Of all the
albums I own, a few of them took me YEARS to own, some longer than others, lol.
Although the list is relatively short, the following albums I’m going to
discuss in this topic are albums that directly or indirectly took years to be
added to my collection, and they do come with stories too!
½ of
Organized Konfusion, Pharoahe Monch’s debut was one of 1999’s most anticipated
albums, and in short, it exceeded my expectations, as it was an excellent album
all around, featuring great production that fit his style, and of course he was
sharp as ever on the lyrical side. Those are the good parts. The bad part here
is that not too long after its release, the album itself was deleted, due to an
apparent uncleared sample that was used on his only major hit to date “Simon
Says”. This album remains out of print and it doesn’t appear to be rereleased
any time soon.
This album
has always been a personal favorite of mine. I remember owning this on cassette
back in the day, and it was another one of those tapes that I rocked till it
popped! Around the time I started my CD collection, this was out of print and
it remained that way till April 22, 2008 when it was reissued via Fontana Distribution.
Prior to that, I tried every search possible to find this album, but with no
luck, and that’s until I logged onto Ebay in early 2008 and put in a heavy $20
bid in, and I won this auction also! Saying I was excited was a complete
understatement, and it was good to finally add this classic album back to my
collection after so many years.
Remember
this duo back in 1998? “Déjà vu (Uptown Baby” was one of the year’s biggest
hits and it got consistent radio and video play, however, after this single, that
was relatively it for them, effectively branding them as “one hit wonders”. Lord
Tariq still made guest appearances here and there, while Peter Gunz, whose son
Cory Gunz is apparently (still) signed to YMCMB, made even less noise.
I remember
anticipating this one quite a bit prior to its release. My cousin Andre bought
the CD before I did, so I couldn’t help but ask him to borrow it and listen to
it shortly afterwards, lol, but I never got around to buying it. At the time, I
was satisfied with what I heard, but always felt they could’ve done better.
Tariq was always the lyrical muscle of the duo and Gunz held his own. The
production was decent (more samples on a few songs, including a forgettable “cover”
of Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Starting Something” on, well, the cut “Startin’
Somethin). Overall, they did fairly well by balancing the hard tracks for the
streets and the radio friendly cuts, and what resulted was a decent album.
(As of
this posting, this album will be arriving in the mail today. I had to get this
via Ebay due to it being out of print for the longest time.)
Rating-
Probably a solid 3.5 stars.
5 favorite
songs- Déjà vu (Uptown Baby), One Life to Live, Massive Heat (featuring Kurupt
& Sticky Fingaz), Streets to da Stage (featuring Cam’ron), & Cross
Bronx Expressway (featuring Big Pun & Fat Joe)
I also
want to share a small story on this one. One day in the month of January 2000,
myself and long time friend Kentyl made a trip to our local Circuit City. It
was all but confirmed (in my mind at least, lol) that the purpose of this visit
was to buy Beanie Sigel’s “The Truth” and this Pharoahe Monch album. To this
day, I don’t know why, but I allowed Kentyl to talk me out of buying the Monch album (smh+lol), when never before
or since no one has ever directly influenced what I buy (and I’m VERY selective
regarding what I purchase). Instead I bought RZA’s “Bobby Digital In Stereo”
album along with Sigel’s debut, and that was not a good decision at all. Sigel’s
album was very good, but I was not impressed with the Bobby Digital album, and
this is coming from a long time Wu fan. Since that time, I searched everywhere
I could for the Pharoahe Monch album, and due to it being out of print, I could
only get it used/pre-owned, and the prices were expensive. So, FINALLY late
last year, I hoped on Ebay and saw that a seller had a copy of it in excellent
condition, threw my bids in (while slightly challenged by another bidder), and
I won! I can’t recall the price at the moment, but needless to say it was very
reasonable and I was SO glad to finally add this to my collection YEARS after
it should’ve been added in the year 2000.
Rating-
4.5 stars
5 favorite
songs- Simon Says (the original and remix), Behind Closed Doors, No Mercy
(featuring M.O.P.), and Hell (featuring Canibus)
As far as
the album goes, it was one of the best albums of 1991. Large Professor shined
on the mic and behind the boards, as well as introducing the world to the
greatest MC of all time, Nas, on “Live At The BBQ”.
Rating- 5
stars
5 favorite
songs- Live At The BBQ (featuring Nas, Akinyele, & Joe Fatal), Looking At
The Front Door, Snake Eyes, Just a Friendly Game of Baseball, & Peace Is
Not The Word To Play
Check out the review.
I never
thought it would ever take so long to own these four albums, and in the case of
the Pharoahe Monch and Main Source albums, they’re here to stay!
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