I've decided I'm going to write a book about the rise and fall of Organized Konfusion, but while you're waiting for that to hit the shelves you can read what you clicked on the review for, the actual review. The wait is over, and I give to you the first track by track review of 2014, here we fucking go.
1. Intro
You may think you are getting your standard boring as rap intro here, but you are only mostly right. The instrumental, while decent, is just for the intro, and for the first minute you get nothing but mumbling and samples. Then out of Pharoahe's ass comes a few bars. Decent bars, but nothing I'd lose my shit over. Prince Po goes on to do the same, and then as soon as it started the intro is over. This isn't as useless and annoying as most rap intros, but I'd be lying if I said it needed to happen for the success of this album.
2. Stress
We get the first of two title tracks, and we are immediately hit with classic New York, boom bap drums courtesy of the guest production from Buckwild. The beat is a fairly standard New York drum and bass heavy beat, but the 90s feel alone is enough to make me love it. With a hook that consists of a few words shouted repeatedly, I hardly consider it more than the filler in between verses. Prince Po is up to bat first and he delivers on the mic, very clean verse with some nice rhymes. After that we are treated to a skit of the duo trying to catch a cab to Queens, and after no one will take them that way, Po fucking shoots someone. Yeah, remember earlier when I said he was a dick? Come on Po. After that, which I'm guessing was an example of stress, Pharoahe introduces himself to the audience in an incredible manner. His verse was extremely dope, with a brilliant rhyme scheme and quick flow, and apparently that is only his human form. I'm willing to buy that this guy isn't human, because he was incredible on the mic.
3. Extinction Agenda
Now we are treated to the second and last of the title tracks. This one sounding a bit different instrumentally. Still a lot of drums and bass, but this time with a lot of really nice scratching produced in it's entirety by Monch, proving that he can do it all musically. We have the same basic format of the last track with Po rapping, a hook consisting of a single phrase, and Monch murdering the track. Po in fact performs well as well as his partner in crime. Po does a great job at enunciating each word clearly making his flow all the more impressive, and his lyrics and well as his flow are on point. We hear more of the same from Pharoahe with a lighting quick flows, as well as a few hard hitting lines, including a few bars about the corruption of certain priests at the time, which was dope. So far so good.
4. Thirteen
It just murdered my brain to type out the number "4" followed by the word thirteen. It just seemed like something that should not have happened, and I have become less of a person because of it. However, i regained that lost part of myself through listening to this track. This Buckwild beat has a couple of gnarly samples for the hook, and a very solid drum line over each of the verses that allows Pharoahe to own all three verses he spits in this solo effort. The tone of his voice over this track is incredibly aggressive and exciting as he once again blazes through the track astonishingly fast while still maintaining the ability to be lyrical as hell. On a side not I would like to say that Monch utilizes the poetic device of onomatopoeia better than any rapper I've ever hear. So, make of that what you will.
5. Black Sunday
The song begins with the first traditionally sung hook on the project. It is a soulful little melody about organizing as people, and that's all nice. The first verse is an always incredible verse from Monch in which he talks about how he and his group are striving for greatness, while loosely forming a metaphor about church. Complex shit. Monch spits about twice as well as Po on this track, but I'll actually go ahead and say I prefer Po's verse. He spits in a half singing half rapping tones, and spits some decently meaningful bars, and puts out his best performance yet. The beat has a lot of soul influences, and the drums on this track fucking bang.
6. Drop Bombs
If this little skit of a track doesn't get you hyped enough to invade a small foreign country then you are an odd ball in my mind. A single phrase is shouted followed by a couple of bars from Monch, and the same process is repeated. It sounds awesome, and gets me extremely pumped up. Nothing much here but a short, good time.
7. Bring It On
I usually don't like to proclaim a track on an album as my favorite, for the simple reason that I will usually go back and have a different opinion as short as a day later. This however, is a special situation. I'm going to need any readers to follow a set of simple instructions. First of all find this song and begin listening. Listen to the opening verse from Monch, and then rewind. Listen to this verse as many times as you need to. You might be an asshole, sitting at your computer or phone not following these instructions, but I'm only trying to make your day amazing. This is the single best verse on the entire album, and should be heard multiple times by everyone's ears. As for a little rundown, the hook is a damn war chant, which opens the track and separates the verses. Monch then spits the illest verse on this entire album. He manages to spit every single word so quickly, having such incredible lyrics, and you can still make out every single word he says. The combination of those three things may seem impossible, but it did happen and it was incredible. I have to touch on Po's verse because it was also very good, but he was blown out of the water on this one.
8. Why
This song sounds very vintage Tribe Called Quest. The bass is very heavy and well done, and the drums are banging, and the instrumental comes together to sound very jazzy much like a Q-Tip beat. This was the only track in which Monch and Buckwild both put together the beat and it ended very well. The thing that sticks out about this track is that all of the verses are performed by Prince Po. With all the jokes and the fact that I haven'e talked him up very much, I can't stress enough that this guy is actually a very good rapper. He manages to engage me for an entire track and put together a few solid verses, for a good song.
9. Let's Organize (ft. O.C. & Q-Tip)
Another very jazzy beat, that almost borders on back round music. That sounds horrible, but I truly don't mean it in a bad way, and once the drums get going it isn't the case at all. On this track we have an absolute all star lineup that includes the hosts as well as O.C. and Q-Tip. This an absolutely fantastic track that is ruled by Po. Granted he had the mic for triple the time anyone else did, but he still killed it. Monch and O.C. both got a few bars, and Tip was left on the hook, but none of these things took away from the song. Tip being one of my all time favorites I would've loved to hear a verse from him, but this wasn't his track so I think I can deal with what I got.
10. 3-2-1
At this point in the album the tone has been getting consistently lighter, in subject mater, as well as the beats and lyrical delivery. This is a very peaceful track, one in which Monch kills the first verse right off the bat. Just more classic straight spitting from the man that I have already had so much praise for. There really isn't much more to say about how good each of these mcs are on the mic, and without a single miss on this album yet, things are going well.
11. Keep It Koming
It is becoming increasingly difficult to talk about this project without sounding redundant as hell, but they did it again. Another jazzy beat with very good verses from both artists. The cool thing about this track is that for a short few bars near the end of the song, Monch and Po truly go back and forth for the first time on this album which is something that I have always enjoyed. Like I said. This is just a very good project.
12. Stray Bullet
As far as I'm concerned, this is the first track where rappers rhyme from the viewpoint of a bullet. Nas did the same thing (his was infinitely more popular) , but as a gun and the subject has been touched upon countless times throughout the years, but I'm fairly certain this is the origin. I'm not saying Monch and Po did it better than Nasis, but...oh wait that's exactly what I'm trying to say (Monch at least). As far as the instrumental, we come back with a darker, more violent tone than we have seen on the past few tracks on this album. The beat makes the same change, and is much more similar to those that were in the first half of the album. The variation of the beats and subject matter is what is making this project so successful. You are continuously kept on your toes as to what the next track may sound like.
13. Maintain
Po begins this song with a verse about the hardships of his life. The verse includes a lot of lines about his late father, which is apparently a reason he wants to be so successful in this rap shit. Pharoahe has a very similar subject matter, but he does this half singing style for a good chunk of the verse. It is interesting, and in no way bad, but not his best work on the album. This song provides a very good amount of closure for the project, and the album truly feels as though it is coming to an end. Good way to end a very good project.
Rating: 4.5/5
Yeah, it's that good. This isn't one of those albums that sounded good for an underground 90s album, it sounded amazing. Hearing this in 2014 I can comfortably say that this is a timeless album, that doesn't sound dated in the slightest. It is very consistent, with not even a single bad track over the run of thirteen tracks. Like I said, Pharoahe has an album coming out this year,and Po is releasing a collab with Oh No next month, so feel free to check that shit out as well as buying this album immediately. If you like hip-hop I really hope you put a lot of consideration in checking this project out. Don't bend over backwards trying to track down a copy, seeing as it's not on Itunes, but downloading a zip file is the least you can do for this project. With so many best of 2013 lists floating around the Internet, I can promise this project is better than anything you will find on those lists. Even if you aren't heavy into classic hip-hop, at least think about getting this shit, and then do it!