Pharoahe Monch - The Great Underrated Rapper

Pharoahe Monch is one of hip-hop's most underappreciated MCs. He launched into hip-hop as part of a group, tied along with Prince Po (whose career since has been even less eventful) in the group Organized Konfusion. Organized was brilliant. The samples were expertly done, the symmetry between Pharoahe and Po was near perfect when they were at their peak but then all of a sudden the gig was up. Pharoahe Monch ended up on Rawkus Records, where he recorded several songs with Mos Def and released an album called Internal Affairs, which led with the classic Godzilla sampling track "Simon Says:"

Yes, as you can tell by the full denim suit and the Timberlands, we're going back to the late 1990s. The song was alright and Pharoahe's humor seemed to make him enduring. A friend I introduced Pharoahe to described his flow as "a black Eminem," and with a knack for the humorous, the graphic, the uplifting and the depressing all in one schizophrenic package, the two certainly are very similar.

Like Eminem, Pharoahe took a really long sabbatical of eight years as Rawkus Records folded. A level of depression seemed to unfold on him as well, as the rapper does introduce in "Free," the first track of his 2007 album Desire, "I give birth to verses in churches with no confession, So please pardon my post-partum depression."

Desire was a fantastic album, which was underrated as the classic that it was. One of the most poignant tracks was "Push" - wherein Pharoahe unleashed in an epic gospel-tinged reassurance that even got him singing the words of the savior.

Pharoahe hasn't let up at all and has an upcoming album called WAR (We Are Renegades). The one track that he has released so far - "Shine" - is available to stream or purchase on the Amazon Affiliates widget to the right of this article. Here is him performing the song live in New York City: