Pharoahe laces a dark beat for himself to spit over on this, and he effortlessly (and I italicized that word to emphasize it as much as possible) flows over it while laying down some incredible bars and a great hook, as well. DJ Scratch lays down a horn-driven beat for Pharoahe Monch, and while Monch certainly spends this track introducing himself, he does it in rap form and establishes a niche for himself that he would continue for the rest of Internal Affairs in the process. For this reason, I have never been able to understand why Pharoahe Monch does not get more love in the hip-hop world, as people obviously saw the talent and were willing to open up their wallets to support it.Īlthough the track is titled "Intro," this is actually a song. However, the album's biggest hit also turned out to be its biggest downfall, as due to the fact that Pharoahe Monch did not clear the sample on the song, Internal Affairs was pulled off the shelves and is now out of print.Īnyway, Pharoahe's debut album was looked upon very favorably by music critics, and it even sold a decent amount of copies (200,000) before being shut down. Of course, Internal Affairs' biggest hit was "Simon Says," a hard-hitting cut that utilized the theme from Godzilla vs.
At that point, you couldn't not want to listen to Internal Affairs. Then, one would look at the liner notes and see that Monch not only produced a bunch of tracks by himself, but also had help from renowned beatmakers such as The Alchemist, Diamond D, and DJ Scratch. I guess the main reason why Monch does get overlooked is for the simple fact that he has only dropped two solo albums, and those albums were eight years apart.Īfter enjoying a critically acclaimed period with Organized Konfusion (which put out three albums as a duo), Pharoahe launched his solo career in 1999 when he released Internal Affairs, an album where the cover art alone would make one want to hear what in the world Monch had to say (well, as a solo artist, anyway). He is, in my opinion, a top four lyricist to ever do it, with only Canibus, Chino XL, and Ras Kass measuring up to him in terms of raw lyrical ability. I don't even think it's debatable that Pharoahe Monch, a member of Organized Konfusion (the other member being Prince Poetry), is one of the most underrated and underappreciated rappers in history.
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