Usually, Pharrell Williams is one of those guys guys in hip-hop that I would buy any piece of crap from. With his compilations, one half of the producing team the Neptunes, and his offbeat and entertaining N.E.R.D. project, Williams sets himself apart from most hip-hip producers for the fact that he likes to expand his musical horizons a little bit.

In My Mind is his first true “solo” offering , and has went through many false starts and release dates before it finally came out. Much like Williams’ music tastes, his album is a schizophrenic mish-mash of R&B, hip-hop, and a little dash of rock which works in some cases, and falls flat in others.

The album starts with probably the worst track on the album, the previously released Can I Have It Like That, with Gwen Stefani providing a very weak backing vocal, while you can tell Pharrell is still working on his rhymes. The album gets better from there.

You can tell that Pharrell wanted to make the album mostly full of party jams, such as the bouncy Raspy S—t, and How Does It Feel. Pharrell triumphs when he keeps things light and fun. On the Nelly guest track Baby, the two get tangled in their rhymes over a modern rock riff and will have most people’s head nodding.

Pharrell tries to throw some kinks into the formula on the album, such as having some early 90’s R&B/ early hip-hop days on such cuts as the stellar 8 minute Young Girl/ I Really Like You (with Jay-Z), and the current single Number One (with Kanye West), where you get to hear Pharrell’s singing voice, something that you don’t hear everyday.

One step where Pharrell goes wrong is when his raps try to get socially conscious and political, and comes off as a second rate version of Common. This may be Pharrell trying to expand his musical vision a bit, but it’s something that is best left to others.

There is a hip-hop classic somewhere within In My Mind, but some of the cuts keep Pharrell from achieving that goal. The album is far from being the aforementioned “piece of crap” though, and with all of its twists and turns is still more entertaining than the vast majority of popular hip-hop today.

GRADE: B