Pharoahe Monch - Desire
A review by: Scott Ronan
Its been 8 years since Pharoahe Monch delivered his stunning debut solo album and 16 years since we first heard him alongside Prince Po on Organized Konfusion’s self titled debut and now he steps back into the hip hop arena with his sophomore solo album Desire. The album is 13 tracks long (14 if you picked up the UK version which includes the fantastic Agent Orange) and features a number of different producers and Pharoahe taking a somewhat different path vocally at times throughout the album.
Like most Pharoahe Monch fans it seems like I’ve been waiting an eternity since he dropped Internal Affairs which in my opinion was one of the best, well rounded albums of the late 1990s so to say that this album was heavily anticipated is an understatement. Although we’ve had some guest verses and the odd 12″ or bootleg since then Monch has been pretty quiet for such a prolific artist.
The album starts off with a Gospel inspired intro, praising Freedom, which is nice not what I expected but nice none the less. Then the album jumps straight into the McKensie produced Free. The tune is made up of a stabbing beat, sporadic piano loop and a vocal sample of someone shouting free. On this track Pharoahe shows up why he is one of the dopest MCs in the game by rhyming about being Free both as a black person and an artist. This is the Pharoahe we’ve been waiting for, dope intelligent lyrics over a hard beat. Next up is the Alchemist produced title track, Desire featuring a male vocalist called Showtime. The beat is made up of a nice bass line, drums and some orchestral strings pretty much standard fare for The Alchemist. Monch represents lyrically although his style is a little slower on this making it easier for those not familiar with Monch’s style to grasp what he is saying. He drops some real gems on this one with lines like “Monch is a monarch just without the A&R”. What lets this track down however is the unnecessary chorus sung by Showtime, it adds nothing to the track and unfortunately it’s not the only one on the album that falls into this category
As any fan Of Pharoahe and Organized Konfusion knows Monch can handle his own behind the boards and he shows this on three of the tracks on the album; Push, Body Baby and So Good. Push is strong enough track and features a punchy horns sample over a marching beat. Pharoahe drops the type of lyrics we have come to expect from him but what spoils the track is some more poor singing. On one of the other Monch produced tracks he laces us with a mellow track where the singing works well with the lyrics and the beat to create a mellow jam that creates a chilled out vibe. On the third Pharoahe produced jam Body Baby (the one with terrible Elvis impersonation video) Pharoahe ups the tempo to create a faster paced tune buy it doesn’t work at all. It’s a painful tune and no matter how many times I try to go back to it I can’t find any redeeming factor to it.
Erykah Badu joins Pharoahe on one of the album’s highlights. A Lee Stone produced track called Hold on. Pharoahe give us an example of why he is one of the dopest MC in the game, dropping thoughtful, intelligent lyrics over a mellow beat with Erykah providing a soulful chorus. This is how a hip-hop song with singing should sound; it adds to the song and doesn’t detract from it at all.
Now I come to my two favorite tracks on the album; Gun draws and Welcome to the Terror dome. First I’ll address the PE cover, now doing a PE cover is a big risk especially when it’s a song like Terror dome and although this isn’t better than the original it is very dope. The beat is fast and hard with an electric guitar riff running through it and lots of cymbals. Pharoahe drops some politically flavored rhymes whilst at the same time throwing in references to the PE original. This works and I have been bumping this a lot. Gun Draws is a continuation of the Organized Konfusion classic Stray Bullet where Monch rhymes from the point of view of a bullet. The beat is dark and ominous featuring some melancholic singing which suites the dark subject matter perfectly. The beat is made up of some dark piano stabs coupled with some off key strings. Monch rhymes portrays the bullets as a cold, uncompromising killer. Monch doesn’t portray gunplay as something cool or dope but something that causes the death of blacks and white alike, this is the sort of song that should be throw in the face of every critic who believe that Hip Hop glorifies gun violence.
This is an album that a lot of true Hip Hop fans have been anticipating for a long time. There is no doubt that Monch is a talented MC who can run rings round the majority of MCs in the game. However at times on this album it seems like he takes the easier route and ‘dumbs down’ his lyrics or replaces them with singing, which in my opinion doesn’t work. There are some dope tunes on this album that show us aspects of the earlier Monch but I don’t think there’s enough of these moments. There also isn’t any stand out bangers on this album unlike his previous efforts which gave us Simon Says, The Light, Fudge Pudge, Prisoners of War etc. To a certain extent this album could have benefited from better beats however the main offender on this album is the unnecessary and at times downright poor singing. Overall I would give this 6 out of ten and although some MCs would be happy with this rating I know Monch is capable of pulling in a 9, easily.
