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]