Universally recognized for his mastery of multisyllabic wordplay, Pharoahe Monch has embarked on a career spanning over 25 years. A career that has him lyrically morphing into the cold and heartless life of a bullet in 3 stages: “Stray Bullet” on Organized Konfusion; “When the Gun Draws” on Desire and “Damage” off of PTSD; illustrating the perspective of a fetus in the womb of a mother who is a drug abuser (“Invetro”) — to the inspirational biopic tale of living life as a child, with chronic asthma (“Still Standing”, featuring the Grammy award-winning vocalist extraordinaire, Jill Scott). In this 25+ year journey to stay committed to the culture of lyricism—and hip hop in an ever-changing paradigm that has the music industry once again pushing to the forefront the low-hanging fruit of disposable artists, Pharoahe’s consistency as an artist has been an inspiration to countless artists and led to his first Grammy in 2017. As with Mos Def's Black On Both Sides, we are celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Pharoahe's Rawkus Records debut, Internal Affairs, this year. I'm updating this post to now include DJ Filthy Rich's tribute mix, where he shares: "In my opinion, this is a Top 3 Rawkus Records release, featuring Pharoahe Monch's complex polysyllabic rhymes over production from Diamond D, Alchemist, DJ Scratch, Lee Stone and even Pharoahe himself. This mix features album cuts, original samples and my own blends. Shout out to the talented artist Dan Lish, who reworked his original Pharoahe art for the cover for this tribute." 10+ years ago, I interviewed Pharoahe Monch (at random) for BHHF; I was unprepared but down to build when I was asked to do it. You can watch that interview HERE (don't judge me!) and listen to Filthy Rich's tribute mix below...
An original advert from Internal Affairs + the artwork for the mix are below...
