EXCLUSIVE: Pharoahe Monch Announces ‘Internal Affairs’ Sequel

Rapper Pharoahe Monch has disclosed his favourable expected follow-up to Internal Affairs will be on shelves in 2024. Aptly titled ‘External Affairs’, the album picks up where his W.A.R. (We Are Renegades) album left off.

Granting an interview with Rock The Bells, Pharoahe Monch clarifies, โ€œOn March 22, 2011, I released the W.A.R. album. The album intro leads off with Idris Elba discovering and deciphering information in the future. That date was July 27, 2023. He warns us about classified information, which was External Affairs. Now, the upload is almost complete. 

โ€œI thought it would be a challenge to try to follow up or conclude the fan favourite Internal Affairs for various reasons. The main challenge is the landscape and ideology of the planet have completely changed from how music is disseminated and consumed, to where the bar has been reset in terms of elite MCs. Twenty-five years wiser, Iโ€™m prepared to explore more existential topics that affect our very humanity on all levels with External Affairs.โ€

Like clockwork, the statement landed on July 27, 2023, and is chaperoned by a trailer for the project. In true Pharoahe Monch fashion, the visualโ€”directed by Todd Angโ€”has a sci-fi element that only exacerbates knickknack about what lies forward.

About Internal Affairs

The album is Pharoahe Monchโ€™s debut solo album, which was dropped in 1999 under Priority and Rawkus Records. It commemorated Monchโ€™s first musical project since parting ways with his Organized Konfusion co-founder, Prince Po.
Guest appearances comprised seasoned emcees such as Method Man, Redman, Lady Luck, Busta Rhymes and Prince Po, while production was overseen by Diamond D, The Alchemist, DJ Scratch, Lee Stone and Monch himself. 

Internal Affairs also bred the single โ€œSimon Says,โ€ which peaked at No. 97 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 3 on Hot Rap Songs and No. 29 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. 

Aside from the conquest of the single, it demonstrated to be the catalyst for controversy. Toho, the Japanese production company behind the Godzilla franchise, sued Monch and his former labels over the unauthorized use of the filmโ€™s theme song, โ€œGojira Tai Mosuraโ€ by Akira Ifukube.

Accordingly, Internal Affairs was yanked from stores and eventually became a collectorโ€™s item. Even as digital streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify commenced transforming the music enterprise, it was still nowhere to be found. 

However in 2019, Pharoahe Monch disclosed that Internal Affairs would finally be uploaded to streaming services, and by August 2020, the once-shelved album had arrived, opening Monch up to a completely new era of Hip-Hop enthusiasts. 

Monch has birthed three additional solo albums since Internal Affairs, including Desire (2007), the aforementioned W.A.R. and PTSD: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (2014).

More lately, he teamed up with drummer extraordinaire Daru Jones and ace guitarist Marcus Machado for a trio they dubbed TH1RT3EN (Thirteen). Their inaugural album, A Magnificent Day For An Exorcism, was birthed in 2021. Theyโ€™re presently working on album number two, a testament to Monchโ€™s unshivering work ethic and devotion to creating lyrical magic. 

ยฉ 2023 โ€ข Story By Edem Latsu Nukafu
Writer’s email:edemlatsu093@gmail.com


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *