Patrick Paige Ii

Patrick Paige II built a strong reputation through his role in the Internet, where he functions chiefly as bassist in the Grammy-nominated R&B ensemble. Outside that setting he has steadily developed independent work, issuing the albums Letters of Irrelevance in 2018 and If I Fail Are We Still Cool? in 2021; both projects display his command of jazz-inflected hip-hop as well as his capacity for unusually candid lyricism and imaginative production. Like the acid jazz and neo-soul leanings that shape the Internet and its appetite for risk, Paige’s solo recordings fuse contrasting idioms into a forward-looking collage.

Based in Los Angeles, Paige entered the Internet in 2011 as touring bassist soon after Syd and Matt Martians established the group. He has participated in writing and production from the band’s debut LP Purple Naked Ladies onward. Near the close of 2015, once the Internet had delivered its second and third albums Feel Good and the Grammy-nominated Ego Death, Paige introduced himself as a solo artist with the all-instrumental EP Prelude. Although that project contained no vocals, he stepped into the roles of vocalist, rapper, and songwriter on the candid 2017 single “You Ain’t Missing Much.” Following the further singles “Voodoo” and “On My Mind/Charge It to the Game,” the latter featuring Syd and Kari Faux, he released his first album Letters of Irrelevance in May 2018. Paige reappeared in 2021 with several solo recordings that culminated in the May arrival of If I Fail Are We Still Cool?, issued by Fat Possum and including guest spots from Internet colleagues Syd and Steve Lacy together with Durand Bernarr and Allen Love.