“Superthug” was released as the second single from Noreaga’s 1998 debut solo album N.O.R.E. This song was one of the early hits from Virginia production duo The Neptunes, and it helped them become one of the most in-demand producers in the following years. “Superthug” peaked at #36 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Hot Rap Songs chart.

In a 2018 interview with Billboard, N.O.R.E. talked about meeting Pharrell and the creation of “Superthug”:

His first words was, ‘No one listens to me. The one that will, will.’ There was cockiness. He played me a beat, and I knew he was my favorite producer from this moment. Then he played a second one. Then he says, ‘This third one, I don’t want you to listen to it until you get to Miami.’ So, that was what really had me tempted. It was so hard not to hit that third song until I got to Miami.

I was at the Kent Hotel. I went upstairs [to my room], and I wanted to hear this beat. I put on CD player. The shit said, ‘Ya, what? You found Manuel Noriega?’ […] I had never heard someone make a beat for me. The only thing I changed at that moment [was] the girl was saying, ‘Yeah yeah’ [on the chorus]. I changed it to ‘What what.’ I called [Pharrell] and kicked him my bars. I wrote the whole shit right there.

So, I lays my verse. […] After my line, I say, ‘What what what what what what.’ It was a placeholder. So, I get out of the booth like, ‘Erase that.’ I went and got lunch. I kept hearing, ‘What what what’ still in there. I remember telling, Pharrell, ‘We need a hook.’ He said, ‘I got a hook.’ In the final mix, what’s still there? My whats! I’m like, ‘They’re gonna laugh at me.’ Pharrell says, ‘All the way to the bank.’

N.O.R.E. said Pharrell told him Michael Jackson wanted the “Superthug” beat after hearing the song, and apparently, the “Superthug” beat was initially given to Janet Jackson in 1997 during her sessions for The Velvet Rope which resulted in the unreleased song “(I Like It) Ruff”: