Organized Konfusion
Stress: The Extinction Agenda

Released in '94, Stress: The Extinction Agenda is the second album by Organized Konfusion, that is, Pharoahe Monch and Prince Poetry.

The beats are mainly the work of the duo, with some input from Buckwild, and let's say it: they are more than excellent. A good taste in sample choice (mainly jazz) combines with superb drums, resulting in an undeniably effective outcome.

From the rap perspective, Pharoahe and Prince are monsters; an original style, perfect metrics, simply superb flow (with changes of tone, broken syllables, and whatever else). Their rap is so "strong" that they could say anything, and it would still work. Instead, they also work hard on the lyrics, centered on the album's theme, as stated by the title (which is well represented by the atmospheres created by the beats).

The album kicks off with two explosive songs: Stress and The Extinction Agenda are simply beautiful (with spot-on sampling: Mingus for the first and Herbie Hancock for the second), great at depicting urban stress, and the level doesn't drop with Thirteen. Black Sunday is one of the numerous invitations on the album not to give up and to fight against difficulties, and not to do it alone. Then we reach the peak of MCing: Bring It On is rap at its highest level, with a justifiably minimal base because with two MCs like this, it’s almost unnecessary.

With Why the album changes tone, becoming less aggressive and dark, immediately followed by two party tracks Let's Organize (featuring the great O.C. and an unnecessary Q.Tip) and 3-2-1 (perhaps the worst song). With Keep It Coming and Stray Bullet we return to the initial atmospheres, but perhaps with less effectiveness. Finally, Maintain is a calm yet sincere invitation to resist.

Stress: The Extinction Agenda is truly a great hardcore hip hop album (of course, if you’re not into the genre, stay away from it), moreover with a great cover. Unfortunately, it was released in a period full of masterpieces: there were many "classics" that came out in the New York scene between '93 and '95, thanks to Wu-Tang Clan (both as a group and as solo artists), Nas, Biggie, Mobb Deep, Gang Starr, O.C, A Tribe Called Quest; maybe that’s why this album is rarely mentioned when talking about hip hop milestones: after all, it’s not a perfect album, unlike those by the previously mentioned artists released in those years.