Paul Edward Huston (born April 2, 1967), better known by his stage name Prince Paul, is an American record producer, disc jockey and recording artist from Amityville, New York. Paul began his career as a DJ for Stetsasonic. He has worked on albums by Boogie Down Productions, Gravediggaz, MC Lyte, Big Daddy Kane and 3rd Bass, among others. Major recognition for Prince Paul came when he produced De La Soul's debut album 3 Feet High and Rising (1989), in which he pioneered new approaches to hip hop production, mixing and sampling, notably by including comedy sketches.

His first solo album, Psychoanalysis: What Is It?, came out in 1997, followed by a second album, A Prince Among Thieves, in 1999.

Life and career

Early life

Paul Edward Huston was born on April 2, 1967 in Amityville, New York. Paul was interested in music from a young age and started collecting vinyl when he was five. Collins later introduced Paul to De La Soul member Maseo. Paul credits Grandmaster Flash's song "Flash To The Beat" as the reason he purchased his drum machine.

Prince Paul produced "The Gas Face" and "Brooklyn-Queens" on 3rd Bass' 1989 debut The Cactus Album. The original version of "The Gas Face" was recorded on 4-track cassette tape and started out as mistake. Paul wanted to change the beat after he realized the pattern was not what he had intended, but MC Serch and Pete Nice convinced him to keep it. According to Paul, 3 Feet High and Rising (1989) had a budget of about $20,000 and took a month and a half to make.

In 1990, Russell Simmons gave Prince Paul an imprint under his Def Jam label, however the only album, It Takes a Nation of Suckers to Let Us In by Resident Alien, was never officially released. It is available as an unofficial release, which is different to a bootleg.

Along with Frukwan of Stetsasonic, Too Poetic of Brothers Grimm, and the RZA of Wu-Tang Clan, Prince Paul formed the group Gravediggaz. Before signing a deal with Gee Street, Eazy-E wanted to release the album on Ruthless Records. Paul flew to Los Angeles to have a meeting with Eazy-E and Jerry Heller but was unimpressed with the contract and declined. After the group signed to Gee Street, Paul estimated that it took them about six months to complete the album. In 1995, Paul and Teo Macero collaborated to produce the solo debut from guitarist Vernon Reid, and in 1996 he appeared on the compilation album America Is Dying Slowly. Additionally, Paul joined forces with Amityville rapper Superstar to launch a supergroup called Horror City. Paul produced a Horror City album, but proved unable to successfully market the album to any record labels. Ultimately, Paul decided to offer Horror City as a free download in 2010. Although Paul was not involved in the making of the album, he has praised it in several interviews, once saying, "I was going through a serious transition period in my life when that album dropped. I was trying to figure out the next thing I was going to do; I was going through a custody case for my son, and I was running out of money. There were a lot of things going on at the time and in a sense, that album pulled me through everything." While describing his goals for the album in an interview he said, "I wanted to make a movie on wax. I wanted to make an adults' kid album."

Prince Paul formed the duo Handsome Boy Modeling School with Dan the Automator. Their 1999 debut album, So... How's Your Girl?, featured Sean Lennon, Del the Funky Homosapien, Alec Empire, and Don Novello.

21st century

Paul contributed to multiple projects in the year 2000. His work from that year includes the song "The Fantabulous Rap Extravaganza" on Deltron 3030's self-titled album, as well as It's Very Stimulating, the debut EP by MC Paul Barman.

Prince Paul's 2003 album Politics of the Business again featured many guests such as Chuck D, Ice-T, The Beatnuts, and Wordsworth. The latter also collaborated on a track Paul composed for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie soundtrack. Paul followed this project with a second Handsome Boy Modeling School album, White People, in 2004. His next solo album was Itstrumental (2005). It encompasses a range of genres, relying heavily on past samples, especially from A Prince Among Thieves, and combining them with lighthearted skits about his depression. As of 2023, Itstrumental is Paul's most recent studio album.

Paul continued to collaborate throughout the 2000s. In 2005, he produced the album The Art of Picking Up Women by the Dix, which combines some of hip-hop's misogyny and boasting with 1960s-style R&B. He also collaborated with Parliament, Don Newkirk, and Talking Heads keyboardist Bernie Worrell to release an album titled Turn My Teeth Up! (2007) under the moniker Baby Elephant. Another project Paul produced during this period was Montezuma's Revenge, a 2009 album by Souls of Mischief. On this album, Paul extensively used vintage equipment such as the Emu SP-12, Ensoniq ASR-10, Akai MPC-60 and an Akai MPC-2000.

At the 48th Annual Grammy Awards in 2006, Prince Paul was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album for his work on Chris Rock's Never Scared.

In 2012, Paul spoke openly in an interview about the possibility of doing another De La Soul album after Maseo had made some public comments about a reunion. In the interview, Paul states that he asked the members of De La Soul to work on a new album on and off since 1999. Though he wanted to do a reunion at one time, it seemed in the interview he had moved past the idea, partially because of the far more restrictive sampling laws that exist today. He said, "It's nice to think about it, but I kind of like where we left it. There would be so many expectations. For me to do another De La record, I don't think I could really live up to it. Especially in a day and age where I can't openly sample like that." In 2017 Prince Paul helped to score Mogul, a Gimlet Media podcast about hip-hop scene-maker Chris Lighty. In 2020, Prince Paul co-produced the Gorillaz song "Pac-Man" for the band's Song Machine web series.

In 2017, Prince Paul joined the Creators Advisory Board of Tracklib. In an interview with Tracklib, Prince Paul stated that "I know Tracklib will help (producers) because it will give everybody an opportunity to sample without having to look over their shoulder."

Equipment

Paul has talked about his fondness for vintage equipment in several interviews. One of his favorite pieces of vintage equipment is the Akai S900, which he credits for having a unique sound, saying, "Even though it's big and bulky, nothing sounds like that. It's pretty flexible, it's easy to work, and it's easy to truncate your sample and get things tight...When you look at all this new technology, everything sounds very sterile. Everything is clean and super quiet. It kind of lacks something. When I plug that in, it's like, 'Wow, this is hip hop.'"

Chris Rock listed the Buhloone Mindstate album at number ten on his "Top 25 Albums" list. He credited the album as helping to shape him as a comedian. In 1999, Rock appeared on Paul's A Prince Among Thieves. Later in 2005, Rock's debut album was produced by Paul.

Paul credits The Bomb Squad and Public Enemy as being a significant influence on early De La Soul production, saying, "Early Public Enemy production used layers upon layers and layers, and their arrangements were always super duper incredible to me. We were kind of like students to what they did." In addition to The Bomb Squad, he also lists George Clinton, Dr. Dre, Rick Rubin, and Bernie Worrell as his major influences.

  • 2012: Negroes on Ice (Negroes on Ice)
  • 2016: Throwback to the Future (BROOKZILL!)

Filmography

  • 1988 School Daze as Kassius Johnson
  • 1989 Do the Right Thing as Cody Joseph

Awards and nominations

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|align=center|2006

|Never Scared

|Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album

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References

  • Prince Paul RBMA video lecture session