Pharoahe Monch :: Live @ Prince of Wales 11.12.2009

It's not often in Australia we are welcomed by true legends of this Hip Hop game, but recently over the past month we have been blessed with some of the all-time greats. GZA. Nas. Wu-Tang Clan. Not bad huh? My bank account may have taken a beating but I was still convinced at online checkout point that every cent was worth it, in a time where quality Hip Hop artists seems to be on the decline and entering extinction. It very well could of been the last time I would get to see some of my all time favourite MC's.

But things didn't get off to a healthy start. GZA's consistent but albeit unexciting show at Prince of Wales, just didn't have much sense of atmosphere to really call a great gig. Nas's short versed, plastic performance featuring skinny jeaned punk & Lil Wayne look-a-like distracting guitar players at the old Metro. Or perhaps Wu-Tang-Part-Clan's horrid over bass'd live sound mixing, or the large infestation of rats into Festival Hall, and a men's toilet which felt like Barwon prison. My faith for live Hip Hop was being seriously tested!

-> ENTER our saviour - PHAROAHE MONCH!

This man knows how to move a crowd. A show I put right up there with Common and also Gang Starr at Prince of Wales before him. Backed by two powerfully voiced soul singers, an official X-Ecutioner behind the decks (playing some seriously dope instrumentals between tracks mind you) and a packed energetic Prince of Wales crowd, the night had a truly fantastic vibe.

Possibly one of, if not the best Hip Hop shows I have ever experienced. With a performance time of just over 1hr, it was an example of pure quality over quantity in every aspect. Tracing back over classic tracks like 'Stray Bullet' from Organized Konfusion, or solo material from Internal Affairs, Desire and the well known popular singles - 'My Life' from Soundbombing IV & 'Oh No' ft Mos Def & Nate Dogg.

But of course as we knew it always would, the night ended at an absolute climax with 'Simon Says' as the encore performance. I've never seen the Prince of Wales shout, jump, bounce and rhyme in unison like it did that night and at that moment. With the packed crowd yielding there guns aka hands in the air with the raps of Pharoahe: "Simon Says get the fuck up! Throw your hands in the sky" Crowd: "BUK! BUK! BUK! BUK!"

My faith restored....

Classic Lyrical :: Organized Konfusion - Stray Bullet

Who can forget the brilliant concept track 'Stray Bullet' featured on Organized Konfusion's second album; ' Stress: The Extinction Agenda, released in 94'. Nas may have created his own more polished 'I Gave You The Power' concept a couple years later, however i always felt there was something decidedly more disturbing and sinister about OK's verses.... "I'm coming for you little girl"

Verse One: Pharoahe Monche

Let the trigger finger put the pressure to the mechanismWhich gives a response, for the automatic *bang*Clip to release projectiles in singlefile forcing me to ignite then travelthrough the barrel, headed for the lightAt the end of a tunnel, with no specific target in sightSlow the flow like H2O waterVisualize, the scene of a homicide, a slaughterNo remorse for the course I take when you pull itThe result's a stray bulletNiggaz who knew hit the ground runnin and stay downExcept for the kids who played on the playgroundCause for some little girl she'll never seemore than six years of life, trif-le-ingWhen she fell from the seesawBut umm wait, my course isn't overFled out of the other side of her head towardsa red, Range, Rover, then I ricochetFast past a brother's ass, oh damn, what that nigga say'Aww f**k it', next target's Margaret's face *bang*and I struck itNow it's a flood of blood in circumfrence to her faceand an abundance of brains all over the streetShame how we had to meet *bang*Dashin, buckin, greet by f**kin familyThey follow behind me in a orderly fashionBashin through flesh I'm wildCrashin through the doors of projects hallwaysto deflect off of the tileI'm coming for you little girlOnce inside I shatter your worldSwirl, no more dreams no hopes when I sprayYou better pray, to the Pope or the VaticanBefore I go rat-tat-a-tat againI'm mad again brother somebody's mother will be sad againbut, whose blue skies will turn greyfrom the attack, of the Mac-11, I'm a stray, bullet

Verse Two: Prince Poetry

Gun balls of fire, I'm travelling at higher speedsto proceed to penetrate flesh, hitting the splintafter splitting the chest of a Queens fiendAge of pagers shredded to pieces from the Glock 9and it's hollow tips, it releases the policesin back of the ambulanceBlood loss as I shift across your chestArrest, rupture, I mess up ya, slashershall I bust ya liver, faster, blood pours *bang*Now it's up to the master, boom, as I crash open the doorsThank me for spraying the operating roomThe body still consumes me, doc had to remove meMmm lord, why do they use me? *bang*I'm takin individual for keeps Hobbesso peep the cops, in the ghetto bustin shots for propsAnd when I hit, sh*t *bang bang bang bang*Soon you forgets-me-notCops tried to explain to his pops what I doneI flip up the hollow tipper and I'm not the oneAnd as a human I'm the surprising onePrince Po I flow the ripper, either wayyou never, ever know how I'm comingMetamorphasizing, rising in turbulenceCondensed into a bullet, pull it, now I'm making movesWith no sympathizing, uhh, so take a hit nigga, sprint *bang*Onto the scenario, I'm at a party with OA lot of honies parlay and the DJ's playin the Fudge Pudge flowFive niggaz come up in the club for a rub[Yo O peep it, oh sh*t O duck (oh shit!, oh shit!)*pop pop pop pop pop* *woman screams*]Another hit, another struckHere comes Mr. Stray BulletFive, the tip, getting my jollies from the screams of the rippedin your chest, then I flipNip your liver, blood flowin like a riverMoney starts to shiver then I give a delivery of burnsBruises fake shoes is your renaissanceNo response your moms is out coldFigure I'm bigger takin your heart nigga at twenty years oldStray Bullet