The Neptunes' Chad Hugo may or may not be retiring from music

The N.E.R.D man says it’s all over, his spokesperson says otherwise.

Chad Hugo, one half of production teams The Neptunes and N.E.R.D, took to Twitter last night (May 21) to announce his retirement, only to later retract the comment, claiming via a spokesperson that it was a bad joke.

Hugo wrote on Twitter in a since-deleted tweet:“I resign from the music business. Thanks again, people, for your support throughout all these years. Good luck/God bless!”. The tweet has now been deleted and a representative contacted Pitchfork to deny his retirement.

Alongside his production partner Pharell Williams, Hugo is one of the most influential producers of the last 20 years, providing massive hits for Jay Z, Clipse, Britney Spears, Kelis, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Justin Timberlake.

Hugo has been relatively quiet for the past few years, although he’s been working behind the scenes with K-Pop band Red Velvet and reunited with N.E.R.D. in 2015 on the soundtrack to The SpongeBob Movie 2: Sponge Out Of Water.

Hugo’s recent career is in sharp contrast to Pharrell, whose solo output has seen him win multiple Grammys and receive two Oscar nominations in recent years. While there are still rumours of an N.E.R.D reunion in the works, (in late 2016 Pharrell said that a new record would follow “when it’s time”) they haven’t released a full album since 2010’s Nothing.