---
title: "The Carters’ Nice: Pharrell produced, co-wrote and sang on Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Everything Is Love track"
url: https://badiyaa.com/carters-nice-pharrell-everything-is-love/
published: 2026-11-15T09:12:00+00:00
modified: 2026-11-15T09:12:00+00:00
section: Entertainment
publisher: Badiyaa
---

# The Carters’ Nice: Pharrell produced, co-wrote and sang on Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s Everything Is Love track

The Carters' Nice, track 4 on Everything Is Love, was produced with Pharrell, who also co-wrote and sang on it; part of it was recorded in London.

Pharrell Williams did triple duty on “Nice.” He produced the fourth track on the Carters’ Everything Is Love alongside Beyoncé and Jay-Z, co-wrote it with the couple and songwriters Denisia Andrews and Brittany Coney, and added his own vocals to the finished record. At three minutes and 53 seconds, it sits at the center of a 38-minute album the couple released without warning in June 2018.

It is the second of two Pharrell productions on the album. The first is the Louvre-shot lead single, the song most people remember from the project.

## Where Nice was made

Most of Everything Is Love was recorded at U Arena in Paris, the venue now known as Paris La Défense Arena. “Nice” was one of two songs, with the opener “Summer,” that received further recording at The Church Studios in London. Stuart White, Tyler Scott and Mike Larson are credited with recording it, Leslie Brathwaite mixed it and Colin Leonard mastered it, as he did every track. Beyoncé and Jay-Z are credited with its vocal production.

Andrews and Coney turn up all over the record: besides “Nice,” they share writing credits on “Friends,” “Black Effect” and “LoveHappy.” On “Summer,” the writers include Leon Michels of El Michels Affair, the band behind [Black Thought’s Glorious Game, built from songs Leon Michels wrote himself](https://badiyaa.com/black-thought-el-michels-affair-glorious-game/).

## The surprise release

The album arrived on June 16, 2018, at the close of the couple’s second On the Run II show at London Stadium. Beyoncé told the crowd there was a surprise, the lead single’s video played on the stage screens, and the words “album out now” followed. For two days it streamed only on Tidal, Jay-Z’s service, and everyone in the stadium got a free six-month trial. It reached other platforms on June 18. Tidal itself has quite a money story, as Badiyaa covered in [how Jay-Z’s Tidal went from a $56 million buy in 2015 to a $297 million deal in 2021](https://badiyaa.com/jay-z-tidal-56-million-square-297-million/).

## The first-month math

Everything Is Love opened at No. 2 on the main US albums chart with 123,000 album-equivalent units, 70,000 of them pure album sales, after less than six days on Tidal and four days everywhere else. That means about 57 percent of the opening week came from people buying the album outright (70,000 divided by 123,000), with the other 53,000 units from streams and track equivalents. Add the next three weeks, 59,000, 33,000 and 29,000 units, and the album had built roughly 244,000 units in its first month.

It topped the US R&B and hip-hop albums chart, peaked at No. 5 in the UK and went Gold in the US on January 14, 2019, for 500,000 units.

## How it landed

Critics were broadly positive, with an aggregate score of 80 out of 100 across 22 reviews. Most heard hip hop and R&B colored by trap beats and 1960s and 1970s soul, with lyrics about love, fame, wealth and Black pride. Several noted that Beyoncé raps as much as she sings. The album won Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 61st Grammy Awards and Album of the Year at the 2018 BET Hip Hop Awards.

Pharrell kept working with R&B’s biggest names after it; this fall he produced [John Legend’s 16-track album Muse](https://badiyaa.com/john-legend-muse-pharrell-october-23/). For the Carters, the physical release came later: the CD followed on July 6, 2018, and a Japanese CD edition arrived on August 22.

## Further reading

- [Wikipedia: Everything Is Love](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_Is_Love)

*Image: Erin McCormack, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons*

*This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*