Pro Era (short for The Progressive Era) is an American hip hop collective group from Brooklyn, New York. The group is a collective of rappers and record producers that includes East Coast rappers Joey Badass, CJ Fly, Kirk Knight, Nyck Caution, Dyemond Lewis, Aaron Rose, Dessy Hinds, Dirty Sanchez, Rokamouth, J.A.B. and Jakk Da Rhymer, along with producers Chuck Strangers and Powers Pleasant. The collective was formed in 2011 by Capital STEEZ and Powers Pleasant, with Joey Badass and CJ Fly among its founding members.
History
Music career
2008–2011: The 3rd Kind and formation of Pro Era
Capital STEEZ, then known as Jay STEEZ, had started recording music around 2008. During those times STEEZ was also a part of a rap duo called The 3rd Kind along with childhood friend, Jakk Da Rhymer. The 3rd Kind released their only mixtape, The Yellow Tape, in 2009.
In the spring of 2011, while still a student at Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, New York, Capital STEEZ had a performance at a cafe in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, with friends including Powers Pleasant, Joey Badass and Dirty Sanchez also in attendance to show him support. On their way home from the performance, he and Powers Pleasant came up with the idea of forming a hip hop collective, which they named "Progressive Era", or "Pro Era" for short. In addition to the two co-founders, Joey Badass, Dirty Sanchez and CJ Fly were brought into the group as founding members.
2012: Rise in popularity and death of Capital STEEZ
The Pro Era collective signed with the Cinematic Music Group label in 2012, shortly after Jonny Shipes became the manager of Joey Badass. On February 14, 2012, Pro Era released their debut mixtape entitled The Secc$ Tap.e.
The release of the AmeriKKKan Korruption (Capital STEEZ) and 1999 (Joey Badass) mixtapes increased the group's popularity in the underground scene. 1999 was listed among "Best Mixtapes of 2012" by multiple publications. Capital STEEZ was on the list of "Rappers to Watch For in 2013" curated by website HipHopDX.
Pro Era performed with The Smoker's Club's One Hazy Summer Tour, a 30-date tour that began July 13, 2012. In December of that year, Pro Era released the PEEP: The aPROcalypse mixtape. From October 27 to December 1, 2012, Joey Badass went on the first tour for any member of the collective, beginning in New York and ending in Virginia, with the tour also extending abroad to countries such as Switzerland, France, England and the Netherlands.
On December 24, 2012, Capital STEEZ committed suicide, jumping from the rooftop of the Cinematic Music Group headquarters in Manhattan, New York City. Earlier that evening, he sent text messages to a few of his closest friends, telling them he loved them. At 11:59 PM on December 23, STEEZ posted a tweet saying, "The end." He jumped to his death later that night.
2013–2014: Touring and mixtapes
On March 21, 2013, Pro Era participated in the Beast Coastal concert tour with The Underachievers and Flatbush Zombies. The Beast Coastal concert tour performed all over the United States. The first leg of the tour covered the West coast while the second leg covered the East and Midwest, before the tour ended on April 20. Pro Era began a tour of their own on August 29, 2013, at Fort Punta Christo Pula in Croatia and they performed at a variety of venues including New Zealand, Australia and the United States. The tour went on to December 14 and this was technically the first tour in which Pro Era as a group went on tour. Later that year, Pro Era toured with the Under the Influence 2013 tour with Wiz Khalifa, ASAP Rocky, Trinidad James, Chevy Woods and Smoke DZA, among others.
On October 5, 2013, CJ Fly released his debut mixtape, Thee Way Eye See It. On December 25, 2013, the group announced that their third mixtape, The Secc$ Tap.e 2, would be released on February 14, 2014. As promised, it would be released on that day, as a part of a free-music giveaway coined "Pro Era Week". Their next project, The Shift, a free EP was released on May 27, 2014, by Scion AV.
2014–present: Solo projects and Beast Coast supergroup
Due to the coming release of his debut studio album, Joey Badass began a long world tour alongside Pro Era. The tour started on August 8, 2014, in Norway before they went on to tour the U.S. for weeks until reaching their Europe leg of the tour which began in England on November 18 making stops in countries like France, the Netherlands, Australia, Denmark, Belgium, Croatia, Switzerland, and Germany. Joey Badass and Pro Era decided to cut the tour short while in Australia due to the death of member, and cousin of Joey Badass, Junior B.