Last Night In Atl: Plies Listening Party…

Last night I attended the Listening Session for Plies upcoming album “Da Realest” at Patchwerks studio in Atlanta. Now I’m gonna be honest, I wasn’t a fan of Plies before the session last night. In fact, the only reason I agreed to go was because I was already out at a video shoot.  My first real introduction to his music was “Bust It Baby” and even then I would ask myself “Why would a college educated man refer to his women as bust it babies”. Better yet, refer to himself as a “goon”. I always believed it to be an “act” and never thought it was real but yet all of his album titles played off of the word “real” (The Real Testament, Definition of Real, Da Realest)

Ironically, as soon as Plies took the mic, the first thing he said was “I’m the realest artist you’ll ever meet”. Oh Brother, Here we go… He went on to thank everyone for allowing him the opportunity to feed his family and expressed that he never wants people to feel as though they are beneath him. Throughout the night he continuously expressed how thankful he was for the opportunity to be there and somehow he started to get through to me. I’m not sure if it was the story he told about offering a released inmate a ride home and then giving him a “start up kit” (financial blessing) as he dropped him off. I’m not sure if it was the fact that I just happened to remember audio of a lady who had just lost her job calling into a radio station to talk to Plies.  I remember how I felt when she broke down in tears after he asked for her information so he could send her money.  How many rappers would do you know that would have done that? Now that was real…

Maybe it was the record “Family Straight” which he described as his most personal record to date. In the record he raps about his brother’s prison sentence, his aunt’s kindey failure, an aunt living with AIDS and his 16 year old cousin who was pregnant by a 38 year old man. He pleads throughout the record “God before you take me, let me get my family straight”.

I felt that...

He also played snippets of collaborations with Ashanti and songwriter Sean Garrett before the session ended in an unexpected twist.  We all were asked to bow our heads in prayer.

(God don’t strike me, I needed that prayer…)

Sean Garrett, Yung Joc and Plies

Chaka Zulu (DTP) and Plies

Atlantic Records Moses Davis and Yancey Richardson

Plies turns his Goon chain in for praying hands…

Julie Beverly post-interview with Plies

I may not “get” Plies just yet, but I will say last night gave me a better understanding of who he is as an artist and where he’s coming from. Not to mention he had some bangers on the album. I’ll give him that…

His new album “Da Realest” hits stores December 16th!

Images: Ozone Magazine

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