So Sick Edits

Pete Rock Readies Long-Awaited ‘PeteStrumentals 3’ LP

Pete Rock will complete his trilogy of instrumental LPs this December with the release of PeteStrumentals 3, the legendary hip-hop producer’s latest installment focusing on his inimitable studio work.

However, unlike the previous samples-heavy releases in the PeteStrumentals series, the third installment sees Rock creating his own loops with a powerhouse band dubbed the Soul Brothers.

“A lot of this album sounds like samples extracted from records. We dress it up and add definition to what it is. It’s Hip-Hop, but have you ever heard Pete Rock not sample anything or work with a band? It’s exciting. I’m a musician, whether I’m sampling or not,” Rock said. “Music is music; it’s what I think about it all day, every day.”

For the release, Rock formed the Soul Brothers, a band of all-star session musicians that includes drummer Daru Jones (Jack White, Talib Kweli), guitarist Marcus Machado, bassists MonoNeon (Prince, Nas) and Christian McBride (Sting), keyboardist BigYuki (A Tribe Called Quest) and vocalist Jermaine Holmes (D’Angelo).


“I wanted to keep the same feeling that people got with the first PeteStrumentals, even if I’m not sampling,” Rock said of the Soul Brothers ensemble. “I want the best; I’m like James Brown and Kool & The Gang; I want precision.”

Ahead of the December 11th release of PeteStrumentals 3, Rolling Stone exclusively shares the first single “Say It Again,” a kaleidoscopic funk odyssey that, over its airy seven-minute runtime, gives each of the Soul Brothers an opportunity to show off. Midway through the track, Rock quotes the Indeep classic “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life,” “There’s not a problem that I can’t fix / Cause I can do it in the mix.”

“This is something that I’ve always wanted to do” Rock tells Rolling Stone. “Being an avid digger of albums and 45s, I now have a band to study and reinterpret these records. Presenting this to the world is so fulfilling.”

PeteStrumentals 3 — the long-awaited follow-up to 2001’s PeteStrumentals and 2015’s PeteStrumentals 2 (and its J. Rocc-remix album)  — is available to preorder on clear vinyl, black vinyl, CD and cassette now over at TruSoul Records ahead of the album’s December 11th arrival.