After a silence of thirteen years, the duo Pete Philly & Perquisite has reunited. Last Friday there was a reunion concert in Afas Live, a new album is being worked on and there is already a single, ‘Hot Sauce’. These are reasons for joy and curiosity, because Pete Philly & Perquisite made a special contribution to Dutch hip hop at the beginning of this century.
Pieter Perquin, alias Perquisite, was the producer who devised the instrumentations full of musical side paths: snatches of jazz, flamenco or a lush ‘classical’ piano. That organic-sounding accompaniment, with double bass and a combination of drummer and drum machines, was the atmospheric setting for the raps of Pedro Philip Monzón, or Pete Philly.
His raps were fluid and friendly, for example on their second, last album Mystery Repeats (2007). That album was a triumph, both nationally and internationally. The group gave many performances at home and abroad, until the leaders stopped working together for personal reasons.
Their reunion, in a well-packed Afas Live, could have been a victory. But the mood was unexpectedly cool. Comments about the long absence were limited to figures: so many years away, so many successes celebrated. There was no discharge or contact, not with the audience and not between the group members themselves.
In the meantime they played an old-fashioned show. Because the eleven musicians, dressed in white and yellow costumes, were lined up in a semicircle, in which they seemed to be trapped. But also because of the musical style, which relied heavily on skilled musicians who excel on their wind and string instruments. Solos on sax or piano played a part in almost every song. The electronic underlay was barely present.
Pete Philly’s exuberant way of dancing across the entire width of the stage broke the static image. His voice and way of rapping are at the same time punctual and rounded, and still spot on in songs like ‘Believer’ and ‘Empire’. But thirteen years later, now that almost every rapper chooses Dutch, English as the main language also sounds outdated.
It was the arrival of singer Jeangu Macrooy that spiced up the performance. Macrooy sang his soulful ‘A Little Greener’, made with Perquisite, and suddenly the accompaniment also sounded like a driving whole. Singer Naaz, who hooked her passionate guttural sounds to the soft syllables of Philly like a whirlwind, also brought excitement. The group members themselves seemed too unfamiliar this evening to conjure up that obvious magic.