You know, you just gotta applaud the MC's who manage to have such longevity in hip hop. Especially the underground ones. The ones not well known to the mainstream audience. Pharoahe Monch is one of many that fit this bill. Now to you real hip hop heads who listen to the underground, I don't really need to give you a big introduction on who he is. But let me bring you young ones up to speed. Pharoahe Monch is one of hip hop's most prolific underground lyricists and has been for over twenty years now. He came into the game as a one half of the rap duo Organized Konfusion. Together they dropped three critically acclaimed albums together in the early 90's before splitting up in 1997. Then two years later he dropped his much anticipated solo debut Internal Affairs. Which featured one of the biggest records of the late 90's in "Simon Says". A record that's been heard in dozens of movies and TV shows because of the addictive beat and the controversy surrounding the sample. Sadly it's some folks til this day that don't even know that that was Pharoahe Monch's song. After an eight, yes eight year hiatus he dropped Desire. Which if I had to pick is my favorite album of his despite only hearing it once. Well now the time has come for the vet to drop a new project for the ears of the underground. This is his fourth album PTSD: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Unfortunately I never got to hear his previous 2011 album W.A.R. (We Are Renegades). But I already know what kind of artist Pharoahe Monch is so I had somewhat of a feeling on what to expect from this. I thought this was a pretty dope album overall. This album was full of so much emotion that I don't know where to begin. The whole idea or concept here is that he's going through a tremendous amount of stress. Throughout the album you get many emotions from him. Anger, rage, frustration, depression, aggravation and so on. All things that are putting him through traumatic stress. So he checks into a rehab, or in this case a recollection facility where they look into his mind. Open up his thoughts and dreams and discover all of these demons that's causing him all this great deal of emotion. Sounds very Inception like. It's a very interesting concept. One of those that you gotta get right because it's not easy. Pharoahe does a solid job doing it. The production, while it wasn't outstanding was good enough to give somewhat of a theatrical feel of the music. Perfectly coinciding with the albums concept. Now let me being with all that I liked. The track "D.R.E.A.M." was certainly a favorite of mine. The tempo of this beat was a true head nodder and I loved it. Well produced by Lee Stone. Talib Kweli gets on the tracks and drops a cool verse. The second track "Time2" is a dope track where he flexes his masterful word play: "the streets paved in gold often fade/when the paint they use to paint the streets is henna/and greener is the grass on the other side/except when that other side is geno/or sewer...". I'm not even gonna break that down. Keep reading it you'll figure it out. Anyway I enjoyed this track a lot. The stuttering he was doing on the second verse was a bit much but it's not much of a surprise. He at times gets a little wacky and bizarre with his flows. Then the next track "Losing My Mind" has this laid back piano assisted beat that's really cool. Here he just vents about all the evil that surrounds him and that he sees everyday and how that too plays into his constant stress. "Damage" finds him rapping from the point of view of a street gangster out for blood. Speaking on committing numerous violent acts. His superior lyricism comes into play again: "they cock them hammers wave them llamas/but that's that in front of the camera drama/so when the cameras are attached to dollys I call the dali llamas". Seriously how does someone even fathom that? Lee Stone does it again with this hard electric sounding beat. "Bad M.F." had me on the fence at first but I find it cool now. The sample on the hook is kinda funny and catchy. However he has this line on the hook that was just way too corny: "who put these pussies on top?/putting out that pussy music/call it pussy pop". Never thought I would hear Pharoahe Monch spit a line that sounds like something out of Lil Wayne's catalog. Despite that thought the track is cool. "Rapid Eye Movement" features Black Thought of The Roots and may be the best track lyrically on the album. These two went toe to toe on this track with such a deadly lyrical assault. I would quote some of it but it's too much I liked from it. Just check that one out. Now, I do have a few issues. Throughout the album, there's this series of skits called "The Recollection Facility" where this computerized voiced is talking to him telling him everything he's about to experience. Now I don't know if they were placed wrong or if the skits itself were even done right. But they just didn't sell well to me. I can see how it ties in with the concept but they didn't hit home. Another thing that I think really held this album back from it's full potential...the hooks. There really wasn't any hook on this album I liked. Whether it was bad samples, bad singing by Pharoahe or just plain generic hooks, none of them were that good. It's a good thing he's such a incredible lyricist because if his lyrics was even average, and it was with these hooks, this album could have winded up being horrible. Even with the creative concept. The interlude "Heroin Addict" had a dope throwback beat. Like some kind of electric funk beat from the 70's. But I was a little upset that it was only a one minute interlude. Nothing major but I just would have liked to have heard that as a full song. In closing, this album was dope album. A must listen for fans of the underground, fans of lyricism, and just fans. I give this a final grade of a B. It's sad that underground legends like Pharoahe Monch, whose been doing this for so so long, still gets over looked to this day. Regardless of why, it doesn't seem to phase him. He continues master his craft as a superior lyricists and putting out quality projects. Then again, controversial early singles, numerous year gaps between albums, and being over looked for over twenty years could be the very thing causing his traumatic stress. But hey I'm no psychiatrist. You figure it out. End.
Final Grade: B
CREDITS
Executive Producers
Troy Jamerson
Guy Routte
Lead Artist
Troy Jamerson
Production
Marco Bruno
Jesse West
Lee Stone
Quelle Chris
Tim Walsh
Jeff Gitelman
Dan Edinberg
Collaborators
Denaun Porter
Tariq Trotter
Talib Green
Tim Walsh
Jeff Gitelman
Dan Edinberg
Vernon Reid
Label
W.A.R. Media/Duck Down Music
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