 Spending their own money , N.E.R.D recorded the album at the South Beach Studios in Miami , Florida , and the Record Plant Studios in Los Angeles , California . Williams used a Triton Extreme , Triton Pro and Pro Tools in the production of the album , while Hugo worked in Access Virus TI , Roland JV @-@ 1080 , JV @-@ 2080 , XV @-@ 5080 , TR @-@ 808 and TR @-@ 909 as beatboxing was provided by Haley . Rock band Spymob further assisted production with guitar and drums . Production revolved around heavy rock , funk and soul music , which was first introduced in their debut album , In Search Of .... Hugo described the album as going back to the band 's roots , combining a classic rock sound with a 1970s funk swing . The typical process of recording was described as " Williams arrives at the studio , ideas in full flower , and lays down both a beat ( either programmed or played on an assortment of buckets ) and vocals . " Hugo then would add extra instrumentation . In an interview with MTV , Williams said that the band " didn 't care about genres ; we 're not doing this for the money . We 're doing this for people who pledge allegiance to our movement . " Hugo went on to say that they " just want to make people move " . On the album he said , " We had anger , quiet angst . We had something to get off our chest . And we wanted to show we could do it as a band . " Don Was , a musician and record producer , thought that the band was on a creatively fulfilling path , calling their musical style " really innovative " . 
