Styles P
Photo courtesy of the artist

Styles P announces farewell tour as he retires his solo career

Styles P of The LOX is apparently retiring his solo career, and he’s saying goodbye with the ‘Respect My Legacy’ farewell tour, with support from Smoke DZA. He’ll be backed by live band Ramakhandra at most dates, except for his special 49th birthday show in his New York hometown on November 27 at Irving Plaza, which will find him backed by Brady Watt’s Bass & Bars ensemble. His LOX groupmate Jadakiss is on the NYC bill too, and it’s billed as “Styles P and Friends” so maybe that means even more surprise guests. All dates are listed below.

Earlier this year, Styles P released his latest solo album, Penultimate: A Calm Wolf Is Still A Wolf, which also features Brady Watt, and as the title implies, he plans to release one more solo album before closing the book on that chapter of his career.

Speaking to Billboard about his retirement, he said, “If you look at the amount of solo albums I have compared to artists my age, I think I’ve done my job, and I’ve done it well. I’ve provided fans with so much music, and it consumes a large part of my life. But there’s a lot of other things I want to do, and now I’m ready to do that.”

One of his other endeavors since 2011 has been Juices for Life, which “offers healthy food choices to underserved families,” though he’s stepping down from running that company. He also has a line of organic peanut butter and jelly spread with Eleven Madison Park called Styles PB&J, a collaboration with gourmet vegan shop Cloudy Donuts, created the health-focused Web 3.0 community Farmacy Fantoms, and more.

“I couldn’t truly tell you how I went from being one of the most hardcore rappers to the guy spreading the word about healthy living,” Styles says, “but I can say that I took one big step in a certain direction and never looked back.”

He also adds, “I’ve written a fiction novel and want to write more scripts. I’m doing things I love — and the best part is, I’m serving others. The transition was easy, too, because it’s not like I’ve completely stopped rapping. I’m still with The LOX and doing work with them. But on the solo side, I have other things I want to do.” He says he’ll “probably do more features” now that his rap career will be less busy too.

Styles P Respect My Legacy Tour