Pharoahe Monch -- PTSD Album

[Mantra]

This album gets better and better with each spin.

It's a crazy thought provoking album.

[MASTER PAI MEI]

Still spinning this with Pinata and Royal Flush and Tragedy K

[claaa7]

yessir... "PSTD" is definitely one of my most played albums this year so far, a long with The Roots' new, Audessey & Fritz's "Beats Per Minute", the DITC "Remix Project" and Shabaam Sahdeeq's "Keepers Of The Lost Art".... L'Orange's "The Orchid Days" and Apollo Browns "Seven Thirty" too if we're talking instrumental albums.


but wait, Tragedy dropped an album this year?

[THUGNIFICENT]

We fight Demons from our past,
Only to face new Monsters,
I ask,
Are we comatose or unconscious?

Craziness ....

BUMP THiS CD

Havent been posting here much but this cd still gets constant spins. I'm willing to call it Monch's best album to date.

the thing with "PTSD" is that it's incredibly ill with the flow from front-to-back, every song stand on its own but it's as a cohessive unit that they really come together to form a cinematic journey into the mind of Monch. And Monch always got fantastic shit to say!! in fact i would say this is his most lyrically technical and well-written album yet, you are so used to "regular" hip-hop that it actually took me 4-5 listens and the perfect setting before everything he rhymed about finally came together (not everything, there will be gems here to discover forever). but i was sitting on a one hour train ride just zoning to the album and listen to every syllable and GOD DAMN the whole concept is on some other shit... if you read up on the album, Monch was extremely clinically depressed and admitted for a while which is a recurrent theme on the album, and also something i can relate a lot to. the interludes at the clinic really ties it together nicely and i also love how he's released into the world 10 years later but then immediately being chased by the law for overstepping the new "free thinking" law and that's when "The Grand Illusion 2" kicks in...

the first song "Time2" has some of the illest lines i've heard in all my life, i can't remember to quote line for line now, but i love the part about him can't taking it more and bringing the shotgun to his workplace to get some misguided justice... also the part where he's speaking like "i got the word Anxiety written on the backside of my eyelids, in different fonts... etc". wow there's so much here to digest, album of the year so far? yeah probably!

having been a substance abuser before i think he did an outstanding job describing what the shame and craving is like on "Broken Again", although it's of course about a girl. and I don't know why i felt there wasn't any standouts, perhaps because i've seen Monch perform three times so far and i was thinking of the album in a live setting - but "DAMAGE", "BAD MF", the title track, and "The JUNGLE" does the job for me amongst a few others. but as i said before this is a front-to-back listen... i like how MF Grimm & Drasar did with their last two records, simply pressing all the CD:s as one track which included all the songs in one long track. forcing listeners to listen to the whole album

That's what's so dope about this to me. It's kinda like the last album that was, for me, of this quality, which is Sean Price's Mic Tyson, where there isn't one standout track and really if you hear one song from it you wanna bump the whole LP.

This is an album I feel I could give to non-hip-hop fans to show what the genre is capable of, similar to Liquid Swords, Cold Vein, etc. I'm confident this is gonna go down as a classic.

this is very interesting, bc i think you are right about it being the Grand Illussion theme at play but at the same time i think it's a double entendre - Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Oddyseey" is one of my all-time favorite movies and i've read the book by Arthur C. Clarke as well (usually not a science fiction fan but these are something else). But my point is that Arthur C. Clarke wrote a follow up called "2010: The Year We Make Contact" which was actually made into a film called "2010: ODDYSSEY II" and of course there's a space oddyssey in that one as well. Peter Hyams directed it, and while it's better than i expected it of course doens't hold a candle to the masters original.

Hmmmm... interesting. I'm staying with my interpretation, just because I'd prefer that to be his intent, if you know what I mean.

This is sick; love the change of flow/cadence

Mold me, loathe,hold me in the palm of your hand, load me
You know exactly what I am, murderer
When I'm inserted on to the top of fifteen family members
It's the curse of the proverbial anarchy starter, the martyr
This is what I have been converted to do what I do is insanity
Pro-fo-fo-fanity when they manually hammer me annually
You dont figitty faze me yo
I won't tigitty tase you bro
Figgity fucking cut you in half like it's nothing minus the laser scope
Then I will ring your bell like Avon
Before displaying some of my various tattoos (Trayvon)
The (Oscar) award winning (Aiyana Jones) hey (Sean)
Sworn to be cannon fodder for your father slaughter daughters
Armor piercing tumblers more deadlier than napalm
Fuck a stray bullet, I take aim when the gun draws
For ever lasting fame I will maim those who change the gun laws
Cause post traumatic stress disorder,ask any vet I've worked with
My purpose catching bodies like safety nets at the circus

[Hook]

[Verse 2]
Nigga I will twist your liver like Oliver (TWIST)
Scratch your name off my calendar
See that was me thru a silencer
What you just heard was a .44 caliber
Now you can fill in the blanks
I will pillage your town
Killing them with Dillinger rounds
Nigga fill in the clip cause I'm willing to flip
See I'm sort of certified,I'm fortified live
You would be mortified if I would put on screen what I've seen
Horrified holy Bibles, rivals, vital organs
Little bitty baby bodies, bridal gowns coffins
Morphine, gang bang, gangrene, slauson, swap meet
Meet greet, pop I don't sleep, I don't stop
I love hate, hate cops
That's why I laugh when you pull it
I'm motivated and crass
I'm so elated when I see them on the news (you fuckin' pigs!)
They flying the flag half mass
See there's no need for conversation
When we're discussing the bullet's point of view

Word that's what I was saying. When he just starts flipping through these flows while keeping the concept moving, and the rhyme schemes.... shit. It's like when Scorcesse does some fancy ass shot and you gotta step back and say 'Wow, that took skill' while still paying attention to the story and escaping into it... Damn... Hell of an album.

but wait, Tragedy dropped an album this year?

That's what I'm saying.. ???

[MASTER PAI MEI]

Nah its the 7 Gems album im still bumping

[TommySuits]

I finally got around to hearing this and i'm gna go ahead and say that Pharoah is the overall best emcee alive right now. His verse on the Iron Fists soundtrack is more than enough proof. Black Thought isn't far behind him and I would be a lot quicker to throw Red & Meth up there too if they weren't so inconsistent.

[DR. NICK RIVIERA]

^^^^there are a lot of emcees that destroy everything Mef and Red did after 2002

But I do agree. 4 great solo albums, 2 iconic group albums and 1 cool group album. He really doesn't get enough hype. Keeping it real to the end.

[claaa7]

^ yup!!

btw, does anyone have the FULL iTunes bonus track from this "Stand Your Ground"?? it's one of the earliest tracks recorded for it, because i remember when the demo of it was released it was said to be from the upcoming P.Monch EP.

i have the demo version which is like 2:30, but according to Wiki the iTunes version (which of course also is mastered) is 2:50.. anyone have it?

[claaa7]

nevermind I found it!!!

it features Vernon Reid laying down a guitar solo and is produced by long-time collaborator Lee Stone... ENJOY y'all!!!

http://www5.zippyshare.com/v/85608649/file.html

[Rev Jones]

PM's Reddit AMA highlights

http://2dopeboyz.com/2014/06/08/high...t-ama-session/

Also, remember this? It was hilarious...

[main_man]

easily one of the best of the year so far.

an album that demands to be heard from beginning to end.


but this is no surprise.
this is monch......he's smarter than most.



and that roots joint is dope as fuck but thats not an album....thats an e.p.

[TommySuits]

thanks C7 for that track

[claaa7]

main_man: i disagree about The Roots album not being an LP... i think hip-hop artiists, especially lately have completely misunderstood what an EP is, you see EP:s that is 13 tracks... Eminem and Royce's album was like what 9 tracks, 48 minutes, that's not an EP by any means - that's an LP


as for the Roots, yeah t was disappointing there wasnt enough Black Thought, but length wise it's abotu as long as "Undun" and "How I Got Over"... coming from listening to a lot of jazz, a lot of the albums are about 33 to 46 minutes with everything from 3 to 10 tracks, still definitely LP:s.. "Tomorrow" and the song wiith Merces are still Roots song, just without Black Thought...

i too was dissapointed in the lack of BT verses, so much that i just posted up a compilation of recent guest spots. first post on my blog in the sig. peace

[MASTER PAI MEI]

That tomorrow track by the roots feat. Raheem D. is very dope. IMO

[claaa7]

^ agree, it's such a down beat, dark album and i like how that joint is like the light at the end of the tunnel.. there's hope for tomorrow after all. and Raheem DeVaughn is a good singer, no doubt