Pleasure P Does Miami Proud With Solo Debut
Hangin' with Mr. Cooper -- and we're not talking about Mark Curry. The new Mr. Cooper is the man who's known by his fans as [artist id="3022362"]Pleasure P[/artist], formerly of [artist id="1918586"]Pretty Ricky[/artist]. The same cat who, last weekend in Miami, had friends like Chris Brown, Omarion, Bow Wow, the Kardashians, actress Kyla Pratt and Yung Joc come out to his album-release party. It's dope to get love in your hometown.
" 'Boyfriend #2,' it was a #1 urban record," Pleasure said about the single from his solo debut, The Introduction of Marcus Cooper. P already hit a milestone that escaped him as the lead singer of flamboyant R&B group Pretty Ricky.
"This is my first #1 record," he said. "I didn't even get a #1 record when I was in the group. It means a lot. When I say we put blood, sweat and tears into this project and into my whole career, I literally mean blood, sweat and tears. I'm happy I'm free to do things I wanna do now. It's been a tough road for me. A real tough road."
When P left Pretty Ricky, [article id="1576688"]things initially got ugly:[/article] Lawsuits and insults flew around, but things have since simmered down.
"The relationship all of us had, the industry kinda changed who we are," he explained. "It's changed us, period. Certain people started acting different. Even me, I probably started acting different, who knows? We was all like brothers and we had a good relationship. We was closer than anything, things happen. I don't wanna talk too much about Pretty Ricky, that's in the past. I just wanna leave it in the past."
Recording his album was one big party, he said.
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"It was like relieving a lot of stress," he explained of his recording process. "Doing what I wanted to do. Doing me. Every session was a celebration. Every session we popped a bottle of Rose champagne. Me, [producers/collaborators] Rico Love, Static Major, Adonis, Tank, Jim Jonson, Cool & Dre. Everybody I worked with, we always had fun in the studio. Like how you see in the 'Notorious' movie, where the girls are in the studio while they were recording, it was something like that. It was a party every day. We got good work done, doing the whole album like that. Taking the approach to do what you want to do. No stress or tension. All me, all my family, all my friends.
Pleasure started working on his album about 18 months ago, and has so much material left over that he's ready to start on his next LP, which will be dedicated to Static, who died in 2008.
This album, he wants people to get the familiar with him as a person. He's hoping to eventually drop the Pleasure P moniker and go with his real name.
"Marcus Cooper is my government name," he said about his inspiration for the album. "Y'all gonna learn I'm serious. I'm not a joke. I'm the new bad boy for R&B. I've been through things. Y'all can take [Marcus] serious. He's not crazy like everybody think he is, being that I was in the group and we did a lot of things that was out the box. I'm normal, like everybody else. I'm very humble. The main thing, Pretty Ricky introduced the world to Pleasure P and Pleasure P is introducing the world to Marcus Cooper, the man that's the father of a 5-year-old son."
Marcus Cooper is also a love guru -- just listen to the jewels he drops in his single.
"I'm not encouraging people to cheat on this record," he clarifies. "What I'm saying is I'm sending a message, step up your game. You see in the video, the average guy gets the girl because the guy with the money wasn't treating her right. Don't stop giving her flowers and saying, 'Baby, how was your day?,' and telling her how you feel. [If you don't], another man will."
