What's great my folks?! This salute goes to an album that was one of the most acclaimed debut albums of the late nineties. The emcee that delivered this piece of work was half of one of the most underrated lyrical duos in all of the game, Organized Konfusion. Their albums of their self-titled debut, Stress: The Extinction Agenda, and The Equinox were all heavily acclaimed albums that put them among the most revered throughout the underground, but still largely overlooked beyond the sub-terrain. When the announcement came this emcee was going solo, the intrigue quickly came, much less his deal was through red hot underground label Rawkus Records at the time. The result was a flames gold album and an emcee finally getting his just due among the elite of spitters that still continues to this day. This salute goes to Pharoahe Monch and his debut, Internal Affairs.
The Queens emcee has always been among the most cleverly witted, yet insane, lyricists out there on the low during his days with Prince Po as Organized Konfusion, but with their split, the spotlight was on him to deliver, and with the highly charged and anthemic, "Simon Says (Get The Fuck Up)", he was on his way to becoming a more visible star. The Godzilla-sampled banger was on radio and television a lot during its peak and turned this relatively underappreciaed emcee into a growing household name. When Internal Affairs hit, the album was met with immediate high praise. The album started with an ominous sounding cut, "Behind Closed Doors", and from there got the party started and the energy up with cuts like "The Next Shit" with Busta (his flow on that cut was so nuts particularly), "Official", and the all-star remix of "Simon Says" with Busta returning, Redman, Meth, underground lyrical swordsman Shabaam Sahdeeq, and then-newcomer Lady Luck. There weren't too many glitches with this album, especially by this point.
Monch wasn't just a battler, he was also a reflective dude on this album on cuts like the ghetto love story "The Light", "The Truth" with fellow legendary lyricists Common and Talib Kweli, and the reunion cut with Prince Po "God Send". This album was quite the blend of consciousness, soul, and going straight for the throat, all in one dynamite album. He varied with different, but very effective, flows throughout the album and highlighted his knack for putting together typically complex rhyme structures and made them sound flawless. While cuts like "The Ass" weren't necessarily needed for this release and "Rape", although dope, can come off in not the best view (especially in today's age), they don't weigh down how crazy this album is and how hard it overall goes.
With Internal Affairs, Monch establishes himself as an emcee to no longer sleep on or overlook within the mainstream. Subsequent albums like Desire, P.T.S.D., and W.A.R. were all greatly received and further exhibited his phenomenal lyrical and storytelling talent, it will always go back to his debut as arguably his most acclaimed effort across the board and it became his magnum opus and career benchmark. We salute Internal Affairs and look forward to rotating this another twenty years.
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