Tampa rapper Perception lets himself be vulnerable on debut album ‘Better Luck Next Time'

Come 11 p.m., or midnight-ish, on Friday night, Perception will be alone, in a spotlight, with just DJ Flaco nearby ready to queue up tracks. The solitude of it all will be juxtaposed to the artist so many in the Tampa scene have come to know and love via live sets backed by bands, and flanked by his biggest supporters. But for Pedro Morales, performing by himself was the only option.

“I come from the alley, street freestyle type of world, like real hip-hop. And I feel like all I need is a microphone,” Morales—who turns 28 on the same day as his album release—told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. Rap concerts with a band, he admits, can make an emcee standout in a scene, and they allow an artist to bring others into the light.

“But if I’m good, I’m gonna move that crowd with just a microphone,” be said. It wasn’t always that way.

Morales was a shy kid when he was figuring out life in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He kept to himself, had a small group of friends and mostly watched mom raise him, his older sister, plus two cousins, who he considers his siblings, after his aunt passed away. His dad was on his way to becoming a lawyer in Ecuador before he came to visit New York where he fell in love with Morales’ Puerto Rican-Dominican mom and decided to stay, eventually becoming a citizen after long nights studying for the naturalization test. Now, dad has a CDL license.

“Family is real big for me. My parents are a big foundation,” he added.

Family gets a lot of play on Perception’s new album, Better Luck Next Time. Over 30 minutes and 10 songs (plus two skits throwing it back to the golden age of the rap album) Morales lets listeners into his life in refreshing ways. There is a confidence laced throughout the LP, but its defining characteristic is a transparency, vulnerability, and rejection of machismo and bravado that permeates so much of the hip-hop that came in the generations before him.

“Once I got into this local scene, people received me pretty well, but I think that I’ve been my biggest enemy,” he added. “The message of this album, for me, is to believe in yourself. I don’t say this on the album, but I live by it: The people that make it in life aren’t the people that are most talented—they’re the ones that don’t give up.”

“The people thatmake it in life aren’tthe people that are mosttalented—they’re the ones that don’t give up.”

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Morales didn’t always believe in himself though. The album opens with “Hard Times,” rife with the punchline-era, carefully timed raps that permeate Better Luck Next Time. On “KRKs,” over swinging production, keys, and flute he talks about forgoing college, his days playing competitive club basketball and the arthritis that made it painful. The title track talks about getting fired from jobs, doors slamming in his face, and how love and hate are quite often one in the same. There are allusions to Songs in the Key of Life, an album with imagery and emotional heft that is a touchstone in Morales’ entire approach to music and existence in general.

By the time his mom moved the family to Florida for a job and to be closer to his grandma, Morales had hung up the sneakers and instead started paying more attention to the classic, east coast hip-hop that soundtracked his childhood (his biggest influences include Lupe Fiasco, Lauryn Hill, MF Doom and Black Thought). He used to make up jokey rhymes while he was moving around the house, before a long lost older cousin heard him goofing and planted the idea that Morales might actually be a rapper. The change in perception is what led him to today.

Morales was 18 years old at the time, and his cousin hooked him up with a co-worker who had a son who rapped. They started a group called Young and Rebellious. The first show was at Offbeat Hookah Lounge where scene staple bassist Vinny Svoboda—who was in musical engineering school at the University of South Florida at the time, and currently lends low end, soul and feel to a myriad of local songwriters—noticed Perception and encouraged him to keep going. Svoboda would not be the last to see the potential.

Multi-platinum producer Cliff Brown, who won a Grammy award for his work with Mary J. Blige, told CL that he immediately heard a timeless flow and an impeccable producer’s ear on Perception’s 2020 EP, Genesis. He started to work with Morales at an Ybor City studio, befriended him, and came to know Perception as one of the hardest working artists in Tampa.

“Nobody is more driven to be a master of their lyrical craft as well as to be the best producer, spending endless hours digging through crates and samples,” Brown added.
Brown is a producer on Perception’s new album, and Svoboda played bass, but they aren’t alone in supporting Morales. On the album, he is joined by drummer Tucker Sody, bassist Brendon Porter, producer Sean Callahan, Berklee-educated saxophonist Nick Bredal, Cameron Ginex on keys, plus Guianna Brantley and Biishop the Artist on vocals, amongst others. Many of the band's that've backed, played with and supported Perception over the last three years will play opener at the album release show set for Friday, May 26 inside the music hall at Tampa's New World Brewery—tickets are still available and start at $15.

And all the help Perception is getting actually has less to do with good luck, and more to do with preparation and his willingness to let people in. On Friday, he’ll be alone onstage, but there’ll be a big scene in the crowd where the light isn’t shining, reveling in the talent they always believed in.

On “Mistakes,” Perception talks about forgiveness and allows himself to be imperfect.

“We’re all human for the first time. It’s inevitable that we’re going to do things we’re not proud of,” he told CL.

“It’s never too late to turn it around. As long as you’re breathing, you’ve got an opportunity to be here on this earth, you can do something impactful. It’s just up to you; wake up and decide what you want to do with your opportunity. For me, I want to inspire people. I want people to know they’re actually not alone.” Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.

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