Beats, rhymes and life are three of the corners where hip hop intersects. Few other TV shows have been able to cover all of these angles in-depth and authentically quite like REVOLT TV’s “Drink Champs,” which thrives on its candid conversations with the biggest and most influential figures in the game. In honor of such a one-of-a-kind show, REVOLT will be recapping each weekly “Drink Champs” episode, so you can always catch the gems that are dropped in each lit interview.

Last night, the latest episode of “Drink Champs” aired on REVOLT TV with veteran R&B singer and Miami native Pleasure P paying Noreaga and DJ EFN a visit to get the backstory on his career, and what he’s been up to lately. First breaking out on the music scene as a member of R&B quartet Pretty Ricky, Pleasure P’s vocals powered hits like “Grind With Me” and “On The Hotline,” both of which appeared on the group’s debut album, Bluestars — which would later go gold. However, internal friction caused Pleasure P to disband from the group to pursue a solo career. The crooner would find success with contemporary R&B jams like “Boyfriend #2” and “I Did You Wrong.” These tracks kept his name in the conversation. However, contractual limbo with his record label and a string of bad luck would jeopardize Pleasure P’s career and nearly sully his reputation. But, with the odds against him, he has endured the trials and tribulations of life in the music biz and has reached the light at the end of the tunnel. P has since made appearances on “Love & Hip Hop: Miami,” getting fans reacquainted with his face and personality. One of a handful of R&B artists to appear on “Drink Champs,” Pleasure P’s story is one of perseverance and his dialogue with Noreaga and DJ EFN is filled with plenty of real talk.

To help give fans a recap of the conversation, REVOLT compiled a list of nine things we learned from the Pleasure P episode of “Drink Champs.” Take a look at them below.

1. How He Got His Start In Music

Growing up as a youth in Florida, Pleasure P was the product of a musical family, crediting his parents with influencing his career path from an early age. “Well, my mom and father, they used to be in a band together,” Pleasure P shares. “A band called The Wrappers, they was young as hell. My dad played the keys, my mom played the keys. So, they would be, like, the Bonnie & Clyde of keys and shit back in those days. I guess shit ain’t work out with them or whatever. But, it is what it is. But yeah, I just been around music my whole life. When she had band rehearsals and shit, that was in the front room. So, I used to come out there. I been doing it since I was young, man. One time I went this festival we used to have, it’s called ‘Arabian Nights Festival’ in Opa-Locka. It was cool, everybody used to come perform. So, I got to sing for Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. This guy named Kevin Cousins, he wanted to sign me. My mom was like, ‘Nah, you gotta focus on school, or whatever the case may be.’ So, years after that, the grind don’t stop.”

2. Pretty Ricky Was Originally A Solo Artist

Music fans may remember Pretty Ricky as the raunchy group out of South Florida that took the hip hop world by storm during the mid-aughts. However, during his visit to the “Drink Champs,” Pleasure P reveals that the group’s name was originally that of a solo artist. “Well, to be honest, I was shopping my demo,” Pleasure P recalls. “I was always a solo artist… I went into Ted Lucas at Slip-N-Slide and then, I guess the next person I ran into was their father ’cause he used to work with Ted, as well. [Baby Blue and Spectacular], the father. This how it went. So, it’s Pretty Ricky and The Mavericks. The Mavericks was our group. And Pretty Ricky – well, rest in peace, he’s not here anymore – he was another solo artist. But, his dad and him got into it and he was like, ‘You know what? I invested all this money in Pretty Ricky before the song even played on the radio.’ So, we just kinda took over the name, to be honest.”

3. The True Meaning Behind The Song “Boyfriend #2”

During Pleasure P’s conversation with Noreaga and DJ EFN, the singer/songwriter gave the scoop behind the inspiration for his 2008 single, “Boyfriend #2,” which he says was intended for the fellas who were not stepping up to the plate and catering to their significant others. “It was for niggas that’s fucking up. Like nigga, you gotta be on ya job ’cause it’s a person like me that’ll come to the city. I just might catch her at the grocery store or somewhere, not even the club. I might just compliment her, you ain’t been complimenting her lately.”

4. His Regrets

Many artists have a few encounters throughout their career that they wish they would’ve done differently. Pleasure P sheds light on a few of his regrets during his interview, one of them being his response to the child molestation allegations levied against him in 2009, which nearly derailed the singer’s career. “Damn, I would do a lot of things over. Like, when that rumor came out about the child molestation and all that kinda shit. If I would’ve just… we come from an era where, back then, you was media trained. So, whatever your publicist told you to say or not to say. They’d say, ‘This is how we need to handle this or whatever.’ So, I just listened. But, if I would’ve just been me, I would’ve just spoke my mind and said who did it, all kind of shit. I would’ve handled it totally different. That shit affected my life. It affected my livelihood, affected my son’s life, it affected a lot of shit. I mean, I’m strong enough, I stood in the paint. But, I’m able talk about it now. I got more understanding for life and I live my truth and things like that. But, just ’cause a nigga winning, that wasn’t necessary, dog…” He continues, adding, “I addressed it, but I addressed it in a way of no understanding, in terms of, like, they told me what to say. Like, ‘Okay, this is what you should say.’ Nowadays, artists that come out now, they don’t have none of that. It ain’t no more artist development, nigga. You ain’t have to sit hours with a fucking publicist and learn all these things. So yeah, I would’ve definitely addressed that different, for sure.”

5. How Moving To L.A. Affected His Friendships Back Home

A native of Miami, Pleasure P moved to L.A. at the height of his fame in an attempt to branch out and expand his brand. However, P says the transition took a toll on his relationships with friends, who felt that success had made him forget his roots. “I felt like my friends felt I was going Hollywood,” Pleasure P reveals. “We had Miami on lock, I started a record label with Bryant McKinney called Swagga Entertainment. So, we did the craziest parties here in Miami. So, I ventured out and moved to L.A. by myself and I said it’s time, we gotta take over L.A. too. Then, the next thing was to have our presence felt in New York. But, I moved to L.A. and I met some people in L.A. and we kinda, like, just had our thing. We was running young black Hollywood, like you can ask anybody about a Pleasure P house party just during that time. You can ask [DJ] Clue, you can ask anybody that was around. Chris Brown, Trey Songz, everybody used to be just chilling. So, during that time, by the time my niggas from over here came through the crib in L.A. — ’cause when I first moved over there, I had a condo and a palazzo, like a penthouse. Little one bedroom, just chilling. Then, I moved to Bel-Air Estates and Wiz Khalifa live in my old house now. But, when Miami came to L.A.., there was a problem, like, ‘Oh, you forgot about your niggas’ and ‘You Hollywood.’ But, it was like, ‘Nah nigga, now you got L.A. and Miami niggas, you know how much money y’all niggas can make together?’ That’s how I was thinking. I was thinking of a bigger picture. But, they couldn’t see it, so of course they felt that.”

6. His Beef With Trey Songz

Beef may be more associated with the rap world. But, in spite of its songs revolving around the topic of love, there have been many instances of bad blood between R&B artists, on example being Pleasure P’s notorious rift with Trey Songz, which Pleasure P details during his sit down. “I’ma tell you why we had beef,” the “Did You Wrong” singer explains. “So, we was signed to the same label, Atlantic Records. So, when Trey coming up, Pretty Ricky’s the biggest shit. But, we always embraced Trey. Anytime Trey came to Miami, whether it’s me bringing girls… it was always love. He would come out here a lot. So, we would go to clubs together, all kind of shit. So, it was one particular time on the ‘Scream Tour,’ when I came to his city and called him, I ain’t get that same kinda love, so that’s where it started at. So, I hooked him up with this girl named Helen, she’s still one of my favorite female friends to this day. It was like that, ‘Nigga, I’m out in L.A., you know anybody?’ That’s how new he was at the time, but that’s what bros do. So, fast forward after that, he ain’t say nothing about it or whatever. So, I ain’t hear from him for a minute or whatever. Now most niggas, if you got lucky or you connected with a girl, you gonna give me that brother talk. But, he didn’t do that. So, this is months later, we go to the BMI Awards and he’s there with her as his date and he’s like, ‘Yo, we’re together now,’ kissing her and stuff in front of me.”

“So, the second I became a solo artist, it’s this little thing in Atlantic Records because this is my first album. But, he probably had like three or four albums. So, they put me in direct competition with him. But, he got a manager like Kevin Liles and I got a nigga that I came up with and of course, Jimmy Henchman was my manager at the time, too. But, Jimmy’s role wasn’t to handle the business, it was just some other shit. So, to make a long story short, me and Drake, we driving in Atlanta. And listen I commend Drake, Drake a real nigga. This is why. Me, him, 2 Chainz, we all at Benihana; we eating or whatever. We was just hanging out. So, then after this, I tell Drake ’cause I think Trey Songz and Drake did the same song. I was like, ‘Yo, that song that he did is not as good as the one that you did’ and I go in my bag about what happened, like everything I just told y’all. And this is my mistake as a nigga ’cause I shouldn’t even been bringing this up to a person that I don’t even [know.]”

“But, that’s the thing, that’s his nigga. I didn’t know that, that was his nigga… I didn’t know they had music before. So, here’s the thing now. After I said this, my homeboy, he was following us, Drake immediately got out of the car after and started riding with my homeboy, like, ‘I gotta get some money from the ATM’ or something. But, he handled it in a way where he ain’t tell me like that, ‘Yo this my nigga,’ or tried to shut it down. He listened to it and then, he was like, I ain’t fucking with P right now ’cause he talking ’bout my mans. But, I didn’t know that was his mans. I’m speaking my truth and I’ll tell anybody, I don’t give a fuck, you fell me? So, long story short, word gets back to Trey from Drake and now its this beef in the label or whatever. But, we ain’t ever really did nothing about it. He does this diss with R. Kelly and he disses me in the record. He said, “I ain’t no Pleasure P, these other R&B niggas don’t measure, G.” So, I took offense to that. In L.A., I ran up on him. Kyser was there, Polow Da Don was there, Keri Hilson was there. It was Keri Hilson party. I run up, he see me. It’s me and my niggas, it’s him and his security. We got a face-off, first thing he did is he hug me. And we went in the kitchen and we talked it out. And then after that; him, Kyser, all of us, that’s when they all came to my house and we partied. And you know, hospitality to the tee, you know me. I got that whole southern hospitality or whatever. Niggas, when they came back to my city, we had a concert, niggas ain’t hit me up. But, it was just some shit like that.”

“But then, time pass, we done buried everything. We end up at a party here in Miami together. Kevin Liles is there. We taking shots, no problems. Another time, I see him now in Miami. They at Mansion, it’s him and Jeezy. They’re standing, like, above us. So of course, I know Jeezy, too, through Aaron or whatever. Every time I met him Jeezy, dog was cool as fuck, or whatever the case may be. So, I see them and I’m like, ‘What up?’ I reach out to give Jeezy dap or something, and the nigga ain’t dap me up.”

“So, I go to London now. He hosting the same club, so I’m like, ‘I’ma go show Trey some love.’ I post it on my Instagram. So, now I get to the V.I.P. So, I go to holla at him and his man Bully, he’s like, ‘You know me, I’m Bully, I’ll beat your ass right now.’ It was the most shocking thing ever ’cause all I was going over there to do was show niggas love or whatever. Maybe it’s what happened at the Jeezy shit, I don’t know. But, of course, I’m bothered. But, I handle it like a gentleman. I’m like, ‘Trey, come get your mans.’ Trey comes over and Trey says, ‘Yo man, it is what it is. Now get the fuck away from my table!’ He told me that. It took me everything not to fight. Win or lose or draw, whatever. But, I’m in London, if I go to jail in London, nigga, it’s not gonna be a pretty sight. I’m probably not gonna have a visa to go there to make money no more. So, I say, you know what? We’ll handle this when we get back. So, I didn’t really see them until I was at Club Liv, like this past year or something like that. So, I ran up on him. Mike Kyser was there, I ran up to his table. I told him, ‘Yo, y’all holla at me, let’s just clarify some shit.’ As I’m walking away, the nigga Bully – same nigga – ‘Yo, my nigga, I just wanna apologize,’ or whatever. But, I got my niggas with me now. If you wanna fight, we can fight. But, I don’t know what that’s gonna solve, we all make too much money to be fighting. It’s just, if we don’t fuck with each other, let’s just keep it respectful, so that I know next time. I’m not gonna go over to holla at you to be like, ‘What up?’ Let me know if you don’t fuck with me, pretty much and that was just it, bro. And after that, we was supposed to talk. He was like, ‘We’ll talk tomorrow,’ I’m like, ‘Nah, let’s talk right now, outside.’ He didn’t wanna talk outside, obviously. So, I been hitting him up, like, ‘Yo, you wanna talk.’ The next day, he didn’t respond. So, I haven’t really heard nothing from them since then. But, Trey is someone I came up with [that] I got mad respect and love for. It’s just how he dealt with situations. It’s like, ‘Damn, my nigga.’”

7. He Once Toured With R. Kelly

As controversial and polarizing as he’s become, R. Kelly remains an icon in the world of R&B with a number of current stars viewing him as a legend and cherishing an opportunity to rub shoulders with him. Pleasure P got the chance to interact with R. Kelly, while touring with the Chicagoan in 2009, an experience P says came with its share of sacrifices. “I almost finished the tour with R. Kelly successfully. The [molestation] rumor came out while I was on tour with R. Kelly. So, we had three more shows to go and then, bam, this rumor came out. But, Kells was cool though. I accepted his rules. He was like, ‘If you perform on this tour, there’s no dressing rooms for you as an up-and- coming act.’ Like, there was no dressing room for me. It was me, him and K. Michelle. Guess what I said to my dancers and whoever, ‘We don’t give a fuck, we getting this bag. We gonna get dressed on the bus.’ I don’t wanna be in the venue anyway. I’m not gonna argue over a dressing room. He didn’t make no room for an artist like me that supported his tour. But, I took that like a champ, like we gonna make the best of it.” As for R. Kelly’s reasoning behind the ultimatum, Pleasure P attributes it to paying dues and Kells’ own experiences touring as an up-and-coming artist. “I think he’s a guy, like, maybe when he started out, that’s how it was. Like, you had to grind it up, no matter what ’cause he’s still who he is and I think that’s what he doing. People don’t understand that. So, I understood it and I’m just happy to be on tour with you. You’re still the goat. Eventually, we went to the same party and he was cool and he was, like, embracing me and things like that.”

8. His Beef With Tyga

Another artist Pleasure P has had differences with is rapper Tyga, whom the vocalist says turned his back on him during a pivotal time in his career. “We did a record, ‘I Love Girls,’ together. I just got my deal with Entertainment One after Atlantic. I seen Tyga. It was a Rihanna party. So, I see him, he’s like, ‘Yeah, put the record out.’ So, I put the record out under that label and we spend money at radio. It’s an investment, I’m independent. So, when it’s time to do the video, Birdman give me the clearance. Tez at Young Money gave me the clearance. So, they like, ‘Nah, it’s Tyga, it’s Tyga ’cause he trying to do whatever.’ So, when I spoke to him, he like, ‘Yo, I got a record with Chris. So, I can’t do anymore R&B records’ instead of being 100 like, ‘Yo nigga, it’s not good for my brand’ after putting this money up. So, the same day I was shooting the video for that record, he was at a house I was shooting the video at. I guess he was looking for houses or something. I’m telling people, ‘Damn, he should’ve been at the video and he comes to the house I’m shooting the video at, looking for houses. So, it wasn’t like you was busy or some shit. He didn’t wanna do the video, he came up with excuses, like, ‘I did a record with Chris, so I can’t do the video.’ And I think I had $20,000 to do the video and he was like, ‘I need $25,000,’ and I’m like, ‘Bro, it’s me.’ You was in the ‘Boyfriend #2’ video. When you ain’t have ‘Rack City’ out or none of that shit, I just embraced you as a person. I rated you on that level. But, it’s time to do the video and this is, like, my lifeline, nigga. This is right after Atlantic. So, this is like, ‘My nigga, I really need you for this video.’ He folded, you feel me? That caused Entertainment One to be like, ‘You know what? We gonna put a pause on the radio budget. We gonna put a pause on everything ’cause we can’t get the other artist. We still shot the video. But, he wasn’t in it and it was like, I wasn’t a man of my word to that label.” When asked if there’s any chance of reconciliation between the two, Pleasure P says he not interested in making amends. But, he wishes him the best. “There’s nothing to fix, like, you feel me? The younger me would’ve probably swung on him anytime I ever seen him in person. But, the older me is like, I’m happy for you. You got a new record out. We’re at the same label and I’m happy that you got your freedom ’cause I don’t know what you was going through at the time.”

9. He Helped Write “Lollipop” for Lil Wayne

Throughout his career, Pleasure P has not only been a hit-maker for himself, but others, as well. One of his biggest alley-oops was Lil Wayne’s 2008 smash “Lollipop,” which peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100 and netted Weezy a Grammy award for Best Rap Song. However, due to being caught in contractual limbo with his former label, Bluestar Entertainment, Pleasure P was unable to receive proper credit or reap the fruits of his labor. “I wrote this song, me and Static. It’s called ‘Lollipop’ for Lil Wayne. So, during the transition of me going through what I went through with Pretty Ricky –when they father and just the bad legal part of everything, he had my publishing, too. So, all my songs for Pretty Ricky, ‘Grind On Me,’ ‘Yo Body,’ every record I was a part of; I don’t own the publishing for it anymore. I had to sign it away and give them $500,000 and then, they said I couldn’t say anything in the lawsuit. We wrote the song ‘Lollipop,’ that was my record. That was my original record. I can show you the session that we created it on and everything. Jim Jonson did the record. But, I used to work with Jim Jonson a lot back then during those days. So, Jim would send me beats.”

“During that time, he was working on Danity Kane and whoever albums Diddy had. So, they sent me over some beats, I guess I got the ‘whatever’ beats. One of the beats was ‘Lollipop.’ So, during my sessions now, during those days, we would go to the club. Then, we would come back to the studio, 5-6 in the morning and create records. ‘Lollipop’ was created drunk as fuck, whatever. It was an R&B record. It was this shit called Miami Live at Santos that used to go on in Miami and Static was performing there. And Wayne was there one time and was like, ‘Who’s that?’ and I was like, ‘That’s Static Major.’ So, now we go to Atlanta to finish my album. This is, like, right before he died. I went to the studio and saw Wayne and I’m like, ‘I’m bout to do some shows or whatever, you should link with Wayne.’ I guess he linked with Wayne and they recorded this song. It was some song him, Tyga and Static did. It was some song that said, ‘I’m so exquisite,’ or some shit like that. But, then he played ‘Lollipop’ because he asked me at the time did I want ‘Lollipop’? It was for him, pretty much. Certain elements that I wrote in the song, me and Static wrote in the song, that’s still in the record. But, he took it to where it needs to be and it came out. So, before my solo album came out, ‘Lollipop’ won a Grammy. But, during that part, I was going through my lawsuit with me trying to get out of the Pretty Ricky contract. So, my publishing, everything was tied up and I was broke and ain’t got no money. So, what I did is, I took the percentage that I own of that record and another record, ‘I Did You Wrong,’ and I put it in my manager’s name at the time. I said, ‘Yo, we just need the money to make our career be what it should be and reinvest in the brand.’ So, we got a publishing deal in his name. So, I got a Grammy with his name on it. That’s not my Grammy. Right now, he manages Yo Gotti. But, I’m calling this nigga now ’cause Drake samples the record in the ‘In My Feelings’ record. So, he clearing shit on his own. So, of course because he’s a writer on that record, it’s sampled.”

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