Carmel in the Bible refers to two distinct places:

• Mount Carmel, coastal mountain range in Israel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea
• Carmel (biblical settlement), an ancient Israelite town in Judea

The word Carmel (Hebrew language: כַּרְמֶל) is portmanteau meaning "God's vineyard".

In modern times, the name was also given to:

Places[link]

• Mount Carmel (disambiguation), places named after Mount Carmel

• Carmel City, a Druze town
• French Carmel, neighborhood in Haifa
• al-Karmil, a Palestinian village and modern-day successor to the Biblical Carmel
• Carmel, Har Hebron, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, adjacent to the ancient site whose name it shares
• Carmel Market, a shuq in Tel Aviv

Australia

• Carmel, Western Australia, suburb of Perth, Western Australia

Spain

• El Carmel, district in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia

United States

• Carmel, Indiana, a city in Hamilton County
• Carmel, Louisiana, an unincorporated community in De Soto Parish, Louisiana
• Carmel, Maine, a town in Penobscot County
• Carmel, New York, a town in Putnam County
  • Carmel Hamlet, New York
• Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, or "Carmel", a city in Monterey County
• Carmel Highlands, California, a small, unincorporated town located in Monterey County
• Carmel Valley (disambiguation), a geographic region and American Viticultural Area
• Carmel Valley Village, California, another small, unincorporated town in Monterey County
• Carmel Valley, San Diego, California, a neighborhood of the city of San Diego
• Carmel, a neighborhood in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina

Wales

• Carmel, Anglesey
• Carmel, Carmarthenshire
• Carmel, Flintshire
• Carmel, Gwynedd
• Carmel, Powys

People[link]

• John Carmel Heenan (1905-1975), priest in the Roman Catholic Church in the United Kingdom
• Roger C. Carmel (1932-1986), American character actor
• Carmel (singer), female singer of the eponymous British band Carmel
• Carmel Myers (1899-1980), American actress
• Carmel Bakurski (born 1976), Australian field hockey defender

Other[link]

• Carmel is the term used to refer to a monastery of the nuns of the Carmelite religious order
• Carmel School (disambiguation), various schools and colleges
• Carmel & District Cricket Club North Wales village cricket team
• Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo (Carmel Mission), a Spanish mission located in Monterey County, California
• Carmel and Carmeleno, other names for the Rumsen language and people, California
• Autocars Co., or Carmel automobile, fiberglass-shelled cars used in Israel during the 1960s and 70s
• Carmel daisy, flowering plant of the family Dipsacales
• Carmel Formation, a Middle Jurassic rock unit in the southwestern United States
• Carmel Winery, a vineyard and winery based in Israel, well known for producing and marketing kosher wine
• i840 'Carmel', a 1999 chipset for dual Pentium 3 and Pentium 3 Xeon processors
• Carmel, Carmarthenshire, a terrestrial broadcast transmission station in Carmarthenshire, Wales
• Carmel Ventures, an Israeli venture capital firm
• Carmel (film), a 2011 film starring Josh Hutcherson and Hayden Panettiere
• Carmel Agrexco, Israel's largest exporter of agricultural produce

See also[link]

• Caramel

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2010)

Joe Sample
Background information
Birth name	Joseph Leslie Sample
Born	(1939-02-01) February 1, 1939 (age 73) Houston, Texas U.S.
Origin	United States
Genres	Jazz
Occupations	Musician, Composer
Instruments	Piano, keyboards
Labels	Blue Thumb, MCA, GRP, Warner Bros., Verve, ABC Records
Associated acts	Jazz Crusaders

Joseph Leslie "Joe" Sample (born February 1, 1939) is an American pianist, keyboard player and composer.

He is one of the founding members of the Jazz Crusaders, the band which became simply The Crusaders in 1971, and remained a part of the group until its final album in 1991 (not including the 2003 reunion album Rural Renewal).

Biography[link]

Sample began playing the piano when he was five years old. He was a student of the late great organ and piano extraordinaire Curtis Mayo. Since the early 1980s, he has enjoyed a successful solo career and has guested on many recordings by other performers and groups, including Miles Davis, George Benson, Jimmy Witherspoon, B. B. King, Eric Clapton, Steely Dan, and The Supremes. Sample incorporates jazz, gospel, blues, Latin, and classical forms into his music.

In high school in the 1950s, Sample teamed up with two friends, saxophonist Wilton Felder and drummer "Stix" Hooper, to form a group called the Swingsters. While studying piano at Texas Southern University, Sample met and added trombonist Wayne Henderson and several other players to the Swingsters, which became the Modern Jazz Sextet and then the Jazz Crusaders,^[1] in emulation of one of the leading progressive jazz bands of the day, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. Sample never took a degree from the university; instead in 1960, he and the Jazz Crusaders made the move from Houston to Los Angeles.

The group quickly found opportunities on the West Coast, making its first recording, Freedom Sounds in 1961 and releasing up to four albums a year over much of the 1960s. The Jazz Crusaders played at first in the dominant hard bop style of the day, standing out by virtue of their unusual front-line combination of saxophone (played by Wilton Felder) and Henderson's trombone. Another distinctive quality was the funky, rhythmically appealing acoustic piano playing of Sample, who helped steer the group's sound into a fusion between jazz and soul^[2] in the late 1960s. The Jazz Crusaders became a strong concert draw during those years.

While Sample and his band mates continued to work together, he and the other band members pursued individual work as well. In 1969 Sample made his first recording under his own name; Fancy Dance featured the pianist as part of a jazz trio.^[1] In the 1970s, as the Jazz Crusaders became simply the Crusaders and branched out into popular sounds, Sample became known as a L.A. studio musician, appearing on recordings by the likes of Joni Mitchell, Marvin Gaye, Tina Turner, B. B. King, Joe Cocker, Minnie Riperton and Anita Baker. In 1975 he went into the studios with jazz legends Ray Brown on bass, and drummer Shelly Manne to produce a then state-of-the-art recording direct to disc entitled The Three. About this time Blue Note reissued some of the early work by the Jazz Crusaders as “The Young Rabbits.” This was a compilation of their recordings done between 1962-68.

The electric keyboard was fairly new at the time, and Sample became one of the instrument's pioneers. He switched to electric keyboard for his recordings with the Crusaders themselves, and the group hit a commercial high-water mark with the hit single "Street Life" and the album of the same name in 1979. In 1978 he did a joint session with guitarist David T. Walker, Swing Street Café, which had all the feel of a live set done in a back street joint in Texas.

The Crusaders, after losing several key members, broke up after recording Life in the Modern World for the GRP label in 1987. Despite the disbanding of the Crusaders, the members would join each other to record periodically over the years; releasing Healing the Wounds in the early '90s. Felder, Hooper, and Sample recorded their first album, called Rural Renewal, as the reunited Crusaders group in 2003 and did a live concert in Japan in 2004.

Since Sample's Fancy Dance (1969), he has recorded several solo albums, including the George Duke produced Sample This.

GRP also released Joe Sample Collection, and a three disc Crusaders Collection, as testament to Sample's enduring legacy. The pianist's most recent recordings are The Song Lives On (1999), featuring duets with singer Lalah Hathaway, and The Pecan Tree (2002), a tribute to his hometown of Houston, where he relocated in 1994. His 2004 album on Verve, Soul Shadows, paid tribute to Duke Ellington and Jelly Roll Morton, and pre-jazz bandleader James Reese Europe. In 2007 he recorded Feeling Good with vocalist Randy Crawford.

Some of his works are featured on The Weather Channel's "Local On The 8s" segments and his song "Rainbow Seeker" is included in their 2008 compilation release, The Weather Channel Presents: Smooth Jazz II. Nicole Kidman sang his song "One Day I'll Fly Away" in the Baz Luhrmann film Moulin Rouge!.

Sample has a bassist son named Nicklas (from an ex-wife) who is a member of the Coryell Auger Sample Trio featuring Larry Coryell and Brian Auger.^[3]

Discography[link]

Full albums[link]

Compilations[link]

As sideman[link]

This section requires expansion.

With Milt Jackson

• Memphis Jackson (Impulse!, 1969)

With Blue Mitchell

• Blues' Blues (Mainstream, 1972)
• Graffiti Blues (Mainstream, 1973)

With Lalo Schifrin

• Enter the Dragon (soundtrack) (Warner Bros., 1973)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Yahoo! Music - Joe Sample Albums
• Biography at Verve Records

Pete Rock
Pete Rock performing at Marvel/Stussy launch party in Los Angeles, 2011
Background information
Birth name	Peter Phillips
Also known as	Soul Brother #1[citation needed] The Chocolate Boy Wonder[citation needed]
Born	(1970-06-21) June 21, 1970 (age 42) New York City, United States
Origin	Mount Vernon, New York, United States
Genres	East Coast hip hop, jazz rap
Occupations	Music producer, disc jockey, rapper, singer
Instruments	Turntable, sampler, keyboard, bass guitar
Years active	1987–present
Labels	Elektra, Loud/RCA/BMG, Rapster/BBE, Nature Sounds/Caroline/Virgin/EMI
Associated acts	CL Smooth, Marley Marl, INI, Heavy D, The UN, YGz, DJ Premier, Edo G, J Dilla, 9th Wonder, DJ Green Lantern, Rakim, Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, Pharoahe Monch, Kanye West, Smif-N-Wessun

Peter Phillips (born June 21, 1970),^[1] better known by his stage name Pete Rock, is an American record producer, DJ and rapper. He rose to prominence in the early 1990s as one half of the critically acclaimed group Pete Rock & CL Smooth. After the duo went their separate ways, Rock continued with a solo career that has garnered him worldwide respect, though little in the way of mainstream success.^[2] Along with groups such as Stetsasonic, A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots and Gang Starr, Rock played a major role in the merging of elements from jazz into hip hop music (also known as jazz rap). He is widely recognized as one of the greatest hip hop producers of all time, and is often mentioned alongside DJ Premier, the RZA, and J Dilla as one of the mainstays of 1990s East Coast hip hop production. Pete Rock is also the older brother and younger cousin, respectively, of rappers Grap Luva and the late Heavy D.^[3][4][5]

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Pete Rock was born in The Bronx, New York,^[6] the sixth of seven children of Jamaican immigrant parents.^[7] His family moved to Mount Vernon, New York when he was seven years old. During high school, he met his future recording partner CL Smooth. According to Rock, his father was also a part-time DJ who had an impressive record collection. Rock would often accompany his father to a cricket club called Wembley in The Bronx and watch as he spun records for the guests.^[8] His first job was as a paperboy, in his neighborhood.^[8]

Early career[link]

His first major exposure to the hip-hop audience was in 1987 with Marley Marl, as a DJ on New York's WBLS radio show "In Control With Marley Marl." The 17-year-old Phillips was recognized by the listening audience as the man "puttin' in work", as he would use double copies of each record to cut up every song he played, when most New York DJs would only use double copies on every third or fourth song. Propelled by the growth of his popularity, he began producing in the early 1990s. In 1991 he joined with CL Smooth to release the EP All Souled Out.

The following year saw Mecca and the Soul Brother, the first of two full-length albums, released to critical acclaim and hailed as a classic by many. Pete Rock and CL Smooth were first signed to Elektra Records, managed, and Executive Produced by Eddie F of Heavy D and The Boyz who also then managed Pete Rock as a producer. Pete Rock was one of the original three "Untouchables" producers along with Eddie F himself and Nevelle Hodge.

During this period, Pete Rock began to produce songs for other acts, such as "Down With the King" for Run-DMC and "The World Is Yours" for Nas, as well remix singles for Jeru the Damaja ("You Can't Stop the Prophet"), Public Enemy ("Shut 'em Down"), and The Notorious B.I.G. ("Juicy" – the original of which was allegedly based on Rock's own demo). Pete and CL followed up Mecca in 1994 with The Main Ingredient. Like its predecessor, The Main Ingredient also received wide critical acclaim. However, soon after the album's release, the duo split and went their separate ways, with Rock focusing on production work for other artists.

In 1995, he formed the group INI, with Grap Luva, Rob-O, and I Love H.I.M. and released the classic 12" "Fakin' Jax". The trio recorded an album, Center of Attention(originally named The Life I Live), which was heavily bootlegged and remained unreleased until 2003, when BBE Records picked it up for distribution. The release of this album was coupled with another previously unreleased mid-'90s Pete Rock-produced album, DeDa's The Original Baby Pa.

In 1996, he appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD, America is Dying Slowly, alongside Wu-Tang Clan, Coolio, and Fat Joe, among others. The CD, meant to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic among African American men, was heralded as a masterpiece by The Source magazine.

Solo career[link]

While working as a DJ with Marley Marl on Hot 97's Future Flavas show, Rock was able to forge a relationship with Loud Records, allowing him to release his solo album Soul Survivor in the summer of 1998. After being dropped from the Loud imprint, Rock signed with Rapster/BBE under his own label Soul Brother Recordings. His first release on the imprint was PeteStrumentals, which was mostly made up of previously unreleased Rock beats; all recorded between 1990 and 1995 but remixed and mastered for the 2001 BBE Project. The album did however feature two additional 2001 songs that featured the vocals from The UN. An expanded and revisited version of the album was released less than one year later; three instrumentals had been replaced with three new songs performed by C.L. Smooth, Freddie Foxxx and Nature separately.

Since then he has continued releasing solo albums including 2004's Soul Survivor II. In that same year he also produced the bulk of Edo G's My Own Worst Enemy, as well as a track for the all-girl rap group Northern State.

Pete Rock returned to greater visibility through a closer relationship with the Wu-Tang Clan. Their collaborations began with Soul Survivor, which featured Inspectah Deck, Method Man, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon on various tracks as well as producing a track each for Inspectah Deck's ("Trouble Man") and Raekwon's ("Sneakers") respective 1999 albums. Rock continued to work with the Wu on Soul Survivor II which featured both GZA and RZA. In 2006 he also produced three tracks for Ghostface's release Fishscale, including the first single, and Nature Sounds labelmate Masta Killa's second album, Made in Brooklyn.

Pete Rock has cultivated a relationship with Brooklyn-based Nature Sounds Records. He recorded the song "The PJs", which also features Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon and Masta Killa, released on the Nature Sounds compilation Natural Selection. He released an album entitled NY's Finest in February 2008, featuring Raekwon, Masta Killa, D-Block, Redman, Papoose, Slum Village and Jim Jones, among others, also on Nature Sounds. The lead single from the album is entitled "914" and features rappers Sheek Louch and Styles P. He is scheduled to appear on albums by Bishop Lamont, Cannibal Ox, Termanology, Freddie Foxxx, Royal Flush, Verbal Threat, LL Cool J, JoJo Pellegrino, La The Darkman, Cormega, R.A. The Rugged Man, and others. He is also working with DJ/Rapper Doo Wop under the name Tango & Cash (taken from the film of the same name).

Planet Asia has recently claimed that later on in 2009 he will release a collaboration fully produced album with Pete Rock called "Planet Rock". On December 2009 Rock denied that, but talked about collabo projects with Tha Dogg Pound, Camp Lo, Smif-N-Wessun.

Pete Rock oversaw the production of Jay Stay Paid, a posthumous album by the producer J Dilla, released June 2, 2009, on Nature Sounds. Lately he has been in Hawaii, working with Kanye West on the latter's fifth album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.^[9] In addition, he and DJ Premier have announced that they are working on a joint album together, although further details are unknown.^[10] Recently in London he confirmed that Big Pooh & C.L. Smooth will be on his half of the VS album and he plans on dropping 5 albums in 2011 including reuniting with C.L. Smooth for a third album & drop his 4th album on Nature Sounds.^[11] His next few collaborative albums are both due for a summer release with Monumental first then with Camp Lo's "80 Blocks From Tiffanys" LP.^[12] In an April 2011 interview on Conspiracy Worldwide Radio, Pete Rock discussed his new solo work including his album with DJ Premier, as well as exploring the fact that he has had numerous beats rejected by Eminem over the years ^[13] Pete Rock Uncensored Radio Interview. In a August 2011 interview, he has confirmed the completion of the Camp Lo album "80 Blocks From Tiffany's" and that he is currently working on production for Torae's album, Elzhi & his own solo album "Petestrumentals II".

Affiliates[link]

Proteges[link]

Through the years, Rock has helped to jump-start the careers of several artists. His first project outside of Pete Rock & CL Smooth was the hardcore duo YG'z, who released an EP called Street Nigga in 1993, with four out of the six tracks produced by Rock; however, they were quickly dropped from their deal with Reprise Records. His next venture, INI, was a group featuring Rock, his younger brother Grap Luva, Rass and rapper Rob-O. They released a single, "Fakin' Jax", through Elektra Records in 1995, before their debut album, Center of Attention, was shelved by the label. The other two members continue to record solo material, albeit only sporadically. In an interview Rock elaborated on the situation:

We finished the album, turned it in to Elektra and they never put it out, they only put out a single. Sylvia [Rhone] really didn't cooperate, she didn't break bread with me when it came down to resolving that. It was all about her changing everything around. She wanted to change my whole sound. When she said, "You gotta make a beat like Puffy", I just knew it wasn't going to work out.^[8]

Another mid-1990s artist, DeDa, also met the same fate with his album The Original Baby Pa, although both this and INI's album were eventually released as a double album package in 2003. Other associated artists include Meccalicious, who recorded a few songs under Pete Rock's guidance (sometime around 1997), before disappearing from the music scene altogether.

Rock has had some success, however, overseeing and jump-starting the career of hardcore underground favorites The UN, a group featuring four MCs, including former Flipmode Squad member Roc Marciano. Rock premiered the group on the single "Nothin' Lesser" from his PeteStrumentals album, and they went on to release the fairly successful album UN or U Out in July 2004, featuring production by Rock, Large Professor, and several others.

Relationship with CL Smooth[link]

Since their split in 1995, Pete Rock's relationship with CL Smooth has been highly unpredictable. Although the pair briefly united for the reflective "Da Two" from Rock's Soul Survivor album in 1998, they avoided entertaining requests for a reunion album until 2001, when they once again teamed up for "Back on Da Block" from Rock's PeteStrumentals. In their interviews during this period, it appeared as though a new album was underway. As Rock would explain:

We've been on tour, we know every rhymer and producer in this business. We've influenced people, even people we've never met have said that we changed the face of hip-hop. So we're going to try to do some more.^[8]

The pair went on a short international tour culminating in their well-received show at London's Jazz Cafe; however, soon after this they declined to comment any further on the new album, which never materialized (although Smooth did make three separate appearances on Soul Survivor II). Eventually, Smooth would confirm rumors of a rift in an interview with AllHipHop.com,^[14] in which he appeared angry and frustrated with his former partner, saying "I didn’t ask him to be a superhero" and "I’m not the problem." In an interview taken in December 2006, Rock ruled out any further collaborations with Smooth but stated that he holds no grudges against his former partner.^[15] He recently confirmed that he will be recording a third album with C.L. Smooth.

Musical style[link]

Production[link]

Pete Rock builds his beats from samples, the majority of which are taken from obscure R&B, funk, and jazz records. Early on in his career he would also sample drum breaks such as Black Heat's "Zimba Ku" for Heavy D & The Boyz's "Letter To The Future". Pete Rock heavily used the E-mu SP-1200 as well as the AKAI [S950]—later moving onto using the MPC—for his productions. Pete Rock tends to use the samples as palettes for his beats, chopping (cutting the sample into smaller parts), filtering (altering the frequencies of the sample), and layering several samples, often within the same song. While this technique was applied long before Rock (on De La Soul's Three Feet High and Rising or the work of The Bomb Squad for example), Rock's work is distinctive for the way in which he uses samples to achieve a hazy, droning effect. He is also noted for his resonant basslines, horn samples, and gritty sounding drums. His beats often sound as though they were being played from an old vinyl record; he samples many of his sounds straight off these records.^[16]

Another trait of his, more so in the earlier part of his career, is the way he uses horn samples to supplement his grooves. With perhaps the most famous example being "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)" (on which he uses a horn sample from Tom Scott's "Today"), Rock has also used horns on several other productions such as "Straighten It Out", Public Enemy's "Shut 'Em Down", Rah Digga's "What They Call Me", and A.D.O.R.'s "Let It All Hang Out".

Along with Gang Starr, The Roots and A Tribe Called Quest, Pete Rock played a large role in the fusing of jazz and funk music into Hip hop. The aforementioned "Reminisce..." withstanding, Rock used many jazz samples on his album Mecca and The Soul Brother, such as Cannonball Adderley's "Country Preacher", for the song "Return of the Mecca", or "Capricorn" for the song "In the House" from The Main Ingredient. Pete Rock's heavy use of intro and outro beats has also been widely influential. To introduce feature songs, he often plays a short instrumental excerpt, completely different from the rest of the song. Aside from their role as transitions, these are widely regarded as a way of displaying his large collection and as a challenge to other hip-hop producers to identify the records that the breaks come from.^[17] Mecca & the Soul Brother and The Main Ingredient use intro/outro beats on nearly every track to great effect, and the tradition continues to the present on Rock's recent releases.

Remixes[link]

"Another Pete Rock Remix" is Pete Rock's trademark catchphrase, heard on countless singles which he has remixed. In addition to Hip-hop artists he has done remix work for artists from other genres such as his 1995 remix of "Before You Walk Out Of My Life" for R&B singer Monica. In 1992 he collaborated with Mary J. Blige on the What's the 411? single "Reminisce", which utililized the same sample from his own single "T.R.O.Y. (They Reminisce Over You)". Rock claims to have done several high profile remixes which remain unreleased including one of Madonna's "Secret".^[8] He also claims to have produced the original beat for The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Juicy", and that it was recreated by P. Diddy and Poke (of Tone & Poke fame), without consent. However, he was invited to produce the remix, which utilizes the same sample as the original – Mtume's "Juicyfruit".^[8] Although he received no official producer credit, he made the original demo beat for A Tribe Called Quest's "Jazz (We've Got)", which was then recreated by the group for the album The Low End Theory.^[8] He remixed Public Enemy's "Shut 'em Down" and "Nighttrain", in the same day, starting at 12pm and finishing at 12am.^[8]

Up until 2003, he created all of his productions on the E-mu SP1200, thereafter using the AKAI MPC2000XL. He also has a collection of about 90,000 records and looks for records at least once a week.^[6] Pete Rock was one of 9 artists who participated in thetruth.com’s Remix Project, where he remixed the Sunny Side song “Magical Amount”.

In 2010, Pete Rock remixed indie rockers, Yo La Tengo's single, Here To Fall for the Here To Fall Remixes EP which included remixes by De La Soul and RJD2.

Influence[link]

Pete Rock has had a considerable impact on a number of record producers who have emerged in the hip hop scene since the late 1990s. Many critics have compared newcomers to him, generally favorably. Perhaps most notable among these comparisons are the late Detroit producer J Dilla, and North Carolina's 9th Wonder, both of whom have worked with Rock during their recording careers. Several of the comparisons stem from the fact that these producers have created the bulk of their productions out of samples, as well as the warm, mellow, and exuberant undertones apparent in their work. Pete Rock himself has added validation to the comparisons with J Dilla by stating "he's the only producer in this game that was just as serious [as me]."^[18]

Many other producers, including Kev Brown and Kanye West, have also found themselves compared to Pete Rock, with the latter glowingly referring to himself as "the new version of Pete Rock" on Slum Village's "Selfish" from the group's 2004 album Detroit Deli (A Taste of Detroit).^{[citation needed]} Pete Rock has acknowledged his relevance to these artists, releasing an instrumental record with 9th Wonder (Class Is in Session), as well as recording his own remix of West's "Heard 'Em Say". Rock himself has named his main musical influences as being influential hip hop producer and close friend Marley Marl and legendary soul musician James Brown.

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• Soul Survivor (1998)
• PeteStrumentals (2001)
• Lost & Found: Hip Hop Underground Soul Classics (2003)
• My Own Worst Enemy (with Ed O.G.) (2004)
• Soul Survivor II (2004)
• The Surviving Elements: From Soul Survivor II Sessions (2005)
• NY's Finest (2008)
• Monumental (with Smif-N-Wessun) (2011)
• 80 Block's From Tiffany's (with Camp Lo) (2012)
• Petestrumentals II (2012)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Pete Rock discography at Discogs
• Pete Rock on Myspace
• Pete Rock at the Internet Movie Database
• Pete Rock on Twitter

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2010)

CL Smooth (born Corey Brent Penn, Sr., October 8, 1968, New Rochelle, New York) is an American rapper, poet, and is best known as the vocal half of the hip-hop duo Pete Rock & CL Smooth.^[1]

After the pair split in 1995 Pete Rock, whose work with CL had garnered him a reputation as one of the most acclaimed producers in hip-hop, went on to produce (and remix) tracks for dozens of marquee-name and/or well-respected acts, and to release a batch of solo and instrumental albums. C.L. Smooth remained musically inactive.

The pair managed to reconcile their differences only long enough to record five isolated tracks in the ten years since their split: "Da Two," "Back On Da Block," "Fly 'Til I Die," "Appreciate," and "It's A Love Thing." There were talks of a definitive reunion and a new album in 2004; however, the speculation was dismissed by both parties after another fallout.

During his period of hiatus, C.L. Smooth declined even to appear as a guest on other artists' albums, with the exception of "Only the Strong Survive" with DJ Krush in 1996. Recently, however, he has contributed featured guest vocals to songs by AZ ("Magic Hour"), Nujabes ("Sky is Falling") and Dipset affiliate J. R. Writer (the remix of "Mesmerize") or Supafuh ("Act of Faith").

He released his debut solo album, American Me, in 2007. To promote the album, Shaman Work released a promotional mixtape compiled by DJ J Period called Man On Fire in late April 2006, featuring 36 minutes of freestyles and a remixed version of the track "Impossible". He was also been featured on the DJ Jazzy Jeff album The Return of the Magnificent on the track "All I Know", which was also featured in the video game NBA Live 08.

In October 2010 C.L. Smooth and Pete Rock headlined the "Clean Energy Tour,"^[2] which had six shows all over California and focused on voter mobilization leading up to the November mid-term elections. He has developed an interest in climate change and become a vocal opponent of Proposition 23.^[3]

Discography[link]

Solo albums[link]

• American Me (2006)
• The Outsider (2007)

Featurings[link]

• Supafuh feat. CL Smooth Act Of Faith (2011)

Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth albums[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• CL Smooth at MySpace.com
• CL Smooth at the Internet Movie Database