Composer/producer Perquisite was born in Amsterdam in the spring of 1982 and started to create beats at age 14. Having played the cello since his early youth, he has always been involved with and inspired by all kinds of music, ranging from classical and 60's music to Hip Hop, Soul and Jazz. His musical journey led him to travelling through the U.S. on his own as a youngster and when he came back to Holland he established his own record label Unexpected Records in March 2001. In October of that same year he released his debut, the 'Outta Nowhere EP'. This 7-track EP, which featured Jazz saxophonist Benjamin Herman, came literally out of nowhere to become known as a little gem in the Hip-Hop/Nu Jazz-movement. The follow-up to this EP, the 'Double Vision EP', which featured Jazz clarinetist David Kweksilber, was released in October 2002 and consisted of 7 even more up-tempo, twisted and relaxating beats.
After his two instrumental EP's, Perquisite started to work together with producers Omar Rey & Ane1 and MC's Pete Philly, Cee Major & Kain Slim. They called themselves North West Metropolis. Tracks of their EP 'Expressions' were included on compilation-albums in France and Spain and received airplay on several radio-stations throughout the world. After this successful collaboration, Perquisite and Pete Philly (Aruba, 1980) decided to join forces to form the producer/MC-duo Pete Philly & Perquisite.
The first result of this soulful coalition was the Mindstate EP, which had it's release in January 2004 on Unexpected Records. The Mindstate EP was very positively regarded by the international press and recieved airplay on BBC1 were it was played by Benji B. Pete & Perq continued their collaboration and in march 2005 they released their 17-track debut album 'Mindstate', which was released all over Europe & Japan. It contained featurings by vocalists Talib Kweli, CeeMajor and Senna as well as featurings by internationally known Jazz musicians Jesse van Ruller and Benjamin Herman. UK's Notion Magazine proclaimed their music to be "as much 21st century soul as Hip Hop genius" and continued with mentioning Mindstate as "one of the most profound Hip Hop albums of the year". Talib Kweli added that "musically these guys are light-years ahead of the game."
Pete & Perq started to play with their 5-piece live formation throughout Europe and received several awards including the Essent Award, the Zilveren Harp, the Kink FM Live XS Award for Best New Live Act and were nominated for the Edisons (Dutch Grammy's), 3FM Awards, TMF Awards and the MTV European Music Awards.
After extensive touring all over Europe and shows in South Africa and the United States, where the album was released now as well through ANTI records, Pete & Perq finished their tour in September 2006 in a sold out Melkweg in Amsterdam. Perquisite went back to the studio to work together with Pete on their sophomore album. During this non-touring period 'Remindstate' was released, the totally remixed version of the 'Mindstate' album. The record, which was released January 2007, included remixes from several musical friends of the duo, like Seiji (Bugz in the Attic), Nicolay (The Foreign Exchange), C-Mon & Kypski, Laidback Luke and the Metropole Orchestra and was well received by both the audience and press.
In September 2007 their second album, 'Mystery Repeats', was released in The Netherlands through Unexpected Records / ANTI Records. A Belgium release followed on January 21st 2008, the European release on February 18th and the Japanese release on March 5th 2008. The album entered first position in the Dutch album charts in the week of its release and first single 'Time Flies' received a lot of radio- and airplay. The album received a lot of critical acclaim and major Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad wrote that "Mystery Repeats sometimes almost explodes because of it's creative energy" alongside De Volkskrant that described the album as being "even richer in sound and more diverse than their debut album."
Pete & Perq started the 'Mystery Repeats tour' in a sold out Melkweg with their new and improved live formation – besides Pete on vocals, Perq on laptop and cello, DJ PCM on turntables, Remco Keijzer on saxophones and Kasper Kalf on bass, it now also included Ruben Hein on keys and vocals - and started to play shows all over Europe. In march of 2008 they toured around Japan and in April of that same year they toured togeher with Leeroy from Saian Supa Crew in Germany. In the summer of 2008 they played at well known festivals across Europe including Sziget (HU), Nuke (AT), Exit (SR), Lowlands (NL), HipHop Open (DE), North Sea Jazz (NL), Gurten (CH) and Summerjam (DE). When they got back in Amsterdam they received the prestigious 'Amsterdam Award of Art', the most important art award of the city, presented by the Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen. At this time their third single 'Mystery Repeats' entered the Dutch Top 40 and became their most successful single up to this date, with the accompanying video receiving more than one million hits on youtube. Pete Philly & Perquisite concluded the Dutch part of the Mystery Repeats tour in a sold out Paradiso, Amsterdam, only to continue touring abroad. Shows in the Caribbean, the USA and South Africa followed, where they played for the second time on the Cape Town International Jazz Festival.
After his return, in may 2009, Perq was awarded with the so called 'Duiveltje' for Best Producer of The Netherlands. The award is handed out once a year by the Dutch Music Society (MCN) and is voted for by Dutch musicians.
Pete and Perq both felt it was time to focus on other projects now besides Pete Philly & Perquisite. Perquisite was asked to compose the entire score for Dutch movie 'Carmen van het Noorden'. The film, which was released on September 24th 2009, has been produced by Fu Works (Black Book, Oorlogswinter) and stars Tygo Gernandt and Sanguita Akkrum in the lead rolls, as well as Thom Hoffman. For the soundtrack Perquisite has worked with the cream of the crop of the Dutch Hip Hop scene, including GMB, Jiggy Djé, Turk, Duvel, Typhoon and Sticks. On the Dutch Film Festival 2009 Perquisite was awarded for his achievement with a 'Gouden Kalf', Holland's most prestigious movie award; a very big honour considering the fact that this was his first experience with film music.
As we speak Pete Philly & Perquisite just finished their final tour which they called 'The Final Celebration Tour'. With an enlarged 13-piece live formation Pete & Perq did celebrate their music one last time in 17 different theatres around Holland. They gave their final show in a sold out Melkweg on October 29th which Dutch Magazine Oor called a 'glorious goodbye celebration'.
Right now Perquisite is working on his first full solo album which will probably be released October 2010.
A part from being active as a producer/composer and musician, Perquisite also runs his label Unexpected Records, gives workshops every now and then and has been responsible for the management of Pete Philly & Perquisite since it's establishment in early 2004 untill it's disbandment late 2009.
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