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Pharrell Williams has expressed hopes that his new album, G I R L, will help empower women and lead to a debate over equality issues.
According to WENN, the singer has said: "Once a month [women] go through something that we'll never understand, and yet they still come to work and they still kick ass... If women wanted to, like, cripple an economy, they just don't go to work and don't come home [and] that country's dead for that day."
He added: "The idea that we, as a species, have travelled to the moon back in '69, we've had a space station that's been hovering around the planet for about maybe 20 years [and it] hasn't touched the earth's soil, and we have a rover on the surface of Mars, and yet we're the same species that has legislation in place where women can't do... where they're being told what they can and can't do with their bodies."
Watch the official video for 'Marilyn Monroe' below
Pharrell's own record is not entirely clean when it comes to gender equality issues - 'Blurred Lines', his collaboration with Robin Thicke, was seen as sexually aggressive towards women, with the repetition of the line, "I know you want it." The accompanying video was also seen as objectifying women.
"My album is not a problem solver," Pharrell said. "It's not the resolution... I just wanted to start the debate. I just love them and I love every part of them. I love the nasty parts and I love the intelligent parts."
G I R L, which contains singles 'Happy' and 'Marilyn Monroe', was released in March.
Below: the 10 biggest Pharrell tracks since 'Get Lucky' rated
