 Pharaohe Monche has definitely been blowing up the spot with his new solo lp Internal Affairs. I caught up with him the other day to get the scoop on the man who many are considering one of Hip Hop's most gifted emcees. He explained that his new album focuses on his personal journey's over the past couple of years, hence the name Internal Affairs. He wanted to let off steam and feel himself out as an artist without being confined by people's expectations. Different sides of his personality came through on the 15 tracks including him being very vulgar and very street as well as being a bit spiritual and socially conscious. He noted that he had a song called The Eulogy that paid tribute to an artist named Alli who painted the cover to Busta Rhyme's album Extinction Level Event. The man had recently passed away. he decided to take the song off the album and may eventually release it as a b-side track to a 12". He noted that it maybe some time before another Organized Konfusion lp comes out. 'Organized Konfusion fans are very critical' he explained. 'They will listen to every word and take things apart'. Pharaohe noted that as a result it would be extremely important that everyone involved in an OK project be mentally ready and committed to giving their 100%. Anything less then that would be unfair to the group and the fans.. Basically Pharaohe wanted to explore himself as an artist..
 I asked him about his controversial song 'The Mayor' where it starts off with gunshots. 'Was this song directed at Mayor Giuliani?' Pharaohe said it wasn't initially. He had written the song two years ago as the opening to a script he was working on. The story line was about a guy whose father worked for a police force and was responsible for reducing the crime rate. Unfortunately the city's Mayor took all the credit. When the father confronted the Mayor he found himself getting black balled and eventually fired. The father wound up being a stress case. The son entered into the police force with the sole intent of getting a chance to shoot and kill the Mayor. Pharoahe noted that the current climate of New York City with the numerous police shootings that were seemingly endorsed by Giuliani made this song appropriate and in many ways directed at New York's current Mayor. It captured many people's frustrations and anger. Pharaohe also explained that he dropped the script once he released the song.He is currently finishing up another script which he intends to make into an animation. It's basically about Armageddon where all the white people and planet Earth's elite leave the and Black folks are left behind to run the world. The story centers around the type of directions they will take and the types of struggles they go through to get organized. He is working on the script with his partner Extreme and will soon be set to shop it to various animation studios. He seemed pretty confident that the story will be picked up and eventually be put out. Pharaohe concluded by noting that as much as he loves Hip Hop, it's important for him to be involved in other things such as script writing. He has a lot of talent and should definitely be putting it to good use.. I also asked him about battling.. he explained he really had no interest in battling folks. He just wants to enjoy his time being an artist.. He asked folks to allow themselves to be open to all types of Hip Hop and not limit themselves. He asked that fans not allow current trends to dictate their taste in Hip Hop but instead that they decide for themselves what style and type of approach toward Hip Hop they want for themselves.
|