Prince Paul is a DJ, producer, man of mystery, crime fighter and people’s champion. “Hip-hop skit” inventor. Producer of 3 Grammy award winning albums, as well as nominations, "Best producer of the year" 1990 New York music awards. In addition to numerous awards gold and platinum plaques Paul considers himself quiet, quirky and humble: "I never seen this coming... I thought I was going to be a postman..."
Born in Queens New York and raised in Amityville Long Island. Started DJing at the age of 10. Joined his first crew (Eveready crew) in the 6th grade. Went on to joining Newkirk aka Kid wonder, Mic Teelux and Sugar Ray to form The Soul Brothers in Jr High School. Paul then went on to meet Stetsasonic in 1984 becoming their DJ and releasing their first single "Just Say Stet" on Tommy Boy in 1985. Also note arguably that the scratches on "Just Say Stet" was way beyond its time and groundbreaking for its era... Paul states "Yeah, I tried to be the best DJ in the world back then, I wanted to push the envelope in cutting and scratching and sound. Nobody really knows that was my true passion".
Paul sites Jazzy Jay, Grand Wizard Theodore, GrandMixer D.X.T. and Afrika Bambaataa as his inspirations. Also battled in the New Music seminar DJ battle for world supremacy in 1986 only to make it to the semifinals... Stet went on to record 3 albums "On Fire" (Go Stetsa), "In Full Gear" (Talking All The Jazz) and "Blood, Sweat & No Tears". From that point Paul was introduced to record making and production thus leading him to produce De La Soul, their first single was "Plug Tunin" 1987/88, second single "Potholes In My Lawn" leading to the album "3 Feet High And Rising" in 1989... Paul states "I loved working with De La, it gave me a chance to be the silly kid I was/am and to experiment". In addition to inventing the "hip-hop skit" originally known as "bugg out pieces". "3 Feet High And Rising" went beyond conventional rap albums with its own sound, culture and style. Paul went on to produce "De La Soul Is Dead" and "Buhloone Mind State" for De La Soul... During that time Paul also went on to produce 3rd Bass "Gas Face", Big Daddy Kane, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Boogie Down Productions, The Jaz and Jay-Z, Groove B Chill, Slick Rick, 7A3, Candyman, Nikki D... The list goes on and on and on. Remixes for Beastie Boys, Fine Young Cannibals, Peter Wolf, etc...
Also starting his own label Dew Doo Man records under Def Jam's associated labels. The label only spawned one release by Resident Alien and an unreleased album by Mic Teelux. After being accepted then rejected in the music business in 1991 Paul put together the Gravediggaz with Prince Rakeem aka The RZA, Poetic aka The Grym Reaper and Fruitkwan (formerly from Stet) aka The Gatekeeper. The group band together as "rejects" made a demo that circulated for more than a year with no results.
During that time RZA put out Wu-Tang Clan independently with great results. After continuous rejection the group got signed to Gee Street records in 1993 releasing "6 Feet Deep" originally known as "Niggamortis". This album unfortunately was highly misinterpreted and was labeled a "Horror core gimmick". The actually concept of the album was to uplift... Despite the criticism the album was well received and is actually Paul's favorite self-production to date. The group went on to make one more album collectively "The Pick, The Sickle And The Shovel" before parting (Poetic R.I.P).
Depressed and doomed Paul went on to produce "Psychoanalysis" on Wordsound which Paul describes as "a bunch of rejected songs that will surely end my career". Surprisingly the album caught the attention of many and launched Paul's career again. Thus bringing about a new deal with Tommy Boy and an offer to produce Chris Rock’s 3 Grammy award winning albums "Roll With The New", “Bigger and Blacker” (no sex in the champagne room) and "Never Scared". Also a score for “Pooty Tang” and music for the Chris Rock show. Paul went on to produce and write "A Prince Among Thieves" which is hip-hop’s first movie on wax/rap opera. Also teaming up with Dan the Automator for Handsomeboy Modeling school as "Chest Rockwell" for "So... How’s your girl?" and "White People". Paul also scored The Showtime Movie "The Best Thief" with Newkirk aka The Lord Brothers…
Paul has since produced "Politics Of The Business", a very misunderstood and underrated album. The DIX’s "The Art Of Picking Up Women", "Goldust" and "Itstrumental" which Paul considers "for fun albums… Not to be taken seriously but to just enjoy…"
Most recently Paul just finished producing an album with Newkirk for funk keyboard legend Bernie Worrell (label TBD)... "This album is one of the best things I’ve done in a long time. Too bad it probably will hardly ever be heard by the masses".