Mixtape Review: Pleasure P – Break Up to Make Up

Mixtape Review: Pleasure P – Break up to Make Up Courtesy of Lawrence Burney

Best known for his days as Pretty Ricky’s frontman, Pleasure P a.k.a. Marcus Cooper has been mostly inactive since his debut album The Introduction of Marcus Cooper which included his biggest hit, “Boyfriend #2”. With his sophomore project, King of Romance, still waiting for a release, his recent mixtape Break Up To Make Up serves as a quick fix. Largely, BUTMU is a soundtrack of reflection on failed relationships. On the Big Dee-produced “Letter To My Ex” he tells himself that his now-defunct relationship will come back if it’s meant to be while he still painfully puts himself back at a time where he and his lover did couple’s things like cooking dinner together, making each other laugh, and holding each other. Digging deeper, “Above And Beyond” finds P in pre-breakup mode, apologizing for everything he’s done wrong in the relationship but promising to do better going forward—which, by listening to “Letter To My Ex” didn’t work out so well, assuming that it’s the same lover he’s addressing.

He’s equally repentant in “Start Over” where, early in the track, he says “Girl, I know it’s hard ‘cause you gave your all/ And all I really did was break your heart/ I swear to you I’ll be committed now/ girl we both want the same thing.” It’s here that he not only admits his faults, but uses he and his lover’s progressing ages and his mistakes taking place mostly when he was young to convince her that there’s no real reason to leave. And to top it off, he throws in a passively indirect marriage proposal to support his plea. Directly after in “Chances”, Pleasure expresses his disbelief and gratitude for how many chances he’s gotten to redeem himself.

When he’s not chronicling the rollercoaster that is his relationship, Pleasure P revisits his Pretty Ricky days with tracks like “Sex Mechanic” where he promises to “fix you up and inspect your body” and in “Soaking Wet” he’s making plans to hook up during his interest’s lunchbreak. With mainstream R&B in 2014 being driven by artists like Drake and The Weeknd who tend to dim the mood of their music with self-deprecation, Break Up To Make Up, is, if nothing else, an entertaining rewind to the theatrically-charged drama of early 2000’s R&B. And where depth fails, Pleasure P, succeeds in pure nostalgia.

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