Pharrell Williams

Pharrell picks up Global Impact Award, wonders if America still means its promises

Pharrell Williams, honored alongside Brandy and Kirk Franklin at the Recording Academy’s Black Music Collective event, accepts the Dr. Dre Global Impact Award with a nod to music’s open-ended vitality and Black genres as genre originators. Justin Timberlake salutes Williams as a life-shaping mentor, while Tyler, The Creator calls him his “North Star.”

Williams closes with a blunt plea to U.S. leaders to show empathy amid ICE raids, citing the irony that migrants believe the American promise. Brandy and Franklin, both emotional, receive their own awards and reflect on faith, resilience, and cultural continuity.

Pharrell hands Adidas a jellyfish—wins Shoe of the Year for fluid design

Pharrell Williams receives the Footwear News Shoe of the Year Award for his Adidas collaboration—the Virginia Adistar Jellyfish. Describing a desire for fluidity, he likens the shoe to water, favoring movement over stiffness.

The design draws from sea life aesthetics, mingling innovation with biomimicry in a gesture both stylish and subtly surreal. Williams positions the sneaker less as a product and more as a living, breathing extension of form.