DETROIT, MI  [Wednesday Mar.17.2004]  /WMQT.com/ -- Gwen Stefani's solo album has gotten a lot of help from top talent. Her collaborators include Outkast, Missy Elliott, Rancid's Tim Armstrong, and Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of the Neptunes and N.E.R.D. Except Pharrell and Chad says their contributions will fall under neither band name, in fact, they'll just be Pharrell and Chad, artists.

"It's not the name, it's the music [that matters]," explained Pharrell. "You appreciate the respect you get from the name and the connotation behind the name, but where did the connotation come from? The music. And that's what's most important to us. That's why 'the Neptunes' didn't work with Gwen Stefani. Pharrell and Chad did. But under some other pretenses? I don't know. It was definitely all about the exploration of sound, though. The exploration of sound. The exploration of sound."

As well as the exploration of repetitive sound, we notice. The first single from Gwen's solo album will be released this summer.

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