Christian hip-hop legend Pettidee reveals plans for new album

In 2016, Pettidee will release his 10th studio album.

The LP will be titled Alien, and for the first time in his career, he won’t be a part of the production. The 41-year-old Christian hip-hop pioneer has been in the industry since 1993 and estimated he has produced 80 percent of his music. However, he wants to focus on his lyrics and re-invent the way his music sounds.

“I just never stopped being a student of music,” Pettidee said. “Thomas Edison never stopped trying. He never stopped inventing.”

Last August, Pettidee released a single titled “Big Boy” featuring Teron Carter of Grits, immediately after he started working on Alien. Prior to that, he hadn’t released music since his 2013 mixtape, Kill the Messengers.

“It’s been eating me alive because I’m sitting on some great records right now, and I’m excited to let the people hear it,” he said. “I know the fans are like, ‘When are you coming out with new stuff?’”

Pettidee has spent much of his time away from the mic in recent years acting. He has nine years of acting under his belt and has been featured in five films.

On May 23, he was at a movie premiere for Where Is Good?, his newest film. He’s also acted with Michael W. Smith in The Second Chance and is in a movie that’s currently in Redbox titled This is the Day.

“I started getting into acting because I was doing music and TV film placements,” Pettidee said. “And then I was asked to do a specialty role, kind of a guest appearance, and then I got the movie bug.”

In terms of placements, Pettidee’s songs have been heard on Sons of Anarchy, CSI: Miami and The Following.

When Pettidee released Race 2 Nowhere in 2010, he thought it would be his last album, but he kept getting asked to do features and TV placements.

“God would not let me go from this, and I said, ‘Okay God, you won’t let me go from it, so tell me what you want me to do,” he said. “After that, I was like, ‘I’m not going to quit.’”

Pettidee said he has always left about 20 percent of his album production open for up-and-coming artists. This time around, he decided it was time to let other producers do the whole project.

“I didn’t even have to reach out to other producers,” he said. “After all these years, there are younger producers that say, ‘I want that sound like Pettidee,’ and a lot of these guys are like, ‘Yo, I just wanna work with you.’ … I would have never received this kind of love from all of these young producers had I not made myself available to receive tracks.”

OG Tha 3, T-Rock, Nyce and Michael Millionz have all been a part of the production for Alien.

Alien is going to be a brand new sound for me,” Pettidee said.

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