Percee P

The Monarch of the Subterranean, Legendary Lethal Lyricist, Rhyme Inspector Emcee Percee P. He came up in the Patterson Houses Projects of the Bronx hearing the precursors of hip-hop out of his windows before he was in kindergarten, around 1973. By ten, Percee had a mic in his hand. He debuted in 1988 with homeboy D-Nique on “Let The Homicides Begin” (Gotham City Records, 12” single). A few years later, his freestyles on the hugely influential Stretch & Bobbito radio show on WKCR parlayed into what should have been Percee's big major label breakthrough, 1992's “Lung Collapsing Lyrics” (Atlantic/Big Beat, 12” single), the now legendary Fast Rap masterpiece. Though the record established reputation as one of the best rappers in the field, his break never came.

For most of the rest of the 1990s Percee P laid low, working in retail and as a messenger, dropping only the occasional indie single and a few guest verses. Percee wasn't gung-ho about the rap game again until the late '90s, when he truly went for self and began his own guerilla distribution campaign, selling his CDs face-to-face to patrons outside of New York's Fat Beats Records, establishing himself as something of a local landmark. “Do you like Hip-Hop?"

Percee's pavement pounding around Fat Beats did more than keep him fed - it introduced him to a new generation of hip-hop collaborators, cats like Aesop Rock, Jedi Mind Tricks, C-Rayz Walz, Wildchild, Edan and Jurassic 5 among others. All of these emerging underground artists sought contributions from Percee P - not only because they considered him a bona fide legend and Fast Rap pioneer, but also because they regarded him as a peer, hustling his trade with the same hunger as them.

Percee met his future Stones Throw label execs out on the street as he sold them CDs, leading to appearances on albums by Wildchild and Jaylib. Percee P's debut original album was Perseverance (Stones Throw, 2007) produced by Madlib. Embodying the term Perseverance in both name and spirit, Percee P followed the grass roots path throughout his career.