Pete Philly & Perquisite - Raindrop (Live Video Session)
Photo Credit: Roeltje van de Sande Bakhuyzen
Acclaimed Amsterdam-based hip hop duo Pete Philly & Perquisite announce their return to the UK with a new London show at Brixton’s Hootananny on Thursday 3rd of April. Ahead of their performance they release a live video of their song ‘Raindrop’; the closing track from the duo's critically acclaimed 2024 album ‘Eon’.
Following last year’s show stopping performance at The Camden Assembly, the duo returns to co-headline Hootananny with soul dynamo Jeangu Macrooy. With their full 7-piece live band in tow Pete Philly & Perquisite will be combining solid musicianship with spontaneous energy to deliver a nostalgic look back through their back catalogue as well as their recent album ‘Eon’ - a rare opportunity for UK fans old and new to witness the full spectrum of their power as a live act.
Perquisite: “We are really looking forward to this show. We played in London last May and that was a very special experience; so many people who knew our music inside out and sang along to everything! We feel blessed to play in London again, this time at the notorious Hootananny together with our soulmate Jeangu Macrooy."
Tickets available now via DICE
Offering a glimpse into the raw emotional intensity of their live performances, ‘Raindrop’ represents a deeply personal journey for Pete, who wrote it as closure on one of the most challenging periods of his life when he was battling the effects of Lyme disease. Bittersweet piano chords intertwine with a mellow bass line as the duo transform a past struggle into a cathartic musical experience. “Raindrop is a goodbye to a part of my life riddled with anxiety and stress”, says Pete Philly. “It’s closing the book on that. The live version turned into the heart of our show with the band taking it to an exhilarating crescendo. That’s why we decided to make a live video for it.”
Perquisite sat down with Wordplay Magazine to answer our infamous 10 Questions:
1. So tell me, how did it all begin? What sparked your love for music?
It all began for me when I really started to listen to Hip-Hop at age 11/12. The first albums I listened to a lot where Cypress Hill - Black Sunday and The Fugees - The Score. After that I discovered the more jazz influenced hiphopgroups like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and The Pharcyde and through them also started to listen more to jazz and soul (initially to find out where they got thier samples from). When I was fourteen we got the assignment at school to write a poem abour our biggest love. My classmate Jonas wrote a song about weed being his biggest love. And when we had a break in between classes, we went to his house - he lived on 5 minutes biking distance from our high school - to basically rap the lyrics of his poem on top of a beat that we made with a simple music program on his mac computer. And so it started; we started to make our own songs together and called ourselves Def Buddha. At a certain point that same year another friend of mine, Sevastian, taught me how to make my own beats in a program called Fasttracker and that really hit me. Soon I started to sample my parents' full cd collection and totally switched to making beats and not rapping anymore, as making beats came a lot more natural to me. When I was sixteen I ‘released’ my first CD as Perquisite (which was a name I took at that age) and sold it for 10 guilders at school. Two years later I started my own record company called Unexpected Records, that I’m still running today. The first release was a jazzed out instrumental hiphop-EP with saxophone player Benjamin Herman, who was the uncle of a friend of mine at school. When I started to work on my third release, a collective I started with another friend/producer that we called North West Metropolis, I first met Pete and we invited him to join the collective. Soon it turned out that the two of us had a really good click and so we started to make music with just the two of us; Pete Philly & Perquisite was born :)
2. Who are some artists that influence you and that you want to work with in the future?
In the beginning my main influecens were A Tribe Called Quest, The Pharcyde, De La Soul, Mobb Deep, Busta Rhymes, Nas, J Dilla, DJ Premier, Shawn J Period, Talib Kweli to name a few. Later I had the chance to work with Talib on our debut album ‘Mindstate' which was a great honor. Who I’d like to work with in the future? Doechii. I think she’s the most talented new hiphop artist around right now.
3. What projects do you have coming up and can you give us any info on them?
On April 11th a new song I composed and produced called ‘Get A Grip’ will be released on Unexpected. It’s a duet between Dutch Alternative R&B singers Swan and Ginge and it turned out pretty nice I must say :) Besides that I’m always working on new music and projects but I can’t tell too much about that right now.
4. How would you describe your sound?
The core of what I do is HipHop. But I’ve also been playing cello since I was eight and have been composing a lot of film scores in the last 15 years. Overall I think you can say my sound always sounds pretty groovy and organic, even though I also use a lot of samples and electronic instruments in my beats and compostions.
5. What's your proudest moment to date so far as an artist?
Difficult question. But lately, the big return show of Pete Philly & Perquisite at the AFAS Live in our hometown of Amsterdam in november 2023 was a great moment for me. Pete and I had split up in 2009 and to see that after all these years of being away almost 5.000 people showed up to see us, celebrate with us and spread love was a great joy.
Photo Credit: Roeltje van de Sande Bakhuyzen
6. Do you have any advice for our readers who may be trying to play the mad game of music?
Follow your intuition.
7. Are there any artists on your radar right now that we should check out?
Doechii (In case you haven’t checked her yet) And Swan. But that’s biased cause I work with her :) And something completely else: Ciao Lucifer. It’s the band of our guitar player Marnix; it’s fresh and exciting and live they absolutely rock.
8. What albums are on heavy rotation on your Spotify playlist currently?
Doechiii - Alligator Bites Never Heal
Yebba - Dawn
Khruangbin - A La Sala
beabadoobee - This Is How Tomorrow Moves
Rosalia - Motomami
9. What do you like to do when you're not making music?
Sleeping, hiking, making photographs, boxing, watching great movies & series, reading about politics and history.
10. Name Three things you can't live without when in the studio?
First of all, and very obvious, my computer with Logic Pro X and Renoise, the main audio programs I work with. Second I would say my bass guitar. And third my coffee machine for tasty cappuccino’s :)