Pete Philly and Perquisite

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Pete Philly and Perquisite
Origin	Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Country	The Netherlands
Years active	2002 – Present
Genres	Hiphop Jazz Broken-beats Soul
Labels	Unexpected Records Epitaph Records ANTI P-Vine Records
Members	Pieter Monzon Pieter Perquin
Website(s)	Official Website

Pete Philly & Perquisite are a couple of two Dutch musicians. Pieter Monzon (Pete Philly) is an MC and Pieter Perquin (Perquisite) plays cello, produces and writes all the music. He is thus considered the musical 'brain' behind the duo. Their music is best described as hiphop, combined with jazz, broken beats and soul. They are well-known for their energetic live-performances. They usually perform with help from DJ PCM (Misha van der Winkel), Remco Keijzer on saxophone and flute and Kasper Kalf on double-bass. On some occasions Pete's girlfriend Senna Gourdou comes out on stage and sings their hit-song Mellow with them.

Pete Philly and Perquisite both had musical careers before they met in the autumn of 2002. They decided to collaborate and in 2003 their first EP The Mindstate EP came out. The EP received critical acclaim, which stimulated Pete Philly & Perquisite to record a full album in the likes of the EP. Each track of the album would represent a state of mind, hence the title Mindstate. The actual writing, recording and producing of the much anticipated album took 18 months in total, and included collaborations, with fellow Dutch rapper Cee-Major (The Proov), Dutch singer Senna Gourdou and famous American rapper Talib Kweli. The debut-album was considered by critics as one of the best albums ever by Dutch artists, but albumsales weren't impressive. Critics often claimed that the album didn't sell as good as projected due to the fact that the album might be too good for the Netherlands (in Dutch "onnederlands goed"). The duo did create a very solid fanbase with performances across Europe and also in the USA and South Africa. Success rose because of their performances and hitsongs in the likes of Mellow and Grateful. Their success led them to winning an Essent Award and a Zilveren Harp. They also have been nominated for a Dutch MOBO-award and for the prestigious Edison-award.

On August 20, 2006 they performed at the A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise-festival for the second time, but this time it was in a very special setting, since they were performing with the New Generation Big Band.