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PBE Pluto is far more than just a rapper, he’s an actor, designer, club owner, and social media personality that boasts 721K followers on Instagram alone. Hailing from Mobile, Alabama, PBE Pluto prides himself in his unique, unapologetic, unfiltered sound, with a strong pen game that yields lyrics for fans to relate and confine in. 

And if there’s one thing PBE Pluto aims to do, it’s to inspire and motivate audiences all around the world. His records have been featured in all the notable publications, including BET Jams, MTV, Shade45, REVOLT TV, and more.

PBE Pluto states, “This is real life. I try to keep our music very realistic, dictate my lifestyle. I don’t come up with these extravagant things that I haven’t seen, I’m just telling you my life within lyrics. I want people to take that and understand, you could be you. You gotta stand out and stick out, do what you gotta do for you. You can’t be trying to please everybody else when you’re trying to elevate.”

Most recently, PBE Pluto unveiled his newest single called “50 Ball.” The record was first teased at his live shows, and the demand for the song got so high that he ended up just releasing it for his fans.

Sheen spoke with PBE Pluto virtually to discuss his love for music, his name, the importance in social media, being a club owner, “50 Ball,” and more!

First question for those who don’t know who is PBE Pluto? 

I’m an artist out of Mobile, Alabama: independent, grinding across the country. I’m a clothing designer, I have my own clothing brand called Xrossed Kultured. I have a factory in Pakistan that creates my brand for me. I do a host of a lot of other things: helping other artists to elevate with their brands, book shows, just network with people all across the country. A lot of different things.

When did you fall in love with music?

I fell in love with music at a very young age. As a kid, I used to go watch the high schools practice. Was really intrigued by the drum squad and the percussion section. I used to be beating on buckets. By the time I was 10, I landed my first spot in a second line band. For people who don’t know what a second line band is, it’s those smaller bands in New Orleans. 

We had the second line band thing going, I landed the main drummer spot at 10 and elevated from there. I wasn’t really into rapping yet, I was just into the music. By the time I was in the sixth grade, I met a guy named Carlisle. He was into freestyling and rapping, so he got me in that mode. I started using music as a dairy, that’s how I was escaping what I had going on in life. I was able to put what I had going on into the music, that’s how I really fell in love with rapping. But the music’s always been there.

How’d you get your name?

Pluto was something I was called as a baby, that was the first thing I knew. I didn’t know my real name coming up, just my nickname. Even when I got in elementary school, they were calling me by my nickname. The PBE part came later, that’s my label Parker Boy Entertainment. When I was pushing with the Pluto brand, I always pushed that brand from a young age. When I really got into rapping, people knew me as Pluto. But when Future and bigger entities started coming out with that name under their platform, it started making it harder for me to really get seen.

Once I started learning about SEO and all this type of stuff, understanding that you got the planet, the cartoon character, you got another rapper, his album name’s Pluto. So now, it made it harder for fans to find me. I knew I needed to add something to my name, I just didn’t know what until later down the line when I bought my first piece. I bought a PBE piece and I bought a Pluto piece. When the jeweler sent it to me, he sent pictures of both of the pieces: it had PBE at the top and Pluto under it. I Googled it, damn ain’t nothing under that name This might be it! I don’t know why I never thought about it. I started changing all my social media that same day, started pushing under that brand and that’s where it came from.

How important is social media in this day in age? Obviously, you got a big following.

Social media’s definitely very important in this day in age. A lot of people don’t understand, it’s a mixture of social media and being able to get out there and tap in with your fans personally. Some artists sit back and wait to get booked. You gotta be more aggressive. You gotta go tap in with these promoters, tap in with these people. Go to their spots, you gotta show them what you could do, then get it on the backend.

I’ll go to a promoter at times if they’ve never booked me, hey let’s do a door deal. Because I know I got a cult following, so my people gon’ fly in. They gon’ come from wherever to see me when I got shows. When the promoters see that type of action, I do a lot of social media promo, sponsoring posts so that area could be really saturated with my brand. I’m not the type of person in VIP, sitting back waiting for people to come to me. Me, I’ma walk around the club, shake every hand. Tap in, hey bro follow me. I make sure they follow me first so it can help my SEO out, help me be more searchable in their market. I make a bigger bag with the promoter, by getting a percentage of the door. There’s so much social media promo, I already had 3 to 4 features setup in that city. I already made my money way before I got there.

When did you stop being a club owner and turned into a rapper?

I always did my thing as a club owner at a very young age, but it was taken a lot away from the music because running a club is a lot of work. It looks fun when you really got a crowd, but it’s a lot of work getting people in there. It’s a lot of work understanding how to keep people in there. You could have the crowd, but then one thing happened and nobody coming but them bills. I helped a lot of people. A lot of people crossed me in that time, so I got tired of it. 

I understand that music is a bigger platform. When you get on with music, you could have anything. You could have clothing, a barbecue shack. Like if Yo Gotti say, “I got Yo Gotti clothing?” Everybody gon’ go and say “I got Yo Gotti clothing?” I understand business. I can always circle back or reopen the club and reopen the restaurant, but I get a music platform worldwide, everything else is gonna be up. I got into a lot of these businesses for a couple of years, learned the ins and outs and got out the way. Took that investment and dumped it into the music so that I can build this platform and circle back to that. That’s where I can just put my face, my stamp, and brand on stuff, and I don’t have to personally be there.

 

You just released “50 Ball.” Is there a video coming?

Definitely. I’m definitely shooting a video pretty soon, but right now I have a lyric video that I’m about to release. Rolling out the layout, because I wasn’t ready to really push this record. I’m the type of person that likes to have things ironed out and planned out, but I’m going by God’s hand.  People begging for it, okay just put it out.

I really was pushing my record “STEPPIN,” which started making a lot of motion and noise. “50 Ball,” I just went home and put it out. It’s getting a lot of traction. A lot of pre-sales from overseas because I got a lot of overseas influence. I have a factory in Pakistan. I deal with 9 different countries, we’re really tapped in. A lot of them downloaded the pre-sales. I’m pretty sure it’s gonna hit iTunes charts. All my records when I first release, I always hit in the first week because of the pre-sales and the people that’s tapped in. That be waiting on the records. Video definitely coming, I might drop it Christmas. I’m gonna put the lyric video up so people can really learn the lyrics and understand exactly what is said.

Any goals for yourself?

My goal is to utilize my lifestyle and my platform to elevate the people around me. To continue to motivate them, even the ones that gave up. I still want to have my lifestyle for them to say: “I didn’t believe in it, but he did.” That’s my goal, to change the mindset of the people that don’t see the vision. Because your vision ain’t for everybody to see. If God giving you the vision, he gave you the vision. 

Everybody else ain’t gon’ see it like you. You gotta bring it into floration, you gotta bring it to life. I want people to see that out of my lifestyle. That’s why I don’t worry about the ones that gave up, I just keep pushing because eventually they gon’ know. That’s my whole push in life, prove people wrong and to let people know one thing: pain don’t hurt me. It just makes me go harder. The only way to hurt me is to make me comfortable.