P-Duble

About P-Duble

 

P-Duble

As one of the hottest up-n-coming artists in the industry…and more than 10 years older than most of his comrades, P-Duble has experience and maturity to bring to the table.

     P-Duble is thirty-four and was almost 10 years removed from his last release, “Birth Uv A G,” in 1999.  The record, and P-dub’s voice—classics in the now popular, but still young, Christian Hip-Hop World—set the stage for his hiatus and allowed him to learn some important life-lessons until the time was right for him to step back behind the microphone.

     Thanks to the persistence of such cultural icons as Sup C, Mr. Solo and T-Bone and reinforced by a mainstream culture that loves to occasionally dust off classic adages, P-dub has never really left the game, or missed a meal.  He couldn’t be happier that the Lord has continued to fuel his calling into the hip-hop ministry.

     “I appreciate that the Lord has allowed me to still stay in this game and I thank Him for the blessings He has bestowed upon me,” P-dub says. “Not talking financially, just talking about my family, life and being relevant in His scheme.”  P-dub hasn’t relied on samples alone to stay and get back into the game.  He came-back on the scene with a vengeance with his 2006 release, “No One.”  This self-produced project tossed itself into more than 10,000 heads and set the stage for what has been a spiritual re-awakening on a major hip-hop scale.

     As for the rest of his history, P-dub first formed a group with some of his boys called “Dead On Arrival,” back in 1990.  P-Duble dropped himself from the group and saw the remaining duo sign with Philadelphia-based Bodybag Records and release an album…and then…saw it collapse on the shelves.  P-Duble (known as Lil’ Pookie at the time) then proceeded to drop his own underground projects, such as “Blak + Wyte” in 1992, “Bottom of my Boot” in 1994, “Pooc OG: tha’ gangsta’ chronicles” in 1995 and then “Birth Uv A G” in 1999.

     In between these individual releases, he combined with Michigan-based Luppy to form the “Outsiders.”  They worked together and collaborated on one-project that was released in 1996 and opened-up the door for Luppy to jump onto the scene with his own group, “LPOutsiders.” 

     Lup and P-dub saw a future together, but the business and differing aspirations ultimately took a toll on their relationship.  “That relationship got really messed-up for awhile,” P-dub says.  “I was so immature that I wouldn’t allow myself to see eye-to-eye with him, which was a mistake, because he was right and he was so talented and was really the heart and soul of what we were doing. The music business is notorious for breaking up relationships because of everything that it entails. Ego, money.  Those are usually things that are pieces of the problem, but it never should’ve been, especially with where we were both coming-up from and the fact that we were both Christian artists.”

     P-Duble laughs matter-of-factly at the situation, and then turns his attention to today.  He’s preparing to enter the game with a thump through his reincarnated Pike Street music, the same company that released the final three of his previous releases back in the day.

     “One of the singles off this one is called ‘This Is Why…’ and features Mims and is based on the concept of the old records and MC’s.”  The album is titled “If I Die,” but P-dub believes that hip-hop is ready for someone to push the music forward creatively.  “These topics they talkin’ about. We already covered that in the 80’s and 90’s.  You know, ‘I Get Money?’  Why hasn’t the artist progressed conceptually?  They’re not diggin’ deep enough.  I wanted to dig deep and come up with neat concepts and things that haven’t been done before.”

     The high-pitched excitement that characterized his delivery as an MC also shows up in his speaking voice.  In discussing his whereabouts, he’s honest to a possible fault.  He admits that he was and still is hesitant to pick up the mic as a mature adult because many may not want to hear a grown man rap.

     However that hasn’t been the case at all.  The public’s reaction has surprised even P-dub himself.

     “The response has been crazy,” he says about his comments in other interviews, which generated a great deal of fan reaction. “They didn’t touch on the age thing.  Maybe it’s not as big of a deal as I thought it was, but then again the Lord has a way of over-coming even the most ominous of obstacles…there isn’t any that He can’t overcome.  I mean, Jay-Z is older than me.  I’m thirty-four.  He says he’s thirty-eight.  We know Dr. Dre is in his forties.  Even 50 is in his thirties.  Personally, I would like to forget bout that and listen to the music.  If it’s hot, it’s hot.”

 

Influences

Gospel Gangstaz, GRITS, C-Loc, Down South Gangstaz, Crooked Letters, David Banner, DJ's...

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user image 2008-03-27
By: kscarlett
Posted in:

Follow The (Not) Bouncing Ball

I coached my 9-year-old son Brayden's basketball team this winter. Lest you take this as proof of my coaching prowess, I share with you in its entirety, the transcript of my "job interview" with the guy who runs the fourth grade basketball program:

Guy who runs fourth grade basketball program: "Do you have a son in the fourth grade?"

Me: "Yes."

GWRFGBP: "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?"

Me: "No."

GWRFGBP: "Practice starts Saturday; pick up your uniforms and whistle at the front door."

With that settled, and still giddy in the knowledge that I had survived the grueling vetting process, I drove home thinking about how to structure our practices.

If you're not familiar with basketball as played by 9-years-olds, I can tell you first hand that it has a tendency not to resemble the real thing. The problem, I discovered, is that the ball itself holds so much fascination, that the kids do nothing but chase after it, each hoping to get his hands on the magical orb.

As a practical matter therefore, the 9-year-old game involves little real teamwork, and instead, leaves onlookers with the vague impression that they've happened upon a contentious, five-way custody battle among competing relatives.

Luckily, however, I came up with what turned out to be a pretty good idea: I told the kids that they were not allowed to dribble (bounce) the ball. Five on five, full court basketball, and the only way you could advance the ball was to pass it to someone else.

This had a number of immediate, positive effects:

  1. The kids became aware of the other players. If you're going to pass, you need to see where your teammates are, so they all started picking their heads up and looking around.
The kids spread out on the court. Knowing that once you got the ball you'd be frozen in place, there was no point in running over to the kid with possession. Instead, positioning yourself to receive a pass became the best strategy. The kids worked together. With dribbling off the table, even the best player on the team couldn't do much by himself. Teamwork became a necessity.

You'll be pleased to know that the story has a happy ending. After six weeks of practice, we played our two-game season last Saturday. We won comfortably in both instances, largely because the kids on our team succeeded in moving the ball around so well. (Oh yeah, and because I slipped $20 to the referee at halftime, but I'm not proud of that.)

"So what," you say? Hang on, there is a music connection.

In the game of music, the "ball" (i.e. the fascinating thing responsible for endless distraction) is design. People get so excited about how things are going to look that they tend to forget about the content. Here too, this often leads to an end product that is painful to hear.

That's why – and regardless of how long the artist in question has been in existence – we make sure to separate the writing process from the production and recording process. The procedure is always the same:

  1. Write the song and all of its ancillary sections (lyrics, hooks, etc...) down as ideas.

 

Make changes, edits, etc...until you're pretty much satisfied with the final product.

 

Then (and only then) begin the musical production.

Bottom Line: It's fine to make tweaks and small adjustments within the final design. That said, if you try to create – or God forbid, write – from that point, you're likely to be so distracted by appearances that you'll end up with inferior content.

Instead, I recommend first shaping the content to your satisfaction, and then, marrying it with your production. Don't make me blow my whistle at you.

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