thicke contested. "That came out after it was already number one in a bunch of places," he said. "The funny thing is that the video that everyone says is 'bad' has been seen by 3 million people. The video that no one is talking about has been seen by 110 million people," Thicke explained.
"The effect that the 'naked' version is having isn't really what the whole feeling is about," said Robin, going on to defend the lyrics as well. "The song says 'that man is not your maker,' we're talking about a woman being as powerful as a man at all times. They don't need a man to define them."
The singer also spoke of the songwriting process for "Blurred Lines," which he credited almost solely to Pharrell. "It's got that old school feel, but it still feels fresh and young. I gotta give all that credit to Pharrell. As you know I usually write and produce almost all my own music, but being in the studio with Pharrell, I really stepped back." he explained. "He came up with the “Hey Hey Hey” and the best lines in this song like “you're the hottest chick in this place”. Mad love and props to Pharrell. He's a songwriting genius, and I'm getting all the credit for his greatness right now [laughs].”
Thicke also described himself as a huge rap fan, which is what lead him to work with Kendrick Lamar and 2 Chainz on the album. "I'm a hip hop head, I had memorized all of Rakim's albums when I was a kid, I know all of Biggie's records.... Leaders of The New School, Tribe Called Quest."
Robin noted that the fact that both 2 Chainz and Kendrick ended up on the record was by chance. "I didn't even get to meet Kendrick when we did the record together. We sent the record to Kendrick, we heard he really loved it, but he was on tour, he didn't cut it right away. So then I sent it to 2 Chainz, he does his rap, and then a week later I get an email with 'here's Kendrick's verse.”
"And Kendrick murdered it!" Robin exclaimed, revealing how they were able to work both verses onto the album. "The label-- because Kendrick and I are on the same label --wanted to go with the Kendrick version for the single because it was too long. So we went with Kendrick on the single and then 2 Chainz on the remix."
On Tity 2 Necklace's latest declaration of charging 100k a verse, Thicke responded smugly with, "Well I'm sure he deserves every penny of it."
Watch the full interview below.