The N.E.R.D. man shares some pearls of wisdom.

Pharrell treated a lucky group of music students from NYU’s Tisch School Of The Arts to a special songwriting masterclass on Monday (March 21).

Sharing his thoughts on the art of pop composition and what it means to be unique during a one-hour lecture, he also took the time out to listen to some of the students’ recorded work, offering them invaluable advice. Watch the whole video below.

Pharrell recently popped up in the new Santigold video and in October reunited with former collaborator Missy Elliott for ‘WTF’ (Where They From).

Read next: The 50 best Pharrell tracks