Bay Area production team return with all new remix album/mixtape thing, where they reimagine tracks from Zero 7, PPP, Kid Cudi, Common, Kanye West, J*DaVey, Zo! & Tigallo, Janelle Monet, Wale, Kenna, Chromeo, and more.

Trackademiks Remix Tape Vol. 3 (Mixtape)

Comparisons are more likely to fall in the range of Gnarls Barkley, Mark Ronson, or even Outkast, as Abundance redefines PPP as a funk/soul band, creating throwback R&B jams with new vocalists such as Coultrain, Karma, and Jamila Raegan. You can ask “who?” all you want, but looking back at their 2005 debut will show the unveiling of previously unheard artists like Georgia Anne Muldrow and Tiombe Lockhart, among other established peers like Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Steve Spacek, and Dilla himself.

Abundance presents a much fuller sound than their previous works, as the duo teams to create tracks with live instrumentation rather than studio produced beats. Leading the pack here is male vocalist Coultrain, who kicks the album off with the rock & soul sounds “Angel”, obviously taking a page from Sly & The Family Stone with skull-snapping drums and sleazy guitar licks. Coultrain explores many different musical territories, with sticky space funk on “Ain’t No Ifs Or Maybes”, channeling Stevie on “Pigeon Hole”, and getting his Rico Suave Bossa Nova on with the Latin tinged “The Ghost Of Aveiro”. He also teams with Jamila Raegan for the exceptional “Sanctuary”, a lovelorn tune built upon a heavy string-section.

Jamila also chimes in for the Motown-means-mainstream-soul tune “Go, Go, Go”, but the other real standout talent here is fellow female vocalist Karma Stewart. Karma propels the album’s lead single, “On A Cloud”, a fitting up-tempo retro-soul cut that might make Amy Winehouse bat a fake eyelash. The Sa-Ra inspired “Luv Affair” also puts in her prime form, as she voyages over hard-hitting drums and melodic pianos buried in cosmic slop. Both Karma and Coultrain team up for a pair of songs with the swingy “Dirty Secrets” and the atmospheric “Rocket Science”.

PPP’s already flavorful musical palate now contains a wide variety of sounds thanks to the expanded arsenal of instrumentation found on Abundance. It’s not surprising to hear that each Cee-Lo, Estelle, and Mark Ronson protégé Daniel Merriweather have tapped Waajeed to produce tracks for them; that PPP branded Grammy can’t be too far behind.  – Pizzo

The album is quite beat driven but with a whole lot of funk and soul in the amounts,Wajeed sheds some light on how he feels about the album, “I am proud of the album as a whole”, he continues, “Its kind of hard for me to separate the tracks because they all fit into one another like a puzzle. If I had to pick one though, I would have to go with ‘Detroit Winter’”. “Yeah, for the most part I am pleased”, says a now humble Wajeed, as ‘Triple P’ sprung from the music scene, it has invented itself as a record to listen to due to its high level of energy and positive lyrical content, even though it has swearing on it. However, the album never went triple platinum, but for this dynamic duo from Detroit, it is all about the music, “If they gave me a check box to describe my sound, I would check ‘E’, ‘All of the above’. Its really kind a of hard for me to describe my sound because I do a lot. The Platinum Pied Pipers album is not a total representation of how I produce, it is just one chamber”.

Wajeed and other Platinum Pied Piper member Saadiq, plans on making an album two in the future but being a producer as well, admiration for these guys is endless, “Be original. Do you”, advises Wajeed. Yet, Platinum Pied Piper, have come out of nowhere, Wajeed speaks, “I started seriously making music around 2002″. The Platinum Pied Pipers gave a musical insight on the Detroit music scene and who to look for, “There is a vocalist from Detroit named Monica Blaire that is bananas. She is a great writer, vocalist and performer. Keep your ears open for her!” For most creative people, life can be at times brutal, and when the creative side isn’t working out, it can set them back for miles, unlike the normal individual. Musicians can be also sensitive human beings; Wajeed replies about home life as a child, “It was pleasant for the most part. As pleasant as it can be when you are living in a war zone. My family and friends were my foundation as far as survival. They gave me what I needed to pull through”.

He continues, “It could be anything”, regarding musical influence. “It could be that I have just seen a good movie or documentary. Listening to good records. Looking at television and seeing all this wack shit out there. Anything”. Once spoken to many USA artists from this particular music scene, they always have a desire to venture into London or the UK, Wajeed says, “I love London. It’s a great place to be. It’s just as racist as the USA. I feel right at home”. Well, maybe Wajeed was not all that sincere, bordering on sarcasm perhaps but he proceeds to reflect on the current black music scene, “I think it reflects the state of black people today. It is all over the board, people creative positive images to be followed and then you’ve also got some bullshit going on. But, I think ultimately its leading to a positive result”. With all these views being shared, “Home”, says Wajeed, is the most real place in the world for him.

     Triple P plays like a compilation album, thanks to its many guests, but carries the unified sound also present on Dilla’s Welcome To Detroit (of which also Waajeed co-produced). Heavy basslines, rolling drums, and snapping snares are common elements that sew together the album, despite the heavy guest list. Dilla himself kicks things off with the “Shotgun Intro”, making it official, leading directly into Georgia’s “Your Day Is Done”, an undeniable headcracker juxtaposed with her smooth vocals. Things continue on a positive pace as the PPP’s buzzworthy counterparts, Sa Ra Creative Partners, lend their millennial cosmic slop to a trademark thumping bassline (think back to Dilla’s “Big Booty Express”). Things get a bit more raw on “Stay With Me”, propelled by a dirty Madlib-esque marching snare, again evened out with sultry neo-soul struts, this time from Tiombe Lockheart. The crew even successfully infuses Latin rhythms on Spacek’s “No Worries” (and again on a dope cover of Paul Simon’s “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover”, featuring Rogier). Dilla brings things back to the essence on “Act Like You Know”, presenting one of his best verses in recent memory, suggesting “both Kill Bill pictures ain’t as ill as us”. 

     While solid, However Triple P isn’t a perfect album, it does have its lulls – case in point is Invincible’s “Detroit Winter” or Ta’Raach’s random, stream-of-consciousness flow which bounces “Lights Out” off the track. Ironically, with the exception of the two from Dilla, it’s the standard hip-hop tracks are where the album’s missteps are, but by no fault of the producers. Instead, the album’s strongest moments lie in the many neo-soul collaborations sprinkled throughout, ripe for blunt sessions, coffee houses, and Old Navy dressing rooms. While this is the perfect jump off for the group, their future may lie in solid, fully-produced LP’s with some of Triple P’s collaborators, but don’t be surprised if you find them producing for Jay-Z or other major label artists within the next year – their sound is that good.