Tuesday, October 1, 2013

The Return of Organized Konfusion


From the moment their self-titled debut album hit stores in 1992 Organized Konfusion has been, and will always be, one of the best groups in rap history. Conceptually adventurous, casually groundbreaking in their flows, and criminally underrated in their beats, Organized Konfusion came out of the gate fully formed and ready to claim their spot in the hip-hop pantheon. They pushed on through to new heights on their second album Stress: The Extinction Agenda in 1994, and 1997’s The Equinox, while definitely the least of their albums, is still better than what most of their contemporaries were doing that year.

As exciting as it was to hear either Pharoahe Monch or Prince Po rap, knowing that the other was right around the corner made things that much sweeter. So while both have had great solo albums since Organized Konfusion first split up in 1997, most notably Monch’s Internal Affairs from 1999, they haven’t quite reached the level that they did as a group. Unfortunately, the two haven’t appeared on a song together since “God Send” from Internal Affairs.


Marco Polo, a good but slightly generic Canadian producer managed to somehow wrangle everyone from Kool G Rap and Large Professor to Masta Ace and Copywrite for his first Port Authority album in 2007. He even managed to pull together a Beatnuts/Brand Nubian/D.I.T.C. posse cut by getting Ju-Ju, Sadat X, and A.G. on the same song. For his upcoming PA2: The Director’s Cut, due out November 12, he’s outdone himself in every conceivable way. And among the insane list of guest features, he managed to pull off a miracle. Right there, track one, it says “featuring Organized Konfusion.” The Prince and the Pharoahe on record together for the first time in fourteen years.

Not only does it sound like they never spent any time apart, it actually seems like the two aged in reverse the second Marco Polo turned the beat on. Any group of this caliber reuniting after so long has to battle sky high expectations, and Organized Konfusion has barreled right through all of them.

Let’s hope they choose to stick around for a while.

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