The P Stands For Everything

“Now we found out some time ago, that if you take a whole group of really super-bad dudes and hang ‘em in together, they’ll make some music whether or not somebody else thought it was hip, ya’ know it’d be O.K.
Somebody’s got to start it, ya’ dig?”

Established in Milwaukee, WI in 1995, the Rusty Ps (formerly “Rusty Pelicans”) have played an instrumental role in the Midwest underground music scene. For nearly a decade strong, the Ps have been touring nationally and internationally bringing their unique style of hip hop to the world. The Rusty Ps have had many releases, local, national and international, over their 10 year career. They have recently released a new full length album “Rusty Ps vs Milwaukee”. In previous releases they have featured Imani of the Pharcyde and Slug of Atmosphere. They have released independently and released under Grand Central Records (UK). At home they have been recognized numerous times by the Wisconsin Area Music Industry as the state’s premier hip hop group. Revered by fans and critics alike, the Rusty Ps continue to create and produce their own brand of original hip hop music.

Performances:
Rusty Ps has toured nationally and internationally with groups such as The Pharcyde, Killa Kella and DJ Hype (Germany). As an opening act, Rusty Ps has also performed with groups such as Run DMC, Eminem, Blackalicious, Latyrx, DJ Shadow, The Roots, Slick Rick, Jurassic 5, Digital Underground, Masta Ace, Hieroglyphics, Ludacris, The Black Eyed Peas, Nappy Roots and Atmosphere.

Awards:
WAMI (Wisconsin Area Music Industry)
Rusty Ps is a multiple WAMI award winner for the Best Hip-Hop/Rap category, in the years 2000, 2001 and 2006. With nominations in 1999 and 2002.

“Best of Milwaukee”
Voted “best of” by the readers of the Shepherd Express in the years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2005.

Discography:
Visit our music page for our discography and our links page for more Rusty Ps music online (iTunes, MySpace, etc…)

History: A work in progress…
The story of the Rusty Ps begins in 1982 when S Watson attended kindergarten with the Phantom Channel. The two attended Neskara Elementary in Milwaukee, WI, for their first year of school. Watson, an import to Milwaukee from Chicago and Channel a Milwaukee native became good friends right off the bat but parted ways after this first year of school.

From there, Phantom Channel went on to attend school with the Count Classic. It was first grade at St. Sebastian’s in Milwaukee. Count Classic soon moved to Madison WI.

Phantom Channel, remaining at “Sebs” for the rest of his grade school education soon reunited with S Watson in the 6th grade as Watson began attending St Sebastian’s as well. They finished their elementary education there and parted ways for different high schools.

Count Classic returned from Madison and attended Nicolet High School. There he met Oneself and continued at Nicolet for his entire high school education.

Oneself, having left Nicolet after the first two years of high school, attended West Division High School. There he met Phantom Channel and Dana Coppafeel who had been attending that school since freshman year. Oneself reunited Channel with Classic, the old friends from first grade. They all graduated from their respective schools in 1995 and Phantom Channel and Mr. Smith (aka Oneself) went on to move into an apartment with their good friend Count Classic.

Already music lovers and hip hop “heads” the four, Classic, Channel, Oneself and Coppafeel, remained friends and having learned much of the culture of hip hop in high school began small freestyle sessions with other local aspiring rappers and also invested in a small beat machine, the DR-5. Meanwhile, S Watson went on to attend the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He left school after approximately 6 months and returned home.

Without any connections in Milwaukee, Watson called his old friend Phantom Channel and began hanging out with who would soon become the Rusty Pelicans. Watson remained in Milwaukee for 6 months and went on to attend a recording arts school, Full Sail, in Winter Park, FL.

It was during this time, 1996, that the Rusty Pelicans were taking shape in a basement apartment on Milwaukee’s east side.

The Phantom Channel was yet to receive his name, as well as Count Classic, it was 1996. They both lived with Smith. The apartment was as melting pot of nothside/eastside hoods, well-to-do “northshore” kids and a variance of musicians and transients. It was awesome. There was an endless party going on. The only time no-one was home was when the party went to another house. Now, there are a million stories to tell from these days and maybe sometime they will be told, but not today.

Nonetheless, S Watson left school in Florida and moved back by late ‘97. He had the will and the know-how to start recording and working with more complicated samplers. The group began meeting in the basement of Watson’s mother’s west-side home for recording, drinking and smoking.

The year was 1998. We had just recently been tapped by a local entrepreneur to put a track on his “Existence” series of local music. We agreed and jumped into what would be a long lasting and interesting relationship with our now longtime friend and consultant, Rick.
The track was called “Heat Holders” (if someone has a copy out there send it over and I’ll post it), it was our first time in the studio and we got the chance to work with the muti-WAMI award winning Bill Stace. We learned a lot in those early sessions and some of it became “Experimental Process“.

It was through Rick that we were also able to record our first single on wax, “Prototype RPCP“. We cut the musical track here in Milwaukee and then headed to L.A. to cut the vocals and mix the record with James Mansfield, engineer for the “Bizarre Ride to The Pharcyde” album. We had one hell of a time out there and got to meet The Pharcyde for the first time which was cool. All stories of drama, etc. aside we cut the record, went home and had it printed right away. The printing of records is not cheap and shipping them is really expensive too, so we learned real quick that cds would be a better way for us to approach our next project, “The Best Part”.

It was also during this time, 1998, that we were starting to play more shows in the Milwaukee area. Our first notable show was opening for Hieroglyphics in the summer of 98. Hip Hop was not really trusted as a genre of music that would bring a “safe” crowd at that time so we really had to do some convincing to get shows rolling in the area. Thanks to Rick and his connections we were able to start doing shows at “The Rave”, one of Milwaukee’s biggest venues, with many of hip-hop’s finest national acts. From The Rave we started to spread out and use the notability to open doors for hip hop in other places in Milwaukee that were leery, to say the least, about having a “rap” group perform.

more to come…