Wikipedia Entry on Pistol Pete
For other uses, see Pistol Pete (disambiguation).
Peter Michael Nguyen, (born November 8, 1981), better known by his stage name Pistol Pete, is an Asian American rapper. Pistol Pete debuted in 1999 with an eponymous solo LP, Pistol Pete, generating an underground buzz which culminated in 2000 with his critically acclaimed opus, Ill Noise. This was followed in 2002 by the universally panned Ill Noise, Vol. 2: The Truth, the final album of his short-lived career.
Often hailed as “the third coming of Rakim,” Pistol Pete’s lyrical wordplay and delivery have drawn comparisons to Nas, Eminem, Canibus, and Chino XL. His hugely successful sophomore album is the namesake of his vanity website, www.ill-noise.com.
Early Life
Peter Michael Nguyen was born in Ames, Iowa to conservative Vietnamese immigrants who sheltered him from early musical exploration, instead encouraging him to listen only to Bruce Springsteen and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. In 1989, however, Peter would stumble upon the music video for Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” on Yo! MTV Raps, forever changing the way he would view music, as well as authority figures.
Career
During the mid-90s, Peter devoted many hours of the school day scribbling rhymes into the margins of his notebooks, eventually developing enough skill to participate in cyphers at his high school cafeteria, where he christened himself Pistol Pete. There, he met Rhimestone and they formed the rapping duo Blood Brothaz. The pair later expanded into a trio called T.R.I.O. (The Rap International Outfit) after being joined by longtime production collaborator Caleb Vickers. A rap group inspired superficially by 3rd Base in that it used their multiethnic makeup as a gimmick to sell records (Rhimestone is black, Pistol Pete is Asian, Caleb is white), T.R.I.O. disbanded within three weeks due to a highly public feud between Rhimestone and Pistol Pete, as well as Caleb’s desire to start up a Ramones tribute band.
Pistol Pete (1999)
Initially scheduled for a May 1999 release, Pistol Pete was finally released in October 1999. Drawing heavily from influences such as Slick Rick, Mos Def and Common, the album was lauded by critics for its sophisticated storytelling techniques. Standout tracks were “Outcomes” and “Sirens”. A surprise hit, the allegorical “Sirens” retold the story of the deadly sea seductresses of Greek mythology, with parallels to his distrust of current day police officers.
Cop cars blaring, red and blue lights
Can’t tell the difference between dead or new life
An early draft of “Sirens” was leaked onto MrBlunt.com in August 1999.
Ill Noise (2000)
Following the promising response to his first album, Pistol Pete devoted the entire summer after his high school graduation to working on what he routinely referred to as “the greatest thing the world will ever listen to.” He claimed the album would combine both the mordant social commentary and black militancy of Dead Prez as well as the dark nihilism of Mobb Deep, however it would also infuse jazz elements (a la A Tribe Called Quest) for a more optimistic, radio-friendly feel than his predecessors.
After much hype, Pistol Pete finally debuted the album’s first single, “Meditation”, in November 2000 at WKDI (a now-defunct radio station at Northern Illinois University) on the morning talk radio show he co-hosted with his freshman year college roommate. The single garnered rave reviews and transformed Pistol Pete into an overnight sensation. The album spawned many other hit singles: “Insomnia”, “Old School Shit”, “Take Me to Another Place”, “Norman Bates”, “Strong Rhyme”, and most notably, “Drowning”.
In February 2001, a bonus song was added to the end of the album after Pistol Pete recorded his admittedly “token commercial frat boy track”. A collaboration with close friends Timmy B and The Shit, “On the Microphone” was recorded on a dorm room computer to the tune of 2pac’s “Hit ‘Em Up” and was highly controversial at the time for its misogynistic themes. It was played on occasion at parties held by the TKE fraternity.
Ill Noise, Vol. 2: The Truth (2002)
Feeling burnt out after the success of his first two albums, Pistol Pete was not too keen on creating a third album. In a June 2001 interview he states, “With the arguable exception of the Beastie Boys, rappers should follow a two album rule of thumb. The amount of material they have in them is finite. After two albums, they just start running out of things to say. Look at Nas. Look at DMX. People still buy their albums because of who they are, but they’re merely recycling the same old stories and gimmicks.”
However, due to intense public demand, Pistol Pete began work on the new album which was released in February 2002—on his terms only, of course. Inspired by the art of Swiss painter H.R. Giger, the highly experimental Ill Noise, Vol. 2: The Truth alienated loyal fans and critics for its dramatic departure from previous work, eschewing traditional hip hop sounds for a more electronica feel. Observers commented that the album’s lyrics featured excessive pseudo-scientific jibberish with disturbing imagery, such as in the song “Apocalypse Noun”:
Biomechanical
living like animals
metallic cannibals randomly attacking phallic catapults
rambling palindromes pass for phantom antidotes
Equally as perplexing to fans was Pistol Pete’s use of non-rhyming iambic pentameter, used primarily in “Blank Verse”, as well as the twelve-minute epic “Bohemian Rapsody” (which contained no choruses, featured a sample of a screeching dial-up modem sound, and was rapped in the lightning-quick style of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony; Caleb Vickers called the song “excruciatingly exhausting”).
In a March 2002 interview, producer Robbie-O states, “He done gone crazy on us!”
Controversies
“On the Microphone”
The bonus song “On the Microphone” from Ill Noise caused a public uproar due to its graphic content.
I pay a buck fifty to touch a slut’s tittie
Just kidding—I fuck bitches up the butt silly
Known primarily as a “conscience rapper”, critics frowned upon Pistol Pete’s sudden and apparent shift in ideology. An anonymous commenter on Pistol Pete’s blog wrote, “You’ve sold out. You’re clearly pandering to that disgusting demographic of frat boys who listen to Eminem and D12 because they think misanthropy is as trendy as popping the collars of their pink polo shirts. God help you.”
Pistol Pete defended the song by saying that it “demonstrates my versatility as an artist… my voice is unbiased.”
Vandalism of Promotional Items
In early November 2001, as part of a guerilla marketing campaign to promote the upcoming Ill Noise, Vol. 2: The Truth, fliers were put up all around the NIU campus to create excitement over the upcoming album. The fliers consisted of a cartoon drawing of Pistol Pete holding a microphone with the ominous words “PISTOL PETE IS COMING” on the bottom. A day later, the microphone was altered with a marker to look like an ejaculating penis, and the words at the bottom were modified to read: “PISTOL PETE IS CUMMING.”
This incident highly angered Pistol Pete and he maintains to this day that it was all Rhimestone’s doing, although Rhimestone has denied any connection to this, stating that he was living in Atlanta, Georgia at the time.
Personal Life
Peter now lives in Chicago’s North Side and spends most of his free time writing dense, unpublishable novels and screenplays instead of recording rap music. He is currently not married to anyone.
Aliases
Cassius Clay
MC Squared
MC Escher
Scorpio
Pedro Escobar
The PZA
Discography
Pistol Pete (1999)
Ill Noise (2000)
Ill Noise, Vol. 2: The Truth (2002)
References
None.
External links