Pharrell to Host Yellow Ball Charity Gala With Performance by Missy Elliott
As his celebrity looms larger and larger, Pharrell has increasingly put his focus on giving back, finding new ways to help people through his influence. His latest foray is the Yellow Ball, a gala taking place on September 10 at the Brooklyn Museum. The event is designed to benefit the Young Audiences Arts for Learning, a company that fights for arts in education. He announced the info surrounding the gala today (Aug. 8) to Billboard.
The night will also feature multiple musical performances, with fellow Virginia legend Missy Elliott confirmed to touch the stage. Art and fine dining will also be a part of the experience.
In the interview, Pharrell expressed his motivation for the event. "Art is largely diminishing throughout the curriculum throughout this country, and we need to protect the creative mind," he said. "Everything around you right now versus everything you're using, it's just not organic, it was someone’s epiphany. That's creativity, that needs to be protected. If we don't have that, I don't know what kind of future we have. We have to protect the artist community at all costs, across all artistic disciplines."
As an artist who has never shied away from working with the younger generation, P spoke on what he admires about the newer artists out there. "I love what they do and how they express themselves. It's like these amazing pockets of lyrics or melodies that feel good to them," he explained. "The music just takes on a direction of its own, it's not so formatted. I love that this generation is just grabbing the instruments and using them in whatever way feels good to them. That's just like a sign of how the times have changed."
Pharrell has his hands in a lot of different areas nowadays, including fashion and footwear. His Adidas NMD Hu Solar Pack will drop later this month; he also previewed an entirely new sneaker with Three Stripes that isn't out yet. This all comes after debuting a N.E.R.D. logo-emblazoned version of the Adidas NMD Hu in June. Busy man.
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