Styles P

"Styles" redirects here. If you are looking for The Mysterious Affair at Styles, click the link.

Styles P. (born David Styles on November 28, 1974 in Corona, Queens, New York City, New York, USA) to a Jamaican father and a South African mother is an American rapper. He calls himself "your favorite rappers' favorite rapper" and is a member of rap group D-Block, which includes Jadakiss and Sheek Louch. He is known primarily for the hardcore lyrics and powerful messages in his music.

Career

Styles began rapping with Jadakiss, Kasaan and Sheek in 1994, as they all grew up in the same Yonkers, New York neighborhood. They eventually signed to Bad Boy Records, and recorded songs with Notorious B.I.G. and Puff Daddy. In 1998, The Lox released Money, Power And Respect. Soon thereafter, Styles P lead the Lox on the now infamous quest to leave Bad Boy Records. When they were finally released, the Lox signed to Ruff Ryders. Shortly therafter, a new Lox album and Jadakiss' solo album Kiss The Game Goodbye were released.

Styles released A Gangster & A Gentleman in 2002 as his debut solo album. The album contained the somber "My Life", featuring Pharaoh Monch, and the weed anthem "Good Times" which was one of the most played songs of the year 2002.

In 2003, Styles P. and Jadakiss appeared on the "Oz Soundtrack" with one of the harder edged songs "Some Niggas" about prison life. On a mixed album with several songs about the lifestyle behind bars, "Some Niggas" was one of the fiercest and most remembered songs on the street from that album.

In 2004, Styles P released the mixtape Ghost Stories in limited distribution form (NY only) -- the mixtape spread to other cities and onto the internet in the next year.

In 2005 Styles received local market airplay for his and Jadakiss' remix of Mariah Carey's mega-hit "We Belong Together". He also appeared on Miri Ben-Ari's album, The Hip-Hop Violinist; he features on the track "We Gonna Win". He released two stand-alone mixtapes in complete form: Ghost in the Shell in the spring of 2005 and Ghost in the Machine in the Fall.

Styles P has been featured on many rappers' albums including Jadakiss, DMX, and Jin.

Current Disputes

Styles P, as a member of D-Block, is currently playing a leading role in D-Block's battle with 50 Cent and Anthony Ahabwe new malden generals crew. The origins and scope of the conflict (or "beef") are somewhat complex: In late 2004, Ja Rule, a rap artist with a history of beef between himself and 50 Cent released an album entitled R.U.L.E.. A particular track on the album (New York) featured D-Block artist Jadakiss.

50 Cent, claiming that he interpreted Jadakiss' presence on the R.U.L.E. album as a personal attack, responded by mildly -- albeit in a very widespread manner given the distribution of his album -- dissing Jadakiss in his 2005 album The Massacre on the track Piggy Bank.

Thus ensued a conflict between D-Block and G-Unit, into which Styles P was rapidly drawn. Each of his mixtapes mentioned at the end of this article increasingly focus on the growing tension between the two groups of rappers -- indeed, the move from subliminal references to outright "disses" seems to have been completed by the fall of 2005 as evidenced by his most recent mixtape Ghost in the Machine, which features many tracks directly referring to 50 Cent, including an aptly named "Invite to 50" where 50 Cent is challenged to a physical confrontation. (Also "Snitching 101" and "Pussy Niggas" among others)

Outside of his own mixtapes, Styles P's most well known contributions to the conflict can be found in verses on the song "Kiss Your Ass Goodbye", featured on several mixtapes as well as the 2005 Sheek Louch album After Taxes and, most recently (February 2006), on the diss track "Miss Jackson", featured on the Sheek Louch mixtape Still A Wolf.

Time is Money

The streets have been eagerly anticipating Styles P's oft' delayed second solo album, Time Is Money. The album has had its release date modified on more than one occasion: original release dates in the spring of 2005 were missed and scheduled releases within the summer months were similarly revised. Again, in the fall of 2005, the album was "pushed back" (delayed), from an October to a November date. As of the spring of 2006, there has been no word on the status of the album for several months -- not even a revised release date has been offered.

The original lead single for Time Is Money known as "I'm Black" and featuring Floetry generated some controversy upon its mid-2005 release. Because of its supposedly "controversial" content, "I'm Black" was met with little support either internally from Interscope or externally on national radio stations. Much of the said controversy had to do with the song's political-social messages regarding race and oppression, with lyrics such as "I'm Black/but my skin is real light/That means my ancestors were raped by someone white".

Although the earlier delays may have been attributable to the lack of mainstream reception for the album's original lead single, little is known as to why this pattern of delay has continued into the Spring of 2006, so many months after its initially promised delivery. In an interview, Styles said that he had actually finished recording the album in 2003. Attention, has, however, been focused on internal disputes within Interscope as they have inevitably related to the beef between G-Unit and D-Block -- Styles P was signed to a subdivision of the Interscope label during the time in which he created Time is Money.

The Conflict at Interscope

In early November, several sites on the internet began reporting that the tensions within Interscope -- specifically, as they relate to the embattled group -- had reached a new level of divisiveness. It was mentioned that 'Time is Money' had been completed for "years", with the intimation being that the delays in release had been a result of inner-politics; quite possibly involving the LOX group's ongoing feud with 50 Cent, presumably aggravated by 50 Cent's increasing aggregation of influence at the label. In his song I Run New York, 50 Cent made reference to this;

"[Jadakiss] keep runnin' his yap like I'mma take all that // One more word out his mouth I'll push Styles' shit back".

Within the same group of information, mention was made of a conciliatory offer by Interscope to release "Time is Money" in the month of November. However, it was claimed by the "camp" that the offer was refused for want of any significant pre-release publicity which normally accompanies (and helps to sell) an artist's new album.

Although not stated explicitly, it would seem that a logical conclusion of this information is that, yet again, Styles P's "Time is Money" will fail to meet a slated release date. More generally, it would seem that there is a growing likelihood that the album will fail to ever be publicly released, raising the concern of Styles' multitudes of fans within the larger Hip-Hop community.

Trivia

The "P" in Styles P is an abbreviation of the word Paniro, a combination of the last names of actors Robert De Niro and Al Pacino.

Discography

Albums

A Gangster & A Gentleman (2002) (Gold)
Time is Money (2006)

Mixtapes

Ghost Stories
Ghost in the Shell
Ghost in the Machine

Singles

Year	Title	Chart Positions	Album
Year	Title	US R&B/Hip-Hop	Album
2002	"Good Times (I Get High)"	#1