Video of Pharrell Williams' deposition for the "Blurred Lines" lawsuit trial was released Saturday by the Hollywood Reporter. Williams is clearly peeved during the exchange, especially since he and Robin Thicke maintained that they didn't illegally infringe upon Marvin Gaye's song "Got to Give It Up" when they created "Blurred Lines." Williams and Thicke lost the suit and were ordered to pay Gaye's estate $5 million.
Williams was asked way too many questions that he didn't feel pertained to the issue at hand, but through it all, he was respectful and stood his ground when pressed by the Gaye estate's attorney.
"There was a myriad of ludicrous questions," Williams said when asked if he responded to questions posed to him by Gaye's estate. And when asked to identify one question as "ludicrous," Williams responded, "Do you remember ludicrous things? […] When I see nonsense, I try not to waste my memory for it."
Williams gave the attorney a quick music-composition lesson on what "bluegrass chord structures" are, but only to an extent, reminding the attorney that he's "not a teacher."
"You should check it out. […] I'm not here to teach you music," Williams said twice when pressed.
Williams played coy about whether he could read music, which bothered me a bit, but I suspect that he knew it likely played a critical role in the Gaye estate's argument. It's the best you can do when your ass is on the line for millions of dollars and your creativity is being nailed to a cross. Williams gets my #MCM for being as polite as one can be when one is annoyed beyond belief.
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Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele is a staff writer at The Root and the founder and executive producer of Lectures to Beats, a Web series that features video interviews with scarily insightful people. Follow Lectures to Beats on Facebook and Twitter.
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