When hip-hop superhero Pharoahe Monch announced he was releasing his third solo album, W.A.R. – We Are Renegades, on the highly revered Duck Down label, the entire rap world rejoiced. The combined stats of these two forces are very impressive. As one half of the futuristic duo Organized Konfusion, Pharoahe released three acclaimed records including the instant classic, Stress: The Extinction Level Agenda.
As a solo artist, he released the phenomenal LP Internal Affairs in 1999 which yielded the ferocious street-burner “Simon Says,” a song that continues to shut down parties and live shows to this day. He followed that up with 2007’s soulful and highly personal Desire, which brings us to his third album dropping this March. And what about Duck Down, you ask? Quite simply, this label is the headquarters of street-driven, underground, NYC rap. Since the early ’90s, it has served as home to artists like BuckShot, Sean Price, Heltah Skeltah, O.G.C., Smif-n-Wessun and most recently, new signees like Black Rob, Torae and Marco Polo, just to name a few. In all, it’s an extremely potent union, and hip-hop heads everywhere have been waiting expectantly to see if the hype would match the outcome.
On Monday, February 28th, the album was unveiled via a 21st century, tech-savvy listening session at NYU’s Cantor Film Center. The lecture-style setting came complete with a Twitter-feed projector, while Pharoahe’s ridiculously dope LP came blaring through the theater’s surround speakers to unanimous aplomb. This was also the first time the world would get to see the nine-minute maxi-video for his new single, “Clap”—a song decrying the recent increase in police brutality crimes around the country. Monch has never been shy about speaking the truth, and the video was quite explicit. It depicted a police raid gone wrong in an inner-city apartment building, with the outcome being the murder of a young African-American boy. What followed was the neighborhood rallying up against the guilty cop (played by Gbenga Akinnagbe of The Wire) using clapping as a metaphor for a grassroots citizen uprising. Overall, it was a poignant and engrossing visual, and the song’s aggressive beat, produced by Australian beatsmith M-Phazes, melded well with Pharoahe’s fiery delivery.
VIDEO HERE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG_iDZbSZ3I
The album itself was nothing but grade A, uncut dopeness from beginning to end. The overall theme was militant and rebellious, and it featured cameos from some of rap’s most respected underground spitters. The intro even featured a skit with actor Idris Elba. The beats were supplied by hardcore sonic purveyors like Diamond D (the legend), Marco Polo, Exile and Mr. Porter.
Standouts among the album’s 13 stellar cuts were many. The robust title track, “W.A.R.,” (featuring Immortal Technique and renowned Living Colour guitarist Vernon Reid) is raucous enough to induce a mosh pit in a Bikram yoga class. “Assassins,” featuring Royce da 5’9” and Jean Grae, is chock full of head-swiveling lyrical wizardry, and “Halie Selassie Karate” is a shiny nugget of raw rap mastery on which Pharoahe Monch spits amazing lines like, “Smoking hash in the cathedral with Nostradamus.” The album’s closing song ,“Still Standing,” is nearly epic in scope, with bold strings, majestic chord arrangements, and a rousing vocal hook sung by the one and only Jill Scott.
Pharoahe Monch has and always will be a rapper’s rapper, the kind of MC who uses his words to create piercing visuals with rare intensity, unmatched emotion and intricate complexity. The new album drops on March 22nd. Support true artists. There are not too many real ones left.
Words and photos by Geo Hagan
