Audio Percee P
Ghetto Rhyme Stories

MP3: So, Perseverance. I want to talk about the new album. I've been listening to it for like the last two weeks. It's great. Percee P: Thank you. It's definitely worth the wait. I've been waiting on it for a while, as I'm sure you have as well. Yeah. What can you tell us about it and the process of putting it together and whatnot? Well, I figure, like you said, it's been a long time coming because I've got a lot of personal things inside of there if you listen to the lines, and some of the lines, a lot of the lines, the rhymes are personal. You know what I'm saying, my little thoughts that I was going through and just trying to put it out there. But hopefully other people feel some of the same way and they can get something out of it. It's really dedicated towards more of the upcoming artist, the underdog, that people who are overlooked all the time until they are one of those artists, even though they've kind of always been there but people sometimes might sleep. I always say, "Take a peep, don't sleep."

So you know, it's just more for those kind of cats, and then I'm just like, I'm still that same guy whether I was on Stones Throw or if I collaborated with J5 or any of the other artists. I'm still going to spit the same lyrics. So you should just judge an artist from their talent and not just their affiliations into who's doing the tracks. But I know the label picked me because they already recognized my talent. It wasn't about I had to come to them with the album already done. They just believed that I had talent, you know what I'm saying, they went with that and that's the end result of working with me, which a lot of artists don't get, that opportunity, the way I got it to come back like that, you know. No doubt. And the tracks that are on the album, is it mostly new stuff or is it stuff that has been recorded a while ago and you had it in your stash or what? Yeah, it's mostly new, but I had to rerecord my whole album and that's what took a long time, too, for it to come out, because we was recording in another studio. At then they got another studio and I had to rerecord the whole album because the quality and everything was much more better. I had to rerecord it. Plus Madlib had to make remixes so remixing the songs take a while too because he was putting different kind of scratches and everything in that had nothing to do with the first version. He had to look for new records to cut and everything. And so you will see that when the new album—when the other CD comes out. It's going to be like a double CD. We was going to put it out together initially but we decided to separate them. So it's going to be like a whole remix album or what? Yeah, uh-huh. Nice. And there's some extra songs that's not even on this one that's going to be on that one. So it will make you feel like, "Oh, we've got to get this one because this one's got this song on it." We're going to do it like that. But I just—you know, hopefully people feel it's worth the wait. I'm glad you told me that because at least it can give me more motivation to know that, okay, basically I know how long I was working on it and I just hope people ain't give up on me or nothing, you know. Yeah, absolutely, man. I mean, it's like I've been writing about rap records for like, ten years, and usually—I'm kind of jaded at this point because I get every record that comes out and this and that. Everybody is trying to holler at me about stuff. But your record has been in like constant rotation since I got it. It's just very solid. Wow, man. Hey I'm glad you like it, man. I hope people feel that it's hip-hop music. And I know people use the term [loosely] but I hope they really feel like this album is hip-hop. But I have little stories here and there and just so I can show my versatility. But I try to stick to the songs, and the artists, that I felt is deserving to be on there, you know what I'm saying? There's too many artists that I couldn't get on there because I couldn't work with everybody. But I mean, I try to collaborate with the people who I always felt was good emcees and that make good names and that have the talent. And just, I mean, I dedicated it to upcoming characters that got overlooked, like myself, and even if they never made records but know that they got this talent that if people just gave them a chance. No doubt, man. I wanted to ask you, you know, working with Madlib—I mean, obviously he's been doing it for a minute and doing a lot of big projects. I'm a big Madlib fan as well, but I remember when I heard he was producing the whole album I was kind of thinking to myself, you know, "Percee is known for this real fast rap style and Madlib is more kind of stony spaced out stuff." And I wasn't sure if it would work. But once I got it I was like, "Man, this is perfect." How is that working together in the studio with him? Well I never—actually I never really worked in the studio with him. So actually my whole album, because he's always busy, you know, he's a busy dude so he is always trying to make beats, and as an artist and I try to be a professional because I was already making records before I worked with Stones Throw, so I really should already know what to do. But just given the tracks I should already know how to go in the studio and lay my vocals and do what I have to do.

So that's what I've done with the album. I just took beats. He gave me a few CDs and I picked what I liked. And a lot has to do with Egon, him as a DJ. He kind of gave me, like, "Yo, I think this would be a good beat for you Percee. I think this one"—so I went on listening to a lot of what he had to say because he had a lot to do with my album, too, a lot of input and tracks I was using. And he trusted my opinion but I also tried to learn from other people. I didn't want to make the mistake that other artists make sometimes have to do it all themselves.

I mean, you have emcees that try to produce half their album's beats. I ain't one of them emcees, even though I have an ear, I believe, for music. But I didn't want to be, like, "Well I'm going to try to do half the tracks myself," you know, I try to be open to hear what other people might think I should try to do because this is my first debut. And from knowing me as an artist, I try to see what they thought would be good coming from me. So I listen. Even like "Put it on the Line," (BX Version), that version with Egon and I had the beat on CD but Egon was like, "Yeah, I think this would be a good one for the remix. Use that one." And I ran with it, you know what I'm saying. Nice. So he had a lot to do with it. And plus being in the studio with him, he gave me motivation. Because, I mean, a lot of times, I haven't had that since the Big Beat [Records] days, working with [pioneering hip-hop producer] T-Ray. Like T-Ray would be in the studio with me. So he would hear me drop vocals or tell me "you could do that over—or do that one over or punch it back in." I think you just get more out of it. You can say it better. So I've gotten that from Egon. And that's what I needed to bring more out of me and to make me better, to make the record better, you know what I'm saying. Totally. Sometimes you need that outside ear that can hear something that maybe you might overlook. And it pushes you more and brings more out of you. And he's trying to get the best out of me. We go into that studio and just laying vocals and I'm just giving him what I've got. And plus it's motivating for him to feel like when I came out of the booth it was like, "Yo, man, Percee, you know what I'm saying, this is really good, man. It's turning out to be a good album," and happy, because you know, he's a fan himself.

But Madlib I never really worked with him in the studio. All I did was take the beats and I would go in there and drop my vocals. And sometimes I would do a hook and sometimes I would leave it without nothing, I would give him vocals and let him do the rest so he could make contributions to it, like he could do a scratch or he'll put his voice on there, do what he had to do just so he could have more input than a beat, you know what I'm saying, to make it into a song because he might think of things that I might not have thought of if I had just given him vocals.

He would probably come up with the hooks and scratches in the songs that I wouldn't have never even thought of. So the only way to get that out of him is to maybe just leave some vocals and just leave the track and let him just have his creativity, "Okay, I'm going to put this is the beginning before he rhyme, and I'm going scratch this up and I'm going to put a little part here and then come back to the second verse." And he did that and that kind of made me listen to the song, like, fresh, because it's just like, "Oh, man, I like what he did with this." You know, I'm listening to it like that. I just gave him vocals and I'm just seeing what he did with everything to make it into a song. Excellent, man. Now are you—I mean, I know obviously you're from the BX. Are you living in L.A. full time now? Oh, yeah, I'm out here. I'm out here. I'm still repping the BX too, you know what I'm saying. Can't forget where I came from because that's what made me. So the people in New York did that, you know what I'm saying. No doubt. Are you still in touch either on, like, just a friend level or working together, recording, with [Lord] Finesse and AG and any of those cats? Yeah, I talked to AG when he was out here. I went to see him at the in-store and all that, and try to make it my business to anybody that's from the East that comes here that I known, I try to be at their shows, to pop up to let them know I'm out here and I know what's going on, I knew you were out here, just came out of respect to come see you.

Immortal Technique has been out here, I've seen a lot of cats, my man Poison Pen, AG's been here, I popped up, a lot of dudes. You know, when they come here, C Rayz Walz, I just try to come to their shows if I know about it. I'm going to try to go and make it there, just show them some support. Jedi Mind [Tricks] come out here and I'd pop up to their shows because they always kind of let me get on the mic and I try to be there for them, you know what I'm saying, just know, like, "Yo, I'm here." I know that you're all here, I just want to be here too. I be grinding, you know what I'm saying, but at the same time I just try to make my presence felt. Cool, man. And I also wanted to ask, I know back in the day you were slinging tapes in front of Fat Beats and stuff like that and doing it super, super independent. That's how I'm still doing it now. Still doing it now? Never leave out the house without 'em. Did that ever—you know, being that you had been around for so long but just never had that album deal jump off, did you ever get to the point—did you ever get discouraged to the point were you're like, you know, "I'm just going to put this down," or was it always you always had that goal in mind? No, I always know—I never felt like I'm going to throw it away. I just felt like I've got to keep doing it until I be at the right place. But I felt like hooking up with Cali cats kind of gave me more motivation because it was kind of really the West Coast that kind of put me back out there, you know what I'm saying? Cuz it's like I was repping and like the Jedi Mind, you know, plus it's a label to think about like Stones Throw. Like, I met Wildchild, he put me on, He reintroduced me back out on the vinyl tip with "Knick Knack."

And then you had the Jaylib album and then J5 was like, "Yo, I want you on the album." And that was Interscope records, you know what I'm saying. That's like, "Wow, this put me out there," you know what I'm saying. And then I did do, like, work with Vinnie Paz, and JS-1 for his album, I have a rhyme with Planet Asia on there, you know.

I just try to keep my name out there. But I never felt like I was going to give it up. I never felt like that. I just felt like I had to be at the right places and get in where I fit in at and that's the only reason why I stood by Fat Beats, cuz I fit in selling my music over there, not out of disrespect, but I looked at it by me respecting them so much. As far as saying, when I say that is, all my records I have made, Fat Beats sold. So if I stood by Fat Beats, people are more likely to know me to than standing in front of Virgin. Because all the artists I collaborated with when I sell CDs, I mean, those artists could be found in Fat Beats too.

So if I stood by Fat Beats trying to grind that, I think I could probably come off more than standing in front of Virgin and Tower, because they're more mainstream and I wasn't on that status just yet, but always trying to strive to be a mainstream—you know, I do want to be on that circuit where people consider commercialized to the point where everybody know me, but I want to do it on my own terms.

I want to be Percee P and still make it to that status where people can see me on the movie screen and stuff and like J5, they've gotten on that commercial level without having to change up. They just do what they do and got the audience and everything there, you know what I'm saying. That's what I want to do. I want to just do what I do, like KRS-One. He does hip-hop and he's still touring and traveling around the world doing that and there's enough room for everybody.

And I don't want to change up my style. I'm happy that Stones Throw allows me to be who I am and they appreciate the fact—they know how they met me. They met me from grinding and pushing my music and that's what really kept me around a lot. Because when I didn't have a record out I was still being interviewed in magazines from just selling tapes on the streets, CDs. So they recognized that. They knew that it was helping me.

It helped me out a lot because a lot of times people that know about me, a lot of times they met me personally, as a person, like just coming up to them and spending a little time with them and they realize that a lot of my support came from that. The streets. Just coming and meeting people directly and people have said, "Yo, man, that's the kind of dude that's going to do this, man, other artists don't do this."

You don't see a lot of cats going on tours coming out in the crowds with the fans. Like, I spend my time with the people that's really trying to support me and buy my music. And if they came to see me, I want to be out there with them. At least I get to spend my time, wherever I'm at, I'm going to be out there with them, take some flicks with them and kick it with them and maybe give them some, you know, whatever I got to offer, knowledge wise or anything like words of wisdom and tell them I just try to be there for them.

And you only can do that if you're out there with them. I never was the backstage type person. But even at my own shows and tours or whatever, I come early enough to be standing out there with the fans when they're standing out there waiting in line. I'm out there pushing CDs and kicking it with them, taking pictures, signing, whatever, talking to them and then I go in the club and I'm doing the same thing when the tour promoter finds me, "Yo, you got to get on next," and then I'll go up there and stand back there to wait for them to call me.

But as soon as I get off the stage, I'm back to the crowd, you know what I'm saying, like that until the tour bus have to leave or whatever, that's what I do and I enjoy it. I like to meet people. I like—they give me my motivation to keep me going and that's what I need as an artist and I think most artists need that.

They need the feedback from people to let them know, "Yo, man, I like this song. I like the way you did this," and it gives you ideas sometimes, when you meet the fans, they're trying to give you ideas, "Yo, you should do this. Have you ever thought about working with this person? Or, yo, that song you did, you said this," and sometimes you say some things that you don't even catch what you're really saying sometimes, and that could turn into a hook that some fan might have given you the idea and didn't even realize, you know.

So that's what it is, and it's kept me motivated and kept me going. If nothing else, that's why I try to be on the street and I figure, like, even with the album I'm still going to be out there because people—not everybody knows me. You know, I come out with this album and not everybody know who I am and I realize I can make a lot sales if I just come out and promote myself and be, like, "Yo, the next time you go in the record store, pick up Perseverance. But if you don't got that, I've been around for years that's why they call it that. So here's some CDs I got and that's the people I made records with," and as the whole, so they can look at me and appreciate my whole… Catalog. Yeah, and then they can appreciate the fact why I call it Perseverance and listen to me through my stages. And it's up to you to do the research and go in there and see, "Oh, he made this record and damn this was on this label. I didn't even know about that." I hooked up with Aesop Rock, and people be like, "How you hooked up with him?" And I say, "I've done many records. I did one with him, like, in '98."

So I try to school them. I'll be like, "Yo, you know, I mean, I did stuff with Lord Finesse and them. I knew him since '89. I battled him. But on his second album he asked me to be on the album. And I got Rhyme of the Month from The Source [for "Yes, You May"] and Big L was on the remix to that. So I try to throw the whole history at them. And the only way you can know all this stuff is you meet me directly.

You know, I could tell you all these things that maybe you wondered about or heard about, so I try to give these kids the proper information about me so maybe people can spread that one around and, "Yeah, what's up with the album man? They're waiting for a while." This is how it's going to be, "Well it was supposed to be a double-disk CD with remixes. The reason why it's taking so long is because I'm doing remixes and I've got to put the photos inside of it…" because I have a photo book and it had the lyric sheet where you could read the lyrics. So that took a while.

And all they're saying, they're trying to give me time to make sure I have everything satisfied with everything before they start going to the production stage because I had to wait for all the songs to be remixed by Madlib. So it was like a lot of those things I just hope that people didn't give up on me and the only way that I can sort of help that is to be out here on the street, keeping my presence felt and just do anything that I need to make people still know that I'm still coming out. I still got what it takes. So you know, sometimes people say, "Well he's been rapping since 1979." But, I mean, I always say with time you get better. Totally, man. I feel like an unopened bottle of wine; I get better with time. And the only way you can find out is just hear me, you know what I'm saying. Give me a chance and just listen to what I've got. Exactly. Like you were saying, you've been rhyming since '79. You've seen hip-hop go through some crazy, crazy changes, whether lyrically, sonically, sort of just pop culture acceptance wise and commercialism and whatnot. How do you feel about the way things are now and the way that things have changed so dramatically in the past 25 years? Okay. Yeah, I've seen a big change. It's still evolving. It's always evolving and it's always making a change. But I did see a lot from back then to now, like what it was in the '80s in the parks, in the Bronx, and I'm just happy I was around. I'm not even ashamed, you know, because I'm older. But a lot of cats—I always tell the people—people say, you know, they're like, "Yo," but I tell a lot of cats, LL is older than me, Rakim, Kool G Rap, is older than me, KRS-One is older than me.

All these dudes are still around, so don't look at me as too old because these cats that you watch on TV is like my age, like Master P, DMX, Jay-Z. These dudes are my age, you know what I'm saying. So I'm not like a dude that's too old to be spitting it. I've been around and I'm proud that I was around and the time that I was in the game allowed me to see a lot of things that a lot of people didn't get a chance to see and I'm from the birthplace of it all. So no matter how much money cats got, I always feel like I've got something that you don't have. I just had that experience and I was there, you know what I'm saying. I was right there and I seen it. So I was like, you can't take that away from me. Right on, man. Well I've got one more question for you, and then I'll let you roll. I just wanted to ask you—this is something that I ask everybody. Obviously, you've been doing this for a long time, you know what I'm saying. You've had a consistent, you were always dropping projects here and there and now you finally got the album out. These kids today, everybody wants to be a rapper, everybody wants to be a producer, everybody wants to be a mogul and get in the game and whatnot. What advice would you give for the next generation of, say, high school age kids now that's trying to get on? Don't be ashamed to go against the grain. Don't be no follower. Follow yourself. Be a leader, because that's what hip-hop is about. When hip-hop started, it was all about going against the grain. It was something that wasn't mainstream. They were just going against the grain. They were bringing out equipment out in the park. People would come and dance and graffiti writers, all that stuff, the records they played, the DJs played back then wasn't all about listening to what's on the radio and videos. It wasn't none of that. It was just like, when you heard Kool Herc play a record or Bam, it was something that they thought was dope that they discovered in the record store somewhere or even in their moms crate, "Oh, this has got a break, I'm going to play this."

You have to get back to that, and go against the grain. I'm an artist. Here I'm a signed artist but I'm still on the street. How many signed artists do you see, you could walk up to right nowadays? I'm saying that to myself. I'm separating myself from other artists. What can I do to make me different from these other emcees that's out? Well you can run into me still on the street. But it's not to me I look down on myself. Maybe somebody else might say, "damn, why are you still standing here?" I say, "Well if it wasn't for me standing here, you probably wouldn't even know much about me." That's why I'm here. Until you hear my music, you can't judge on it, but a lot of people really know me because I was out there, and that's still a part of my legacy. More than music, I just want something else about me. I want to give people the experience of knowing me and seeing me and saying that they actually saw me selling my product rather than, "I heard he used to stand in front of Fat Beats," or, "I heard he used to be in the club." No, I still do that now so you can actually see me do it.

And just don't be scared to go against the grain. Don't try to follow these trendy, whatever the industry is talking about, "Oh, everybody got to be rhyming on some bouncy beats and everybody's into wearing the flossy chains and you've got to get the platinum now because every artist got one." And you ain't got to do that. You can just do you, go back to the '80s, if you want to break out a Lee suit again, or roll up one side of your pants leg, get back to that, do it. But do something—be original because you never know what kind of trends you're going to create. So be that. When I was an emcee, I always felt that I wanted to be apart from cats. I wanted to try to have my own style. I was inspired by the pioneers like the T La Rocks and the Treacherous Three and the Fearless Four.

But I also knew back at that time biting wasn't allowed. You couldn't bite off the cats and get respect. Nowadays, it seems like you can try to sound like a 50 Cent to try to get in the game and that's how you're going to try to get on by biting off of him or doing what he do to make a name for yourself. Back then, when I was coming up, you'd get dissed for that. And realize to stop biting off of cats, just sound like you. Don't try to be a J Dilla. See what kind of tracks you can create on your own sound.

Madlib has his own style, you know what I'm saying. And it's like, these cats have their style and they know who they are. You have to know who you are. And to inspire somebody else, you can't make nobody else believe if you don't believe in yourself. And don't be a carbon copy cuz that's nothing. It's just a carbon fingerprint. Everybody has their own identity in this world. God gave us all out own identities and a fingerprint, and the artists should be the same way.

Why sound like 1,000 Jay-Zs when you can stand apart from them. It might be harder, but you'll appreciate it, and you'll have your own style and plus, at the same time, you can feel like people can identify you. When you sound like all these other cats, it's hard to say. Your style can play out fast, because everybody listens to that and then you're doing the same thing. And when they're tired of hearing him, they're going to be tired of hearing you too. You have to keep reinventing yourself. But when you have your own style, it's you. It's timeless, you know what I'm saying. That's great advice. Well thanks a lot for taking the time to talk to me, Percee. I appreciate it, man. And like I said, I'm digging the album a lot. I think it's great. Congratulations on it coming out and keep doing your thing, man. I appreciate everything. All right. Take it easy, dude. Have a good one. You too.