Mondays With Monchhichi: Spirituality & Live Performance

I completely forgot to post this recent interview with Pharoahe, conducted by Davey D. Davey D kinda talks too much but it’s still a great interview in which Pharoahe talks about how he tries to capture the spirit whenever he performs live.

Mid-week Monchables*: Pharoahe x Talib x Amsterdam

DJ JS-1 ft. O.C. & Pharoahe Monch “Ridiculous“

Just throwing this up to connect some dots. You’d think from the song title that it might be another Gucci Mane song but it’s not (though I wonder if it’s trying to make a comment on Gucci at all). It’s just a dope battle track from long-time rap friends O.C. and Pharoahe. As usual, Pharoahe kills it and does so with a bunch of ‘M’ alliteration. Bonus points for classic literary devices. The track comes off DJ JS-1′s upcoming album, No Sellout, due next week and boasting a long list of dope guest rappers.

If the beat sounds at all familiar, that’s probably because you remember the same sample being used on Talib Kweli’s “This Means You (ft. Mos Def)” off the Reflection Eternal LP. Well, come to find out that the original (I think?) goes back a few years before that even. The Amsterdamian (or Amsterdamanian, Amsterdamman?) rap group above released that song in 1999 and if the amount of Youtube comments is to be believed, it looks like it was kind of a big deal. Someone let me know if this is definitely the right sample.

via Steady Bloggin, my current favorite rap blog simply because they have great taste.

UPDATE: DJ Tanner Shantanu comes through with the O.G. sample, illustrating my ignorance regarding all things Indian Native-American. Redbone was an all Native-American band from the 1970′s. “Clouds In My Sunshine” comes from their 1974 album, Wovoka.

*You didn’t think I could alliterate Pharoahe Monch’s name in the middle of the week, huh? I guess I’m just a classical rap thesaurus addict like that (……).

Fridays With Pharoahe: The Sound of Young America

It’s been awhile since I posted on the greatest rapper of all time. Some links:

• Pharoahe Monch was interviewed on The Sound of Young America. He talks about how his chronic asthma actually led him to emceeing, John Coltrane’s profound influence on his rapping ability, and the early days with Prince Poetry and mentor/BFF Paul C. I listened to this at work and it’s amazing. Thanks to @rafikam for the heads up.
• Unkut.com recently posted a mixtape of classic material that Paul C produced but never got credit for. The mix actually comes by way of old school hip-hop documentarians T.R.O.Y., which also threw up a great bio of Paul C way back when.
• One reason I stopped digging up Pharoahe material was that someone already trumped my stannery: Rap Dungeon’s extensive catalogue of more or less everything that Pharoahe ever spit in his life that has been recorded (come to think of it, did I pass this link off on this blog already?). It’s ridiculous and, for the most part, seems to dead the need for this Mondays With Monchichi series. Although, truth be told, jocking Pharoahe is like my favorite thing to do. Pause.

Mondays With Monchichi: Pharoahe vs. Nas on Beef XXVIII

Beef is when I see you guaranteed to be in ICU

I’ve looked into the future on some Dr. Manhattan steez and copped a copy of Beef vol. XXVIII, the first volume in the series to document historic rap blogger beefs such as Bol vs. Pete Rosenberg and Tray vs. anyone credible ever. Incidentally, this volume also includes one actual beef between two actual rappers, namely the conflict between Kroch Graveyard signee Pharoahe Monch and No-Longer-matic, bitter old rapper Nasty Fart Breath Nas. After a slew of subliminals shot back and forth by the two hardened warriors on the unforgiving battlegrounds of Twitter, Pharoahe and Nasty agreed to participate in a head-to-head rap pentathlon hosted by ESPN “The Ocho” to determine once and for all who stole who’s last piece of chicken. I recapped the intense battle.

Mondays With Monchichi: Nas Steals Chicken Too

Shame on me for not making the connection earlier. How much of Pharoahe’s lines is gon’ come out your fat lips?

We’ve already gone over Nas’s sharking of Organized Konfusion’s “Stray Bullet” and “Invetro” with his own songs, “I Gave You Power” and “Fetus”, respectively. And as I was listening to OK’s debut album the other day, I realized that Nas just recently jacked the idea of OK’s single “Who Stole My Last Piece of Chicken?” for the god-awful “Fried Chicken” from last year’s Untitled jawn. Again, he treats it differently than the original: Pharoahe and Prince focus on their memories of occasions when they’d get to eat fried chicken while Nas personifies the chicken into a romantic partner. But the central, tongue-in-cheek idea of playing with black stereotypes and owning the stereotype as a piece of black culture is the same. And OK did a helluva lot better job with it too.

Mondays With Monchichi: Quik x Pharoahe

DOWNLOAD: DJ Quik ft. KK, Pharoahe Monch “Murda 1 Case“

I wasn’t going to do a Monch post today but when I was at work, feeling like Monday, this guest verse on DJ Quik’s Under The Influence album took me by surprise in a pleasant way, which was the original intent of Mondays With Monchichi anyway. It seems like a pretty odd combination, Quik and Pharoahe, and it likely came about in a less-than-genuine way, during that time when Pharoahe was on Rawkus Records and Rawkus decided to sell out for some mass appeal. This resulted in some pretty awkward bi-coastal collaborations, including Talib Kweli’s “Put It In the Air” with DJ Quik and, of course, “Oh No“, the video for which could pass as a Chris Rockish parody of 90s bling-era rap videos. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if, despite Rawkus’s ill intentions, this had the positive effect of bringing great musicians into each others’ spheres for the first time, after which they worked together out of a real respect and admiration for each others’ music. Admittedly, this song still feels a little off and I don’t like the reggae-tinged hook, but Quik and Monch drop some memorable lines over a bouncy beat. Really, can any other producer eff with DJ Quik on the mic? I’d say he actually gives Pharoahe a run for his money on this track.

Mondays With Monchichi: Random Freestyles

After hearing last week’s freestyle, I decided to dig up some of Pharoahe’s other “throwaway” verses. Thank God for Youtube. A couple more on the flipside.

Mondays With Monchichi: Jackin’ 4 Pharoahe

I’ma cheat with this one.

Noz threw up a ridiculously sick sick SICK verse that Pharoahe spit acapella in New York the other day. Hope the old Z90 homies visiting there now caught that show. Seriously, “holy shit!” on this verse.

Vincent upped the July 1995 issue of The Source, with a special editorial from Pharoahe Monch (and oh yeah, a cover story of BIGGIE!). Pharoahe reveals a mystical creative process and then dives into a sincere, if muddled, tirade on art and activism that would come to define the backpacker movement. In case you didn’t want to commit to downloading the 100MB .pdf file, I transcribed Pharoahe’s piece after the jump.