I used to play “The Light” from Pharoahe Monch on my train ride to work to start my day inspired. Watching “Still Standing” reminded me of the veteran emcee’s ability to come off so motivational, a trait taken for granted amid the necessity to have swag. Produced by Australia’s finest M-Phazes and accompanied by Jill Scott, I’m glad a visual dropped from an overlooked track Read the rest of this entry »
Director Terrence Nance brings the empowering words of Pharoahe, Styles P and Phonte to life with the video for “Black Hand Side.” The visual’s masterfully put together and goes a long way to remind us all that when the the two mediums snap together like puzzle pieces, the effect of the overall project is amplified. Read the rest of this entry »
Weak And Ridiculous. Waning As Relevant. Withering Authenticity Realized. Truly amazing is the abundance of phrases we could employ in describing the current state of Hip-Hop, but Pharoahe Monch provides a new acronym for his third studio release. One of anger, ambition and audacity: We Are Renegades. Read the rest of this entry »
Pharoahe Monch routinely hints that he was a Hollywood luminary in a former life, but y’all don’t read between the lines of his life script. His “When The Gun Draws” saga was a cinematic experience—on and off—the silver screen and the 24 hour musing of “Clap (One Day)” continues on short film excellence as Monch keeps the fight alive with his own brand of W.A.R. Read the rest of this entry »
More new music from Pharoahe, “Black Hand Side,” and this time featuring Styles & Phonte. The track’s production credit goes to Mike Loe and set to be included on Monch’s upcoming album W.A.R. (We Are Renegades) in stores March 22nd on W.A.R. Media/Duck Down Music. Read the rest of this entry »
Bring on the Illuminati and Freemason rumors! Another music video cryptically depicts pyramids and eyeballs with reckless neglect for the fragile psyches of the paranoid. Although, the more than casual fan will know Pharoahe’s been sliding that symbol onto our monitors since his “Oh No” days, so let’s move on. Read the rest of this entry »
Spoiler alert: Consequence’s Movies On Demand will go down as one of the best mixtapes of 2010. Nowadays, it’s not uncommon for the novice rapper to go over-the-top in the mixtapes for that undeniable buzz but the more established rhymeslayers generally resort to just rapping over popular beats and calling it a day. Well, apparently someone failed to tell Consequence that the vets weren’t supposed to care as much because his recent project G.O.O.D. Music, Nah Right & Universal Motown Present Consequence Movies On Demand sports material that most record labels couldn’t laud on their artist’s retail albums. Read the rest of this entry »
Pharoahe Monch makes an appearance with the first track from his debut Duck Down release, W.A.R. (We Are Renegades) Produced by legendary Diamond D and featuring Mela Machinko, “Shine” will be available at iTunes on 7.27 while the album will follow in September. Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve all seen a few episodes of “Making The Band,” including the one with the infamous “cheesecake walk.” That alone makes the idea of working for the devil repulsive if you have a vertebrae and walk upright. But that was simply for a chance to record on Bad Boy Records, not exactly a dream job given the state of the music industry. What if you were given the opportunity to write for Puffy, receive publishing checks for life and do it all while imagining you’re a $250 million dollar man?
As he tells Combat Jack, Pharoahe Monch got to live that existence for a short while as he had a hand in the writing of Press Play. Say every negative thing you or I may about Lucifer, he has an uncanny knack for making music that works well for life’s lighter moments like chasing women, partying and dancing in the mirror to get your confidence up before doing either of the aforementioned two acts. And while Monch is considered all Hip-Hop’ed out, it’s quite impressive that he was able to tap into the mindset that allowed him craft lyrics for what ended up being a good album (weren’t we here recently?).
While we are here, it seems like as good a time as any to say that without even discussing his past critical accolades, Monch’s Duck Down debut W.A.R. could be a problem. He’s already self-assessed that it will be the most “best cohesive lyrical album he’s ever done” which means the Jansport team should be pretty delighted with the cerebral challenges it will bring. Moi? After watching him tear down the DD stage @ SXSW…at the time I didn’t want to continue hammering everyone across the brain with “man, you had to be there” updates. But watching him perform as if he was given 24 hours to live and it was the last stage he’d have a chance to rock, it was beyond impressive. And it left me wondering if that’s the time of energy that affiliating himself with Dru and co. brings, then maybe the album could end up being catastrophic, in a good sense. But only to select few. I’m guessing it’ll never tear up radio and dance floors like a Press Play would. In my book, that’s a good thing though.
I didn’t want to crash anybody’s browser by including all the video footage that’s been compiled thus far. So a few were chosen just to highlight some of what was witness @ SXSW, both on our stage as well as the stages of others (shouts to 2DB, Hip-HopDX, Duck Down and others). Again, the best I can suggest is to check out the YouTube channel and subscribe because there’s already 25+ clips added in the past 24 hours and still more to come. J. Cole, Rockwell Knuckles, Freddie Gibbs, Pill, David Dallas, Buff1, Killer Mike, Smif-N-Wessun, Sean Price, etc etc et. al. Also, lock in the TSS Vimeo channel because there’s a special presentation done in conjunction with Yours Truly – the same team who previously filmed remarkably slick clips of Freddie Gibbs – that we’ll be uploading there. Read the rest of this entry »
Conceptually, this looks way too elaborate to be given away for free, but Dexter is a trooper and he isn’t so far removed that he doesn’t understand you have to give a little to get a lot in today’s game. Pay-per-view or not, tell the people it’s showtime as Cons The Don and premium channel Nah Right link up with the big starz including Rick Ross, Talib Kweli, Pharoahe Monch and Kanye West’s entire G.O.O.D. Music cartel. Read the rest of this entry »
Politically, economically and culturally, a lot has changed since December 31, 1999. In terms of music, the past ten years has seen a seismic shift in the way we consume music and in turn has profoundly influenced how music is made. In ‘99 we were still in the midst of the compact disc era (although I was snagging tunes off shared dorm room drives for the first time and had just installed WinAmp on my computer).
But in terms of content, has Hip-Hop music really changed much since 1999? Take a look at what the TSS Crew would have been debating as the 90′s closed.
The all-time low of Pop music — Seriously. If you think shit’s bad now, then maybe you should check out this Top 100 list from 1999. Cher’s “Believe” at number one? Sugar Ray and Ricky Martin in the top 10 and the rise of teen pop? No wonder people thought there was going to be an apocalypse. Read the rest of this entry »
If TSS was ever personified & able to project sound, the music found in this jam session would be the by-product. The voices in your head wouldn’t talk. Instead, they’d all play instruments & make harmonious music like this. Read the rest of this entry »
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