Legendary New York emcee/producer Pete Rock recently spoke with Hypetrack about a variety of upcoming projects including his collaborative album with DJ Premier. The Chocolate Boy Wonder also shared information about his early influences and on his reunion with CL Smooth.
When asked about his early influences, Pete Rock reminisced about times with his father and his early work with Heavy D.
“My dad who’s probably my biggest inspiration when it came to that type of thing, was a record collector and DJ,” he said in the interview. “So I took what I learned from him and applied it to what was happening at that time in my life as I got older in hip-hop during the late ’70s early ’80s. But I didn’t officially start then, I was just doing my homework during that time, listening to Africa Bambaataa and Cold Crush, Grand Master Flash and all those kind of cats. That was the school I came from, the era of Kool Herc and Bambaataa. As I got older, I was fortunate to have family that was in the music game that was there from the very start of Heavy D’s career. He actually had me under his wing for years and formed his group Heavy D and The Boys. Then there’s DJ Eddie F who I got really close to back then, and together, we worked together on beats, and he was the one who taught me how to work with the SP-12 and other drum machines I didn’t know how to use, you know? From there, the rest is history.”
When pressed for information on upcoming projects, Pete Rock would not commit to the CL Smooth collaboration. According to the beatsmith, that collabo has not been solidified as of yet.
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“Well, I can’t speak too much on the CL Smooth because I’m not sure if that’s going to happen,” he noted, “But, I am working on various things, such as this artist by the name of Doo-Wop who’s a dope mixtape DJ and emcee that I’m doing a project with. Me and Diamond [D] hung out together down in Atlanta not too long ago and we talked about doing something together, while Tek and Steele’sMonumental album which will be out on June 28th. Then the Pete vs. Premier, then my own album, which is the Petestrumental 2 album, you know just working!”
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