As fiery as ever, veteran rapper returns in full, flawless voice.   Full text...

Desire is Pharoahe doing what Pharoahe does best; Rap.  Full text...

The Egyptian monarch's long awaited sophomore album delivers an old-school jaunt of epic proportions. Simon says get the **** into Desire.  Full text...

My name is Desire. That’s right, Desire. I am the 2007 LP from Troy Jamerson, the hyper-creative, lyrically adroit brotha you know—or you damn well need to know—as Pharoahe Monch. And I’m putting you all on notice to the fact that I’m fresh. I am a magnificent, genre-busting extravaganza specifically designed to make you think and wonder, blink and ponder, hold your head and say, “Damn,” and then pump your first the way people did to my ancestors Knowledge Is King and Fear of a Black Planet.  Full text...

Pharoahe has risen again, however, on his long-awaited, highly anticipated, and much needed second album, Desire.  Full text...

It's a best-of-both-worlds record, formulated something like this: backpack-rap's sense of social justice (minus shrill self-righteousness) and overclocked verbiage (minus rhythmic malaise) plus the trap star's outsized charisma (minus deadening conspicuous consumption) and furious delivery (plus rampant conspiracy theories). Monch knows it, too, neatly summarizing the dichotomy on "What It Is": "They thought I was backpack/ Slept/ Didn't know that that he kept inside the knapsack..."  Full text...

Desire will satisfy anyone seeking intricately constructed and brilliantly spit verses from one of the best rappers to ever do it. Hell, it’s a Pharoahe Monch album in the year 2007. What else do you desire?  Full text...

Monch stays versatile, political, and intellectual as he uses his many gifts to be at once motivational ('Hold On') and verbally ambidextrous ('The Trilogy'). A winner.  Full text...