For most artists, rumor control typically means shooting gossip down. For Pharrell, it seems to mean picking rumors up and running with them.

When we asked him this week about who he'd like to collaborate with on upcoming projects, Pharrell went right to the rumor mill, saying, "I really wanna do the Strokes. I keep hearing whispers about it in the press, so I'm like, 'Really?!?' You know, 'cause I really wanna do it."

Sure, he's one of the most eclectic artists in the industry, writing, producing, and singing with artists from Kanye to Gwen. But the Strokes? Isn't their sound a little rough around the edges for the super-smooth rapper/producer? Well, Pharrell has already collaborated with Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas (along with Santogold) on a song used by Converse to commemorate the company's 100-year anniversary. "It's almost like it's a commissioned artwork ... that was done, painted and crafted by us," he explained.

When asked whether Julian was interested in making these whispers come true, Pharrell left us in suspense. With a sly smile planted on his face, Pharrell said, "I mean, we've been talking about it. I don't know. We've been talking about it."

So what do you think? Would Pharrell be a good fit for the Strokes? Let us know!

It's not easy being the younger sister of a mega-famous-the-world-over pop icon.

No, seriously. Just ask Solange Knowles, Beyoncé's 21-year-old kid sis. Let's face it, when your sister is so famous that she practically owns the rights to the second letter of the alphabet, it's pretty hard to convince anyone that based solely on your artistic merits, some of the biggest and most creative names in music helped out with your record. But when we sat down with her earlier this week, Solange told us that it took some pretty serious convincing (and even a little stalking) to get names like Cee-Lo, Pharrell and Mark Ronson onboard for her latest record. As she puts it, when they first heard she wanted to work with them, they had no way of knowing if she was a serious artist or "someone's little annoying sister trying to do a record."

Cee-Lo, who co-wrote three of the songs on Solange's album, didn't exactly jump all over the opportunity when Solange first came calling. Initially, she couldn't even get him on the phone, and seemingly endless "scheduling conflicts" on the part of the Gnarls Barkley vocalist kept her from meeting with him. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but as Solange told us herself, "no one can be that freakin' busy." But she wasn't about to get blown off. She decided to take matters into her own hands — by essentially stalking Cee-Lo and forcing him to listen to her album.

Solange tells us how she stalked Cee-Lo (with the help of an MTV alum) in this video.

As for the record, Sol-Angel and the Hadley Street Dreams, due out this August, anyone expecting an album sounding like a dozen Beyoncé B-sides or even a retread of Solange's 2003 debut Solo Star will undoubtedly be disappointed. It seems that B's kid sister looked to some very different inspirations for her second album. The singer tells us that she took her musical cues from her love of '60s and '70s Motown and soul icons such as the Supremes, the Marvelettes and Dusty Springfield, as well as recent electronica faves Thievery Corporation and Boards of Canada, making her sound very distinct from her big sister. Solange's inspirations are clearly heard in the Pharrell Williams-produced lead single "I Decided" as well as in "Sand Castle," co-written by Cee-Lo and featuring the voice Q-Tip, which is now up on Solange's MySpace page.

So, will Solange's artistic independence and genre-mixing pay off? Will she end up the Janet Jackson to Beyoncé's Michael? Or will she be the La Toya?

"Blue Magic" brings out a morally ambiguous side of Jay, a side some thought had gone forever when he took the corporate throne. But this is exactly how a returning legend should sound.

It was the Pharrell Williams-produced "Drop It Like It's Hot" that gave Snoop a new breath of life in 2004 and became his first single to reach #1 in the charts. And when JT decided to make the tricky move from boy-band member to full-fledged solo artist, it was Pharrell who produced and featured on his solo debut, "Like I Love You," to great success. So, when Jay-Z decided that retirement wasn't really for him, the rapper who could literally take his pick of any producer in the world went straight to Pharrell for his first official single since the album Kingdom Come.

Earlier this week, I headed downtown to meet with that man, the Captain of Star Trak. It was a beautiful day in the city, so instead of shooting indoors in some small room, we both decided at the last minute to take it outside onto the street for a little New York ambience. As we were walking around the block, looking for a good place to shoot, we bump into one of Pharrell's old friends, the one and only Chris Rock.

Cool fact: Chris is a huge Van Halen fan and a die-hard rocker. He was still hyped from the night before, when he traveled to Philadelphia to see Van Halen hit the stage, and within minutes he was putting Pharrell and me onto it. I was sold.

Chris left, and about 15 minutes later, we rolled the cameras and caught up with Pharrell about the eagerly anticipated new NERD album, his current projects and how he's learned to carefully balance his life between being a producer and a solo artist.