The New Pharoahe Monch has leaked - DESIRE

Zoot weed has been sparked - itunes is running the intro is a gospel-choiry thing about Freedom.

I'm coughing like a motherfucker, but the first real song has a vocal sample of "I'm free!" (as in "to do what I want any old time) and a kind of a minor key metallish guitar crunch on the beat. He namedrops Harriet Tubman in the first verse.

Paranoid conspiracy theory spotted

"I believe they put HIV in the latex"

3 - Title track, heard it on the Clinton Sparks mixtape. This has the line I've been tripping on for weeks around here.

"Still get it poppin' without artist and repertoire,
'cause MONCH is a MONARCH only minus the A and R."

Sounds different - sparser. I think maybe they cut a sample for clearance.

4 - Also on the mixtape. This one sounds the same, possibly because Tower of Power Horns are doing their thing on here live.

I like this singer Showtime he's brought in as a hype man.

Here's the cover of "Welcome to the Terrordome"

Intro with speech of outrage about Katrina...Horns and feedback guitar on the beat. Sounds like it might be live drums, too.

Too much Chuck D imitation in the delivery of the first verse, though. Almost sounds like a remix.

Second verse is original, though! SHIT!

Mostly original. He goes back to the original for the last few bars.

Track six..."What it Is?"

dissonant drone, string bassline, creepy sound effects. More of the horror movie style ala "Hell" from the last record.

Track seven - "Gun Draws" - also on the mixtape. Creepy musical vibe continues, lyrics written from the perspective of a bullet. Not quite just a remake of "Stray Bullet," though if it was that wouldn't be so bad.

More conspiracy theories - getting old school with it, too, asking about who shot Kennedy.

"Whether you jiggy or not, whether you Biggie or Pac..."

Ah, shit!

Track 8 - "Lets go" also on the mixtape. Just good solid hardcore rap that sounds like it could've been released anytime between 92-96. That's a compliment, shut up!

it's like i'm right there, in the room with you!

Shit, the second half of this is a talkshow skit.

No, it's a radio tuner skit.

pt 2 - crunk parody

pt 3 - hippie rap parody

track 9 - "Body Baby"

What the fuck is this? Neo-swing beats with hardcore lyrics? This is some strange shit.

Barrelhouse piano and electric guitar solos!

Handclap breaks! Fingerpop breaks!

b3 basslines!

Elvis imitations?!??!

how do you know your drug abuse isn't clouding your mind, obscuring the shittiness of monche

track 10

Grey Goose product placement in the intro!

Because I can spell his name correctly.

OOH BURN

War samples! Used before by Gangstarr! subliminal disses of 50 cent and Nelly.

oh right, the extra e is on "pharoahe"

did you get the magazine they printed for this

No - it's an internet leak, so they don't come with tray booklets.

11 - Some kinda love song, features Erykah Badu. I guess she didn't take that line about "Headwrap Hoes" personally.

Jesus christ, track 13 is a 9.5 minute monster caled Trilogy with different guests credit for parts i ii and iii.

I guess the influence of Emerson Lake and Palmer is still strong in the alternative/prog rap scene.

12 - "So Good" another sexin' track.

live piano, synth strings with reverb and echo. Slowed down the rapping to a conversational level, lowered delivery to just above a whisper, attempts to sing.

BY THE BOOK

was that a pissing sound effect??!??!

LITTLE RICHARD LIVES

Okay, here comes Trilogy. Clearly, more weed is called for.

A demon voice pronouncing someone husband and wife.

Yeah, more weed for sure.

Part one -

Pharoahe is remembering how he came to be at home with his wife dead and under arrest.

Part two -

He's captured the dude his wife is cheating on, which he discovered when he came home early from the studio.

sax solo!

This is more a Marvin Gaye imitation than Yes influenced, though. Which is nice.

part three -

addressing his wife. He's killed them both already, though, and trying to make it look like he's discovered the aftermath of a lover's quarrell before the police get there.

piano solo!

Agent Orange - last song, and another repeat from the mixtape.

Yeah, I like it enough I'll buy it Tuesday.

cool

all I've heard so far is "Push" and the v. bizarre "Body Baby". glad to hear the rest of the album is... interesting.

the PE cover is totally pointless.

way too much shitty singing on this, not least from pharoahe himself, and the beats are too much in that neo soul okayplayer vein on a lot of songs.

he can still rap circles around most rappers though. was surprised to hear him going at it so hard. and not realy changing what he raps about, even if it doesnt always seem to fit the production/choruses.

wtf i posted to this thread.

my exact words were

'dude you are my favorite person right now'

you simplistic pop-rap/snap/crunk/hyphy jocking bitches.

You called! I've heard "Body Baby", which is horrible sub-Gnarls bullshit; "Gun Draws" which is pretty cool, but didn't Nas already make that song? I could swear; and "Agent Orange", which annoyed me when it came out a decade or two ago, but my taste has changed considerably since then, so I don't really know. I'm not really excited for this.

Side note: Am I the only one who finds the drums on "Simon Says" totally lacking? Other than that, its great, but the drum track sounds completely stilted.

the drums sound flat, yeah

Wasn't this already supposed to be in the record stores like two months ago? I tried to look for it in the local store in May... When is it officially out?

Tuesday

what it is is the best track by a couple hundred miles

"Gun Draws" is (arguably) kinda sorta ripping off Nas' "I Gave You Power" but since Organized Konfusion made "Stray Bullet" a couple of years before that, it's much more arguably Monch revisiting familiar territory.

It's kinda weird to consider that Prince Po has been more productive since the breakup. I guess he hasn't had quite as many label problems, though.

"Gun Draws" is (arguably) kinda sorta ripping off Nas' "I Gave You Power" but since Organized Konfusion made "Stray Bullet" a couple of years before that, it's much more arguably Monch revisiting familiar territory.

Oh, alright. Forgive my ignorance.

NEVER

More seriously, you should be able to find "Stress:The Extinction Agenda" available on a blog pretty easily, and it's a way classic album.

alternative snap thread

Snap is just a fad. It will never last.

Hay Oily (since I guess this is Rolling Alt Snap 07 now) I just got Freestyle Fellowship To Whom It May Concern: Version 2.0. Remix of the full album. Crazy hotness. Do you want.

Got

Man how do you have everything ever

Being old helps.

This is ok

I like this a lot. At first it felt weird that the album has so much guest singers and and live instruments and stuff, because Pharaohe is known as a pure rapper, but in my opinion all that shit works. It's still pretty raw stuff, not neo-soul, so Pharaohe doesn't sound out of place. Except maybe on "So Good", which feels kinda too smooth for him. His Chuck D imitation is pretty good, but "When the Gun Draws" felt kinda unnecessary, since he did that thing already with Organized 13 years ago. The album is pretty short anyway, you'd think he'd come up with new ideas. Great beat on that song though. The conspiracy theories he drops sound kinda stupid, but most of the time he's on fire. The only complain I have is that his flow seems to have gotten more simplistic, maybe because of the music he's chosen restricts him. No mind-blowing verbal acrobatics like "Bring It On" here.

its a decent album. monche is still good but as an album it just feels kinda focus grouped.

focus grouped

OTMonche

This albums pretty great.

this and the talib one should come as a double pack.

monch sold 12,000 in his first week for anyone interested. he needs to realise what hes good at and developing that rather than trying to be a major big leagues artist. hes too weird to be up 'there'.

No Precambrian bar flies in that set.

Also, I must apologize for confusing table hockey with skee ball.

Wow, that's more than the wrong thread, that's the wrong forum!

Rave review by Dan Charnas in Washington Post, and an 'A' by someone else in Entertainment Weekly. Ooh critical hivemind support (or just these 2)

Maybe they listened to Internal Affairs by mistake. That's an A/rave album.

its getting lots of good reviews. i think its kind of the sympathy vote though. the fact theres no one out there like him, hes been around for so long. etc etc. not cos its that amazing.

That sounds very likely to me, and like I said - I like the album, I bought it, etc.. But if he was more willing to let go of the pop market he could have made a much better record, although after the "Simon Says" hit/lawsuit fiasco it's completely understandable that he'd want to repeat that success. The weird thing is that was a completely hardcore underground type cut with no real gestures to the pop market at all.

between this, the talib and the new common album, its no wonder people are more interested in the likes of ti, jeezy et al. not saying theyre not thinking about the pop market either, but at least their music has some heft and heaviness to it (well when theyre good). the common, monch and talib albums are just in that middle ground between neo soul and underground rap. its too soft.

its too soft.

Not something I remember anyone saying about that Godzilla sample.

i never thought internal affairs was as good as the first 2 organized albums (but then i dont think monch is that great as a solo artist) but yeah at least that album had the rape track, the ones with mop and canibus, simon says... it also had shit songs like the light but it showed monch's best side too.

I think Desire is still the best undie rap record I've heard in the last couple of years. The supposed softness is much more multi-faceted and funky than on the Talib Kweli album, which really just sounds soft. And Pharoahe is still ten times better as a lyricist, Kweli is too much of a backpacker sterotype - he can spit clever punchlines, but Pharoahe's whole concepts are much more interesting, even if I don't agree with all of his views (like the conspiracy theories found on this album).

yeah this album is a bit overlooked, it's one of my favorites from this year