About Me
......PIFF GOT ME SLOW...
.."I started the Purple Movement. I was wearing purple everything; getting shit custom made: I even had a purple chinchilla."
Shiest Bub The Emperor
President & CEOPurple City Productions
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Long-time Dipset/Diplomats affiliates, Harlems own Purple City, (also known as 'Purple City Productions' and 'PCP') is a rapidly growing movement that has generated a storied East Coast mixtape buzz over the last several years. Known for their notorious street anthems, Purple Citys current core members of Shiest Bub The Emperor, Un Kasa and Agallah The Don Bishop have released over eight street mixtapes and sold over 80,000 units to date, garnering them a bona fide worldwide cult following.
With the release of Road To The Riches: The Best of the Purple City Mixtapes, Purple City seemed poised to assume the mantle of the next street-bred crossover phenomenon.
Born Timothy Parsons, Purple City leader Shiest Bub displayed leadership qualities from a very young age, but due to his flashy style and the need for extra pocket money, Shiest Bub gravitated towards the streets. After dropping out of school, Shiest began his long reign as a universal hustler. Throughout all of the grinding, Shiest Bub has generally been able to avoid being sent to prison, even though he was incarcerated for a year in New York City's Riker's Island county jail. Shiest adds, "Yo besides being on the Island, I had a bigger case in Binghamton that I fought off that could have got me sent away for five years. I vowed I'm never going back!"
In 2001, Shiest Bub was introduced to Jim Jones and Cam'Ron through Juelz Santana. The Dip Set members respected Shiest's flamboyant style and extremely strong "Piff." 'It all started on my block, I was doin my Purple Piff thing and of course always doin my flashy fashion thing and everybody was trying to get that Purple Piff, Shiest says.
With Cam'Ron being newly signed to Roc-a-Fella Records, Shiest Bub had the chance to travel with the Diplomats on Cam'Ron's platinum "Come Home With Me" album promo tour. Shiest also accompanied the Diplomats on their platinum "Diplomatic Immunity" album promo tour. His involvement on these tours inspired him to begin creating his own mixtapes.
His first venture was with Diplomats street team, "The Taliban.
After its demise, Shiest hooked up with Un Kasa, Dave Bright and 8-Off Agallah. "When I met Agallah the first time I wasn't even thinking about music. Un Kasa and myself were in the studio and we had an Agallah beat CD and I called him up and there was an automatic bond," Shiest says. Soon thereafter, Shiest set up Purple City Productions in connection with the release of the second mixtape. 'Jim Jones took me to a lot of [label] meetings and taught me how to flip the street game to the rap game, because there is a difference. I'll always be a Diplomat and Cam'Ron also taught me a lot about the game but Purple City is mine,' Shiest proudly declares.
At the time Cam'Ron was wearing pink, Jim Jones and Juelz were wearing red; Shiest Bub found refuge in the purple which became his street-renowned calling card.
"I started the Purple Movement. I was wearing purple everything; getting shit custom made: I even had a purple chinchilla.
With the March release of Road To The Riches: The Best of the Purple City Mixtapes on Purple City/Babygrande/KOCH Records, the hip-hop community as a whole will be privy to select material that has served as the backbone of the Purple City movement. Riches highlights the already classic street anthems that have garnered Purple City a high level of East-Coast street-based support and notoriety.
Road To The Riches features guest appearances by budding Diplomats superstar Juelz Santana, 2004 breakout street act Jim Jones, Diplomat J.R. Writer and also introduces DK, a blazing new MC poised to put Baltimore, MD on the map.
Featured producers include Agallah The Don Bishop and other in-house producers for Purple City Productions (PCP).
Also in store for Purple City is an official debut of brand new material, along with long-awaited solo records from Agallah The Don Bishop and Un Kasa. Purple City recently completed what stands to be the first truly collaborative international hip-hop album entitled Paris To Purple City, pairing the constituents of the Purple City movement with 8 up and coming French emcees. An international hip-hop potpourri of sorts, Paris to Purple City is a pioneering display of multi-cultural creativity, incorporating the distinctive East Coast street sensibility of Purple City with the sonically fresh culturally unique burgeoning French hip-hop movement.
Having been featured in The Fader, Blow Magazine, and receiving two mixtape of the month awards in The Source, the Purple City movement is in full force.
As Shiest so concisely sums up, It's more than just a color. It's a state of mind. Its vibrant, it's freedom and royalty.
All hail the Purple Reign.
