N.E.R.D. enlists the help of Rihanna for this boppy comeback single. The lyrics make use of vaguely political images while Rihanna makes a variety of car references.

“Lemon” is the first new music from N.E.R.D. since 2010’s Nothing (excluding their 2015 releases for The Spongebob Movie). They premiered the track on Beats 1 Radio following a surprise marketing campaign (see below).

The song may not be entirely new. There is evidence that “Lemon” was at least partially recorded dating back to 2015. This includes social media posts from Rihanna and Pharrell such as Rihanna sharing a bikini photo on Instagram (January 3, 2015) with the caption, “Tell da paparazzi get the lens right.”. Just over a month later, Pharrell shared his own Instagram post with almost the same caption: “Tell tha paparazzi get tha lens right. “ This theory was confirmed in N.E.R.D.’s interview on Pharrell and Scott Venor’s iamOTHER program on Beats 1 radio. Pharrell claims that the original beat and second half of the track was made for Puffy, then passed to Rihanna before they decided to keep the track for their own album.

A remix of the track featuring Drake was released on March 17, 2018 via a guest mix from Pharrell on OVO Sound Radio.