Editors from About.com ranked him as #2 in their "Top 50 Hip-Hop Producers" list.

Born the sixth of seven children, Pete Rock was born in Bronx, New York in 1970. His family moved to Mount Vernon, NY when he was 7 years old. During high school, he met his future recording partner CL Smooth. According to Rock, his father was also a part time DJ, who had an impressive record collection. Rock would often accompany his father to a cricket club called Wembley in the Bronx, and watch as he spun records for the guests. His first job was as a paperboy, in his neighborhood.

His first major exposure to the hip-hop audience was in 1987 with Marley Marl, as a DJ on New York's WBLS radio show "In Control With Marley Marl." The 17-year-old Phillips was recognized by the listening audience as the man "puttin' in work", as he would use double copies of each record to cut up every song he played, when most New York DJs would only use double copies on every 3rd or 4th song. Propelled by the growth of his popularity, he began producing in the early 1990s. In 1990 he joined with CL Smooth to released the EP All Souled Out.

The following year saw Mecca and the Soul Brother, the first of two full length albums, released to critical acclaim and hailed as a classic by many. During this period, Pete Rock began to produce songs for other acts such as "Down With the King" for Run-DMC, and "The World Is Yours" for Nas, as well remixing singles for Jeru The Damaja ("You Can't Stop The Prophet"), Public Enemy ("Shut 'em Down"), and The Notorious B.I.G. ("Juicy" - the original of which was allegedly based on Rock's own demo). Pete and CL followed up Mecca in 1994 with The Main Ingredient. Like its predecessor, The Main Ingredient also received wide critical acclaim. However, soon after the album's release, the duo split and went their separate ways, with Rock focusing on production work for other artists.

In 1995, he formed the group INI, with Grap Luva, Rob-O, and I Love H.I.M. and released the classic 12" "Fakin' Jax". The trio recorded an album, Center Of Attention(originally named The Life I Live), which was heavily bootlegged and remained unreleased until 2003, when BBE Records picked it up for distribution. The release of this album was coupled with another previously unreleased mid-90's Pete Rock-produced album, DeDa's The Original Baby Pa.

While working as a DJ with Marley Marl on Hot 97's Future Flavas show, Rock was able to forge a relationship with Loud Records, allowing him to release his solo album Soul Survivor in the summer of 1998. After being dropped from the Loud imprint, Rock signed with Rapster/BBE under his own label Soul Brother Recordings. His first release on the imprint was PeteStrumentals, which was mostly made up of previously unreleased Rock beats; all recorded between 1990 and 1995 but remixed and mastered for the 2001 BBE Project. The album did however feature two additional 2001 songs that featured the vocals from The UN. An expanded and revisited version of the album was released less than one year later; 3 instrumentals had been replaced with 3 new songs performed by C.L. Smooth, Freddie Foxxx and Nature separately.

Since then he has continued releasing solo albums including 2004's Soul Survivor II. In that same year he also produced the bulk of Edo G's My Own Worst Enemy, as well as a track for the all-girl rap group Northern State.

Pete Rock returned to greater visibility through a closer relationship with the Wu-Tang Clan. Their collaborations began with Soul Survivor, which featured Inspectah Deck, Method Man, Ghostface Killah and Raekwon on various tracks as well as producing a track each for Inspectah Deck's ("Trouble Man") and Raekwon's ("Sneakers") respective 1999 albums. Rock continued to work with the Wu on Soul Survivor II which featured both GZA and RZA. In 2006 he also produced four tracks for Ghostface's release Fishscale, including the first single, and Nature Sounds labelmate Masta Killa's second album, Made in Brooklyn.

Pete Rock has cultivated a relationship with Brooklyn, NY based Nature Sounds Records. He recorded the song "The PJs", which also features Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon and Masta Killa, released on the Nature Sounds compilation Natural Selection. He released an album entitled NY's Finest in February 2008, featuring Raekwon, Masta Killa, D-Block, Redman, Papoose, Slum Village and Jim Jones, among others, also on Nature Sounds. The lead single from the album is entitled "914" and features rappers Sheek Louch and Styles P. He is scheduled to appear on albums by Bishop Lamont, Cannibal Ox, Termanology, Freddie Foxxx, Royal Flush, Verbal Threat, LL Cool J, JoJo Pellegrino, La The Darkman, Cormega, R.A. The Rugged Man, and others. He is also working with DJ/Rapper Doo Wop under the name Tango & Cash (taken from the film of the same name).

Planet Asia has recently claimed that later on in 2009 he will release a collaboration fully produced album with Pete Rock called "Planet Rock". On December 2009 Rock denied that, but talked about collabo projects with Tha Dogg Pound, Camp Lo, Smif-N-Wessun.