Rapper P-Lo is thinking outside the box for his next act
After co-producing Drake’s “2 Hard 4 The Radio,” the Filipino American is reintroducing himself with a boundary-pushing album
P-Lo's upcoming album, "Out The Box," drops later this summer.
Bryan Berry
Words by Eric Diep
When P-Lo dials into our Zoom call, New York City was still buzzing with the Knicks’ first NBA championship win in 53 years. Notably, Jordan Clarkson had just become the first player of Filipino heritage to win an NBA title, which means everything for proud Pinoys. “It feels amazing,” P-Lo says. “Jordan Clarkson is actually my homie, too, seeing him get his one. I also feel like the Knicks were the 2015 Warriors, especially for a franchise that hasn’t won in a long time like that. I definitely had a different appreciation.”
The Pinole, California-born and raised Bay Area ambassador has been representing his region since the early 2010s, when he was rolling with HBK Gang, a hip-hop collective he co-founded. After crafting hits as part of The Invasion Crew (a production team with his brother Kuya Beats, Iamsu!, and Jay Ant), P-Lo branched out on his own as a solo artist to much success, dropping songs like “Put Me on Somethin’” featuring Bay Area rapper and legend E-40 that carry on the tradition of the Bay’s bounce and swag. After back-to-back releases collaborating with LaRussell on Majorly Independent and spotlighting Bay Area culture on For the Soil, P-Lo is conceptualizing an album that escapes the expectations set by others and breaks creative boundaries.
In a social media post teasing P-Lo’s upcoming album, Out The Box, retired NFL running back-turned-actor Marshawn Lynch and a man representing the music industry and “inside the box” explain the differences between playing it safe and taking risks. “Safe doesn’t move the culture,” Lynch says. Lynch, on the side of P-Lo, is thinking out of the box, not inside.
The idea for Out The Box, P-Lo’s first solo album in four years, came to him last July. This reset allowed him to lean fully into experimentation, evolving further as an artist and inventing new ways to elevate the Bay Area sound. After dropping singles like the title track and “S/O Alysa Liu,” Out The Box is releasing this summer. “I feel like in the past year or two, I've been able to do a lot of different things with not only music, but just me personally,” P-Lo says. “I feel I've grown a lot through all my personal experiences, whether it was me practicing Ramadan, whether it was me running marathons; I just feel like I've gone through a lot of personal growth to even create this album.”
Growth is a big part of Out The Box’s creation, on which the Filipino American producer and rapper says he’s played with different song structures, samples, drums, and beat switches. The philosophy is rooted in being unconventional, expressing himself in such a way that embraces creative freedom with no restraints. At one time, when he had to overcome self-doubt creatively, he says with a laugh, “I had to think out the box.”
P-Lo is one of the most consistent rappers in the game. His confidence comes from being around Iamsu! and Kool John coming up, stating they put the “battery in (his) back” to help him find his voice and messaging in his music. He chose his true passion of music instead of basketball growing up, because he could only express himself so much with basketball. He always had a great appreciation for music because of his older sibling, Kuya Beats, who is a guiding light for talent. “Yeah, he’s the oracle,” P-Lo says. “He’s really like Yoda. A lot of young emerging talent coming out of the Bay, they damn near go through Kuya, somehow. He’s pretty much the older brother to the Bay.”
In the past six months, P-Lo has been associated with the Bay’s biggest cultural moments. He might be the first rapper to ever shout out Liu, Olympic figure skating gold medalist and hometown heroine from Oakland. They appear together in the video for “S/O Alysa Liu” as a sign of unity and community, as The Town showed up to honor their newest superstar and celebrate their champion.
Liu’s story of retiring from figure skating and launching a triumphant comeback is what the themes of Out The Box are about: to do things your way, not living in anyone else’s constraints, and embodying the Bay Area spirit. E-40 is also someone who “exemplifies what it means to be out the box,” according to P-Lo. “He's been going left when everyone's going right,” he continues. “Sometimes I’ll be cooking up and I’ll make a beat, throw a hook on it, and I’ll send it to 40. Not even for anything, just for the love. He just brought so much to music, to myself, to our region. I feel like I owe 40.”
In the 2010s, P-Lo was the guy for hyphy-infused production, known for hits like Wiz Khalifa’s “Bout Me” and Yo Gotti’s “Act Right.” P-Lo’s streak continues this year, as he and Karri, a half-Filipino R&B singer and songwriter, both contributed to Drake's “2 Hard 4 The Radio,” off his latest album, ICEMAN. On how he got the beat placed, P-Lo reveals that initial conversations happened in January when Karri was out in the Bahamas with Drake. "Karri is in the studio, and he's watching Treal T.V.,” P-Lo recalls about the lifestyle and music documentary hosted by Mac Dre. “Usually, when I'm in the studio working, I have some Bay Area nostalgic videos up there. Drake had walked into the studio, and Karri was watching Treal T.V., and (Drake) was like, 'What the f*ck do you know about this?' And (Karri) was like, 'Sh*t, P-Lo put me on.' (Drake’s) like, 'Okay, okay, okay.'"
A few days later, Karri calls P-Lo about Drake wanting some beats. P-Lo adds that this is the end of January, before Super Bowl LX at Levi's Stadium. He and Karri were making a lot of beats, but nothing was landing with Drake. "I have to go up to the Bay like a week early before the Super Bowl. So I'm driving, I'm literally on the 5,” P-Lo says. “It's like nine in the morning. Karri texts me. He's like, 'Yo, they sent me over this sample that they really liked.' They were like, 'Hey, could you throw some drums on it? Could you like, f*ck with it?' So I literally pulled my car over on the highway. I switched seats with my homie Nick. I put my laptop speakers on Bluetooth on my Tesla. I was just on the highway making the beat."
P-Lo recently contributed to Drake's song “2 Hard 4 The Radio,” off his latest album, "ICEMAN."
Bryan Berry
P-Lo says it was Drake's idea to sample Mac Dre's classic song "Too Hard for the F*ckin' Radio." "That was Drake the whole time. He already knew that he wanted to flip that; he just had to find the right beat," P-Lo says. P-Lo tweeted on June 9 that Mac Dre was a platinum-eligible songwriter now because of ICEMAN’s streaming success, a full-circle moment for someone who was raised on “Dreganomics.” "For me to be part of getting Mac Dre his first plaque, like, man, if you had told me that as a middle school kid. Like, I got Mac Dre tatted on my wrist," he says of honoring him. "Dre gave me so much self-confidence and self-worth through his music. I'm so happy that it came out. Drake really just showed love."
The first half of 2026 has been nothing but wins for P-Lo. His latest sampling of Out The Box is “Run It Back,” a bass-heavy singles anthem aimed for pool parties and summer cookouts. “Can’t nobody live and do this sh*t like how I did it,” he states on the track, making sure to shout out his Filipinos for good measure.
P-Lo keeps the Bay Area identity strong for his audience, but Out The Box is his chance to reintroduce himself with unexpected voyages into melodic singing and technical flows. He welcomes any challenges that are thrown at him as he carves out his legacy in hip-hop. "Everything feels new," he says. "And I'm hella excited about a whole bunch of different things, whether it's my own solo stuff or continuing to produce more. I feel like I'm new to this sh*t."
After spending years convincing the world of his talent and innovation, Mr. Bring the Bass Back is ready to dominate the summer again.
Published on July 21, 2026
Words by Eric Diep
Eric Diep has written for Billboard, Complex, Vulture, HipHopDX, and XXL. He is a freelance journalist based in Dallas and loves shumai.