Desire

Underground talents

The history of Hip Hop knows pile of American-dream stories. And every key rapper of today’s industry may boast with his own. The ending is always approximately the same – worldwide fame and millions of dollars. However there is another side of the coin too with the stories about MC’s who weren’t so lucky. Good luck as a matter of fact plays a key role in this business. You’ve made a mistake, you’ve got a weak producer, your label reduced a budget – this is it, you’ve lost a few years. But these were underground performers who established the genre as such, so modern rap stars must be obliged to those who eventually failed to become popular. But while many of underground MC’s has already withdrawn from business restless Pharoahe Monch keeps on tryin. Pharoahe Monch is in this business since 1989, his first project Organized Confusion was one of the most respectable underground Hip Hop acts of 90’s. Pharoahe Monch released his first solo album in 1999, he was already known for his complex rhyming style so the album promised to be a good start for a long time career. Unfortunately label was forced to recall batch of disks due to a lawsuit concerning unauthorized usage of samples from Godzilla on one of the album’s tracks and this has undoubtedly influenced a prolonged hiatus in his discography. Pharoahe Monch appeared on music arena with his second solo album Desire only in 2007.

Confidence and rich performing experience

Desire turned out to be quite a powerful album. For eight years of absence Pharoahe Monch lost not a single grain of his grip and songwriting talent, on the contrary, he fills the entire album with a feeling of his confidence and rich performing experience. The first thing that attracts your attention is the old-fassioned stylistics of arrangements. It’s not like Pharoahe Monch propagandises old-school sounding, the album sounds quite modern, but this is that very peculiarity that marks this album out in comparison with other releases of this year. The arrangements sound pretty unusual and surprisingly fresh. The sonic basis is assigned to beats of course but there are tones of guitars and brass instruments here too, they do play a very imprtant role. Bass lines sound especially superbly. Old-school scratches appear here and there from time to time and vocal parties allways carry a flavor of gospel and classic R&B. Pharoahe Monch in his turn demonstrates very divers and at times pretty complex rhythmic hooks. It is impossible to confuse the songs, each of them has its own unique character and a whole mass of different peculiarities expressed in beats, sound, arrngements and melodies, although generally the album sounds very coherent.

Bright individuality of the album

The album’s best tracks are probably Free, Welcome To The Terrordome and When The Gun Draws. All of them sound really different. Free abound in guitars and horns mixed with a slow, bouncy beats. Welcome To The Terrordome on the contrary sounds intensive and addictive. And When The Gun Draws offers a pretty eerie and heavy atmosphere. The album’s indisputable advantage lies in the fact that Pharoahe Monch doesn’t simply perceive Hip Hop as an art form but he achieves this result in reality. Listen to Body Baby – one of the most atypical Hip Hop tracks that you will ever have a chance to hear. There is something from Swing and Rock’N’roll here. Pharoahe Monch treats stylistics free and easy, he is an experimenter by his nature so he never gets cought in an endless loop of standards. He obviously feels tight within Hip Hop’s genre boarders. Desire definitely gains an advantage over many Hip Hop releases due to its bright individuality. It is hard to confuse it with something else, it is hard to compare it with something else but it is easy to understand and accept it.