Pretty Willie, P. Dub – whatever you call Mr. Willie Moore Jr., he’s back with a fresh attitude and another record deal that he’s calling his best one yet.
The smooth, pretty-boy crooner (and Christian, he asserts) is high on a joint venture with Plateau Entertainment, a major indie, whose top dog is responsible for such successes as Salt-n-Pepa. No sense in shaking out any more examples of Eddie O’s former peeps; that duo sprinkled the game like whoa.
“He knows how to finish,” P. Dub said of Eddie O, “so signing with Plateau gives us that finishing edge and a universal look.”
Universal is where P. Dub wants to be. Not the label and not his other former label, Warner Brothers; the rapper turned crooner is all about diversifying his worth and hitting the global market.
For him, that means going hard on the internet, including his myspace page (myspace.com/pdub), though he said he gets a lot done right here in the Lou.
“We’re tapping into the web instead of the streets,” he said advising others to do the same.
“I want to see other artists make it, but they have to diversify and think globally. Everybody here is running around in circles with mixtapes and spending a lot of money without results, so I want to show them where the curve is going.”
The curve is going toward the internet, as far a P. Dub is concerned. He ventured to say that he doesn’t know if people will be buying physical records in the next two years.
His latest record is “Good Thang,” a smoothed-out, girl-chasing joint produced by The Music Doctorz and co-executive produced by Next Plateau.
The song went national about a month ago and has amassed 1.2 million hits on P. Dub’s myspace page.
The song’s title exemplifies P. Dub’s new approach to music: women are good thangs. Don’t get offended by the “thangs” designation. This is what he’s saying:
“If you let them know (the ones who don’t already know) they’re worth gold – not a hoe or a bitch – it’ll force men to come at them respectfully. They are wonderful creations.”
P. Dub’s fascination with women isn’t anything new, of course. A lot of male artists – old and new – can’t help but to woo women, but he’s keeping them on a pedestal where he says they belong.
“It’s not a lot of lust – it’s about love,” P. Dub said.
This new direction is backed by a deal that P. Dub said gets sweeter with time.
Unlike his Universal and WB deals, he didn’t take any money on the front end, which means bigger money on the back end, with a higher percentage per disc sale.
Meanwhile, P. Dub has his hand all over the place: he’s doing international print ads for Gillette and working toward a TV show and clothing line.
“We had great music and talent – now it’s time to go to the next level,” he said.
And what St. Louis artists does Pub like? He thinks Dutch Jackson is a superstar and also favors rappers Tydas and Ruka Puff, and JR on the gospel side.
He still obviously likes the St. Lunatics, and the beef has been cut out. Ali is on one of his songs, and so is crooner Tank.
