At heart, the goal of rap emcee Pimp Tea aka Troy Neilson is to have fun, express his inner self and encourage positivity. His musical focus is on pursuing the good-hearted party roots of rap music from the early days of Kool Herc, as displayed on 'Shake Ya Caboose', while also being mindful of the late eighties conscious community-oriented spirit of hip-hop, but with a willingness to contribute to the progression hip-hop requires in order to move forward. After all, "hip-hop used to be about fighting against the status quo, but now it is the status quo" – Buck 65.

At a quick glance, Pimp Tea might be viewed as a bling bling show-me-the-money rapper, but fortunately there is much more to be read beneath the cover. Hailing from Fredericton, New Brunswick, this Canadian brings forth a diverse style, but with a distinctive small-town flavour. In fact, it's his love of hip-hop and live energy that puts potency in his act.

Backed by the Pimp Tea acronym of "Positively Influencing More People To Excel Artisitically," he has worked hard to help unify the local hip-hop community via his bi-weekly Atlantic Canada Hip-Hop Newsletter. In addition, he has reviewed over 300 albums and conducted interviews with the likes of Swollen Members, Rascalz, Buck 65, Choclair, Classified, Skratch Bastid, Mastermind, and Jelleestone, while writing for The Brunswickan, HipHopCanada.com, Soundcheck Magazine and even hiphopdx.com over the past six years.

His hard work over the past 3 years with Jesse Plunkett & company has also helped build HipHopCanada.com into the 2002 & 2003 Canadian Urban Music Association (CUMA) winner for Best Canadian Urban On-line Publication/Website. This awareness of existing rap music plays an integral role in the diversity and creativity that shapes his music.

Pimp Tea's love of music can be traced back to his family roots. His late Great Great Uncle Don Messer stands as the most famous Canadian fiddler of all time and has even been dubbed "the absolute granddaddy of East Coast Music" by the National Post. His keen interest in writing first blossomed at the age of ten when he won Ganong's "Why I love the Chocolate Mousse" poetry contest, beating out hundreds of other contestants.

By the mid-nineties he had discovered his passion for hip-hop, which first boiled over in 1995 when a high school chemistry project resulted in the classic 'Ice Ice Water'. The following years would see Pimp Tea perform with several local bands prior to going solo in 2000. In the interim, a wacky Halloween costume earned him the nickname PIMP-T.

However, it was his amusing multimedia project for a university course in 2000, which caused the name to stick. The 'PIMP-T Project' yielded a low-quality music video which has gone on to be featured on both MuchMusic and MusiquePlus and ultimately landed Pimp Tea as a top-five nominee for a 2000 UMAC award for best Hip-Hop Recording.

Pimp Tea used these accolades as a springboard for the creativity, uniqueness and positivity infused throughout his 2002 debut album, Power Is Mindful Peace. The album was nominated for Best Urban Recording at the 2003 East Coast Music Association (ECMA) award and has been described as "a considerable achievement" (The Daily Gleaner) and "truly groundbreaking" (ybfree.com).

At the time, Pimp Tea was known under the moniker PIMP-T ("Power Is Mindful Peace" - Troy), but felt a name change was in order for his sophomore album due to his growth recording, writing and rapping-wise. "I like diversity, change and growth, especially when it comes to music, so I made the change" says Pimp Tea. "As well, I like how Pimp Tea sort of bridges the gap between the street image - pimp - and the royalty image - sipping tea. I like the new acronym ("Positively Influencing More People To Excel Artistically") more too."

Renown for his energetic live show, Pimp Tea always makes an effort to pull out all the stops. Accompanied by his trusty dancing/rapping sidekick, Rory Borealis, their lively performance provides an unparalleled sight that if nothing else, will captivate you. Often clad in vintage retro apparel, they combine adlib freestyle dance moves while dropping verses. Their shows are all about having fun.

Pimp Tea's sophomore album, An Urbal Remedy, was released on August 17, 2004, accompanied by a 12" vinyl single featuring 'Shake Ya Caboose' and 'Super Dude (Jorun remix).' The five videos on the enhanced CD portion manage to capture Pimp Tea's energetic live proponent for which he is renown. Sixteen different producers lend a hand in the album's production including Jorun (Buck 65, Sixtoo, Tallisman, Universal Soul), Classified (Maestro, Infinite, Cella Dwellas, Spesh K, J-Bru), Nevski ('Tha PIMP-T Theme'), J-Bru (CTG Records), Cal, Alexandre (Dig Your Roots comp), Karl Mohr (Hawksley Workman), and Rod Marquart (of Drums-N-Machines). The album garnered two 2005 ECMA nominations for Urban Single of the year with 'Shake Ya Caboose' and 'P. Titty,' while Neilson earned a 3rd nomination for Manager of the Year.

The first single ('Shake Ya Caboose') won the 2005 ECMA Award for Urban Single of the Year and has charted on over 35 stations in North America, from Miami to San Francisco. It spent three weeks, peaking at #24, on the Record Breakers charts, which is compiled by 40+ of the most influential hip-hop DJs in North America. In November 2004, the album peaked at #7 on the Canadian national Earshot! Hip-Hop charts. An Urbal Remedy has received provincial features in newspapers in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia & Prince Edward Island; was featured on the national Canadian University Press (CUP) Arts Wire; has received glowing reviews in Exclaim, Peace, The Martlet, Aquinian, Brunswickan & more, while gaining comparisons to De La Soul, Buck 65, Andre 3000 & Organized Rhyme.

Mixed by Pimp Tea's brother, Colin Neilson (Bob Rock, Our Lady Peace, Billy Talent, Deep Purple, Ryan Malcolm), and mastered by J. Lapointe (Buck 65, Sixtoo, Joel Plaskett), the 19-song album is peppered with positivity, grit and some booty shaking good times. Overall, it provides an enjoyable display of Pimp Tea's diversity, progression and unique sound sound and has been described as "strong stuff through and through, and a major improvement on his first effort" (Bob Mersereau, CBC Arts Reporter).

This 25-year old Masters student in the Computer Science program at the University of New Brunswick, has performed everywhere from MusiquePlus (French MuchMusic) in Montréal to the 2003 Canada Winter Games in Bathurst. He released independent videos for 'Tha PIMP-T Theme' and 'Petty Crime' to critical acclaim. He performed 'Shake Ya Caboose' and 'Super Dude' live on CBC's ZeD TV, which was broadcast nationally. He's won an East Coast Music Award and is part of a team that has won two Canadian Urban Music Association (CUMA) awards. It's clear that Pimp Tea is on the rise and eats, sleeps, and breathes hip-hop.

Here are some of Pimp Tea's favourite quotes:

Prince Paul in May 2003 Exclaim:
"I gave up a long time ago trying to appeal to the masses. It's not in me, to walk everybody else's walk continuously," he says. "That's why I have a small fan base, but they're pretty loyal and I've accepted that. I hate going to hip-hop shows where cats just pace the stage and say 'Throw your hands in the air!' or 'Let me bust a freestyle!' I can't deal with that. Whatever I'm gonna do, has to be entertaining from top to bottom. Now for the 'real hip-hop' crowd, maybe they'll like it, maybe they won't. Maybe it's too unreal for them, but it won't be typical. So I advise everybody to get a ticket to see history made 'cause I may never do it again."

3-time World DMC Champion, DJ Craze from the movie 'Scratch':
"20 years from now, I wanna look back and be like 'yo I had fun when I was like 20 doin all this crazy shit with the turntables'... I don't wanna look back and be like 'yeah man, I was representing. I was keeping it real.' I'm having fun and that's what this is all about."

Chuck D (of Public Enemy):
"School is the pre-season for life. So educate yourself, because you can't freestyle knowledge."

E-mail: pimpt@pimpt(dot)com
Website: http://www.pimptea.com

Contact info:
   Brockway Entertainment
   ATTN: Troy Neilson
   PO Box 90014
   Ottawa, ON
   K1V 1J8
   CANADA