Pete Philly and Perquisite...

Positive hip hop at it's finest, this Dutch hip-hop superduo caught my ear a few years back on a mix a friend made for me. Their music was so refreshing and authentic...and my prejudiced ass couldn't believe it when I found out Pete was a white kid out of Amsterdam, originally from Aruba. With that accent and swagger, I would have sworn he was from the States...hmmmm, Philly perhaps?

[CORRECTION: I was just informed that Pete Philly is actually of latino descent...this just further exemplifies the way we categorize people based upon superficial characteristics.]

Before you continue, take a moment to check out these two masterpieces from their debut album, Mindstate.

"Grateful," a great video accompanies this one:



...and "Hope" featuring the legendary Talib Kweli. Pete's first and last verse are especially note-worthy on this heartfelt anthem about keeping the faith in the face of war and adversity...great overall song and vibe, one of my favorites for sure:



They seemed like such cool and down to earth people, so when I stumbled upon their Myspace page, I had to hit them up just to let them know how much I appreciated what they were doing for rap music, and that in my opinion, "Grateful" was "an eternal classic." A few days later, Pete hit me back and said thanks, and that he had gotten the chance to check us out and was really feeling it. We sent them a package of wax and CDs, and they returned the favor. We were eventually asked to do a remix of "Lazy," one of the songs off of Mindstate. They were in the process of doing a ReMindstate project (same concept, but all remixes by their favorite artists). We were honored, and Pete seemed to like what we did, because he ended up dropping a verse and some extra singing vocals on it, which was not the original plan. You can check it out below on this lo-fi version that someone ripped to the tube:



Anyway, those two albums, plus their last full length release, Mystery Repeats, are available on the US label ANTI-, which is also home to amazing artists and friends from Orlando, SoliLLaquists of Sound, and Australian singer-songwriter Xavier Rudd.

Do yourself a favor, and take the time to learn more about Pete and Perq. Make sure you buy all their music, and check out other releases on Perquisite's own label, Unexpected Records. For current info, you can check their official website. Show them some love! I'll leave you with two more stand-outs from Mystery Repeats -- I can't help it, everything they do is worth sharing.

Here is "Empire":



and "Time Flies," also from their sophomore release:



Don't sleep...