People Under the Stairs

This article is about the band. For the film, see The People Under the Stairs.

People Under the Stairs
Origin	Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	Hip hop,
Years active	1997–present
Website	pl70.net
Members
Thes One Double K

People Under the Stairs is a hip hop group from Los Angeles, California formed in 1997 by Thes One and Double K. The group has released eight critically acclaimed full-length albums and performed on every continent except Antarctica. It is estimated that the group has performed well over 1,000 sold out shows at more than 400 venues worldwide. Some of their more recognizable songs include "San Francisco Knights," "Montego Slay," "Los Angeles Daze," and "Acid Raindrops." Much of the group's lyrics relate to life in their hometown of Los Angeles.

History

Formation

While both still attending high school in Mid-City Los Angeles, Thes One and Double K met and quickly started working on music together, laying the foundation for what would become People Under The Stairs. Soon after, while Thes One was attending USC, the duo began recording and performed their first live in-store appearance as a group at the now defunct Beat Non Stop record store on Melrose. A few months later, the group made a roadtrip north to the San Francisco Bay Area, which inspired them to write and record San Francisco Knights, one of their most popular songs to date.

The Next Step

The duo continued performing and recording, and in 1998 used Thes One's student loan funds to release their first 12-inch, entitled "The Next Step pt. 2". 250 copies were pressed, until the stamper at the pressing plant broke, and then 200 more copies were made from a different master without the secret bonus track Live At The Fishbucket which on the first-run appears on the b-side. In the late summer of 1998 the group independently released their first album, entitled The Next Step, which Thes One produced and engineered in its entirety.

That same year, just weeks after the 12-inch was released, the shopkeeper of the now-defunct Mr. Bongo record shop purchased a large number of copies of it for his shop. When he played it on an ordinary day in the store, customers rushed the counter and it sold out within 7 minutes. Seeing the demand, the shopkeeper called Chris Smith, owner of Om Records in San Francisco, and urged him to get in contact with People Under The Stairs. Initially, Smith contacted the group regarding a one-song deal for the Om's compilation albums Deep Concentration and Mushroom Jazz, but upon hearing more material offered the group a 4-album deal.

People Under The Stairs signed with Om Records in 1999 and headed off on their first world tour in late summer of the same year, initially as support for the Deep Concentration project but later that year in Europe as a Solo Act with local openers.

Question in the Form of an Answer

Question In The Form Of An Answer was released in June 2000. The lead 12” single, Youth Explosion, sold the full run of 15,000 copies pressed in its first month, and was not repressed in order to promote the second and third singles The Cat and We’ll Be There – each of which went on to sell 15,000 copies. The album was critically acclaimed for its eclectic and diverse range of beats rooted in Jazz and Psychedelic Rock and P.U.T.S. continued with another set of world tours to support the record, this time adding Japan and Australia to their routing.

Following the release of the second album, Thes One began to coordinate strings of successful world tours for PUTS culminating in performances at the UK’s famous Glastonbury Festival in 2001 alongside Kelis and successful shows at the Reading, Leeds and infamous Essentials festival in London where the group was joined with Biz Markie, Ice T, Jeru, Masta Ace and De La Soul on the final Sunday of the festival.

"O.S.T."

In between managing tours and performing, Thes One began producing and engineering the third People Under The Stairs album, which would be released in June 2002 as O.S.T. (Original Soundtrack). Critically acclaimed for its broad musical influences and dead on hip hop sound, songs such as Montego Slay and Acid Raindrops quickly became favorites and helped solidify the group's dedicated worldwide fan base, and it remains a fan favorite to this day.

...Or Stay Tuned

Released in August of 2003, ...Or Stay Tuned was the group's final release on Om Records. The album was labeled an EP due to contractual issues but was considered by many, including the group, to be a full-length contribution. The group continued to tour the globe, spending 7–8 months of the year on the road at times.

Stepfather

Thes One continued to tour with PUTS through 2005 and began production on the next PUTS album, Stepfather. He inked a deal for the group with local Los Angeles label Basement Records and coordinated the elaborate deluxe packaging with long time friend Joshua Dunn of design team Secret Pizza Party. Stepfather (2006), PUTS fifth full-length release, was met with critical acclaim and presented a more modern and personal direction for the group. Consisting of Thes One’s turn towards left of center rhythm’s and modern soul and disco, it was his most ambitious production yet, though songs like Tuxedo Rap seemed, at first listen, a simple return to hip-hop’s disco rap roots. The group toured the album in the US throughout that year, taking then unknown rock-rap group Gym Class Heroes as opening act with them.

Stepfather debuted on the Billboard charts May 6, 2006 at #32 on the Heatseaker Chart and #35 on the Independent Albums chart.^[1]

Fun DMC

Fun DMC is the sixth studio album by People Under the Stairs, released on Gold Dust Media, a division of Studio !K7. Recorded throughout the summer of 2008, the theme of the album is summertime fun in Los Angeles, and the background and intros/outros of most songs on the album have audio recorded across LA that summer. The name of the album is a homage to Run DMC, and in anticipation of the album the group released the mixtape "Funner than Leather", a play on the Run DMC inspired, Rick Rubin directed film Tougher Than Leather.

After touring extensively throughout Australia from 2004-2007, Thes One and Double K wrote the song "The Wiz" about their travels down under. In summer of 2008 the group worked with director Matt Bird to film the video for The Wiz on location in Sydney. The filming of the video involved underwater cameras, cranes, and a helicopter shot that almost killed both members, and is the group's most elaborate music video to date.

On October 18, 2009 the Fun DMC debut on the Billboard charts as #6 on the Heatseekers List ^[2] Following a nationwide tour in support of the album, People Under The Stairs celebrated their 10-year anniversary in December 2008 with a sold out show at Los Angeles’ historical El Rey theatre.

In spring of 2011, the group released an dub version of the album that Thes One had made while mixing the album in 2008, available exclusively on their recently launched website. ^[3]

In February 2009, People Under The Stairs became one of the only independent American music groups to tour China, selling out shows in both Beijing and Shanghai (in excess of 800 people). PUTS, amongst other shows, was confirmed to play the Coachella Music Festival and Bonaroo Music Festival in 2009. Immediately following their performance at Bonaroo, Spin Magazine declared the group's performance] "The Best...Period" ^[4]

Carried Away

Released on October 13, 2009, Carried Away was the group's seventh album, a testament to the group's unparalleled longevity and relevance in a quickly changing music industry. As explained by The Onion in their AV club review "Carried Away proves that Thes One and Double K will be pumping out sunny, laid-back party anthems long after the Internet memes grow stale".^[5] Carried Away debuted at #5 on the iTunes hip hop charts and was featured by iTunes, who noted: "As usual with PUTS, Carried Away is a self-contained effort with no guest producers or MC cameos, just entertaining rhymes and straightforward beatwork dotted with well-placed samples meant to delight hip-hop purists everywhere."^[6] Carried Away debuted on the Billboard charts at #23 on the Heatseeker Charts.^[7] Fans who had followed the group for years noted in many submitted reviews that the album was a return to classic PUTS material.^[8] Though demand to tour the US following the release of Carried Away was strong, PUTS were determined to break new parts of the world and proceeded to tour Brazil and then the southern cape of Africa following the release of the album.^[9]

Highlighter

PUTS announced the name of their upcoming eighth album, "Highlighter", live onstage at the Governor's Ball Music Festival in NYC on June 17, 2011. Released on September 29th, 2011, PUTS album #8 also is the first album to be commercially released in the HD-AAC format, and is sold directly to fans via their website PL70.net

Features

Both members features on the track 'Shoot Your Shot' from the 2006 album 'Bang For The Buck' by Ugly Duckling

Discography

Albums

• The Next Step (1998)
• Question in the Form of an Answer (2000)
• O.S.T. (2002)
• ...Or Stay Tuned (2003)
• Stepfather (2006)
• Fun DMC (2008)
• Carried Away (2009)
• Highlighter (2011)

EPs

• Question in the Form of an Answer Instrumentals (2000)
• American Men Vol. 1 (2001)
• Stepfather Instrumentals Part 1 (2007)
• Stepfather Instrumentals Part 2 (2008)
• Other Such Tracks (2003)

Compilations

• The Om Years (Favorites, Rarities & B-Sides) (2008)

Singles

• "The Next Step II" (1998)
• "Youth Explosion" (2000)
• "The Cat" (2000)
• "We'll Be There" (2000) (Hot Rap Singles #36)^[10]
• "Jappy Jap" (2002)
• "O.S.T. (Original soundtrack)" (2002)
• "Acid Raindrops" (2002)
• "Yield / Out da Club" (2003)
• "Tuxedo Rap" (2006)
• "Pass The 40" (2006)
• "Step Bacc / The Wiz" (2007)
• "Party Enemy #1 / Critical Condition" (2008)
• "Trippin' at the Disco" (2009)

References

1. ^ [1] "Stepfather Billboard Chart History"
2. ^ http://www.billboard.com/#/album/people-under-the-stairs/fun-dmc/1176858 "FUN DMC Billboard Chart History"
3. ^ http://pl70.net/products/people-under-the-stairs-fun-dmc-dub-version-lost-album/ "Fun DMC Dub Version Download"
4. ^ [2] "The Best and Worst of Bonaroo, Spin Magazine June 12th 2009"
5. ^ [3] "The Onion AV club reviews Carried Away"
6. ^ iTunes review of "Carried Away"
7. ^ [4] "Billboard Chart History for Carried Away"
8. ^ [5] "Fan Reviews of Carried Away"
9. ^ [6] "Live in Capetown, Africa 2009"
10. ^ "Singles". Billboard.com. Nielsen Company. http://billboard.com/bbcom/retrieve_chart_history.do?model.vnuArtistId=334198&model.vnuAlbumId=768320. Retrieved 2008-03-08. 

External links

• Official People Under The Stairs Website