“Got A Crib Wit A Grammy & A Gat On The Shelf.”
A monsoon is a storm consisting of a strong wind accompanied with heavy rain that frequents Southern Asia in the summer & winter. For 4 minutes & 13 seconds Talib Kweli, Black Thought, & Pharoahe Monch stir up the lyrical counterpart on “Guerrila Monsoon Rap,” off of Kweli’s album Quality.
The three lyricists take turns abusing the beat while challenging any and all challengers. The beat is provided by a then up-and-coming Kanye West, who’s happy to do nothing more than the beat & chorus. West brings the listener in with a sweeping crush of strings (calm before the storm), before dropping the bass line into a loop of organ chords & and a violin straight from Fiddler on the Roof. It’s one my personal favorites from Kanye because the beat straight knocks & allows three rappers with different styles to make it their on.
Despite spitting hard battle rhymes; the three are only trying to best each other & flex their lyrical dexterity. Black Thought runs through an endless bag of metaphors and punchlines in rapid-fire succession. Kweli gives listeners a history lesson while going in; referencing The Trail of Tears, Schooly D & black empowerment. Pharoahe does what only he can, switching up his flow throughout to match wherever his abstract mind takes him. While all three did their thing, I’d have to give the blue ribbon to Black Thought if this was a competition. Thank God it wasn’t.
Just like any storm it ends leaving those in its path to pick the pieces and clean up the damage.
Talib Kweli Feat. Black Thought & Pharoahe Monch- Guerrilla Monsoon Rap
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BOOMSHAKALACKA
Ahhhhhh…. memories. Good choice MZ…..
(PS…Pharoahe got em!)
This is one of those joints they could’ve added 3 or 4 more verses to, and I wouldn’t have been mad…
I’ll take this collab over a(yawnnn)nother one of those Khaled-esque megaduds 9 times outta 9…. but thass’ jus’ me.
Classic
Monch is a close second. Thought killed both verses, Monch the got in the second one. The verses are 6 for 6 though.
Word, definitely a good choice. Loved this track since the first time I heard it, ill combo of emcess and everyones verses are top notch.
“Guerilla monsoon rap, smell the fumes, get in tune with it
When I attack ya city yall gon think Dr. Doom did it.”
haha, Monch did kill it, but idk if I could even pick a favorite verse…
^ I feel you on that one… I think everyone brought it equally on this track. Definitely one of my favorites from this ablum.
Kweli.
Spruce to the tree.
Bruce to the Lee.
The real MC. That you’re favorite rapper used to be.
That did it for me.
If Skillz Sold, Truth Be Told, I’d Probably Be Lyrically …
Damn, I just heard the bad news…RIP KL from Screwball.
R.I.P. KL…dude was a legend
also, Beans is back in jail for parole violations:
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/top_story/20080329_Beanie_Sigel_sent_back_to_the_slammer.html
what is it with these rappers takin pills and/or cough syrup?
damn KL iz dead !!!!
ho shit ! bUt Not Every Incredible after some interview of Blaq Po that told some bad shit …
Rip !
Please have u got some informations ?
R.I.P KL
I was just bumpin this album the other day.. Good to see others still bump it / think about it.
God damn@ KL Dying of an Asthma attack tho… R.I.P.
Wow, you took it back with that one MZ. I remember when I first bought that album, I had all my homies in my room going bananaz over the beat. And the lyrics? “The real M.C. Like your favorite rapper used to be!” Get the fuck out of here!
But yeah, Thought took that one in my opinion.
“Bite off more than you can chew creates orphans/MC species endangered like dolphins”
And the other brothaz came in a CLOSE second.
“Spit it like white trash in seed spitting contest”
Good looks on the flashback. I gotta dig that one out now!
I give it to Pharoahe just cause of the abstractness of it. But it was thisclose to Black Thought. Love this post!
upon further extensive review… round 1 -Talib round 2 – pharoahe… 2nd verse trumps kweli’s first though…. JMO
I remember picking up this album right when I went into my backpacker stage and driving home from school saying “you, get smacked ’til ya blue black” in between those three ill verses.
Pharoah’s second verse sonned the whole record!!
Guerilla Monsoon rap
smell the fumes
Get in tune wit it.
When I attack your city
Ya’ll gon think Doctor Doom did it
Spit it like white trash at seed spit contests
Woulda been deader to send a better letter b*mb to Congress
Then Kweli… He flowed like the Nile!
I love Black Thought. 8 out of 10 times he spits harder than anyone around… but these two came wit it.
I have always loved Kweli’s work, but this song was MAD dissapointing.
not from the lyrics (though maybe I expected more), but mostly from the beat.
that shit is one of Kanye’s worst beats by far, and for him to lend that to Talib, Thought and Monch, it was something that should have never happened, cause Kweli et. all should have told him to go back in the lab for something else.
that whole album was dissapointing really. it was good enough, but all the Beautiful Struggle mixtapes and album were better than Quality, and the obviously more cruel thing to do is to compare it to Train of Thought.
Alot of yall might have fell in love with the track, and if it was your first time hearing some of these cats because of the success of Get By, im glad yall got acquainted with them.
But I thought the incredibly weak beat brought down the whole song, and bringing down either Thought, Kweli or Monch (especially all at once) deserves either
a)torture for Kanye (aka heterosexual intercourse) or
b)future banning of any sampling