BY JORDAN COMMANDEUR • APRIL 16, 2019

Pete Rock is a living legend of Hip-Hop. Throughout the last 30 years, Pete has fed a dedicated fan-base with material from his duo with C.L. Smooth, solo albums, remixes, DJ sets, plenty of collaborative albums, and production work. However, like J Dilla, Madlib, Ayatollah, and others, Pete Rock has made acclaimed Instrumental Hip-Hop albums. At the top of this year, Pete revealed that was dropping a collection of previously unreleased instruments titled Return Of The SP1200 on Record Store Day (April 13). Heads were justifiably excited, especially given that these beats were reportedly made between 1990 and 1998. Between Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth’s All Souled Out and his solo debut Soul Survivor, P.R. made some of his most acclaimed music.

“The Chocolate Boy Wonder” appeared on Sway In The Morning this week and revealed some info. After explaining that he has a ton of unreleased beats and that he plans to keep releasing LPs like Return Of The SP1200, he is asked about songs with artists that he may have in the vaults. Sway’s producer Rich Nice asks, “Are there any unreleased joints you have with you and [Heavy D]?” Pete responds, “Yeah, yeah…yeah, heck yeah.” To which Sway counters, “Would you ever release ‘em?” Without hesitation, the Mount Vernon native answers, “Yeah. Yup, it’s just, you know, finding the right ones and saying, ‘Hey, pshhhht.’ And then there’s…I got a song…I got his very first demo, actually, on acetate. It’s in my garage somewhere. But yeah, it was pretty dope.” Pete and Heavy D were cousins on top of close collaborators until Hev’s 2011 passing. Heavy D & The Boyz member DJ Eddie F. is who taught Pete Rock how to use the famed sampler. He also says he was able to witness Marley Marl during seminal Juice Crew sessions. “I consider Marley the J Dilla of the ’80s,” Pete asserts.

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