Fat Beats (2024, Reissue)
Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.
A few years ago I wrote about the bootleg version of this Organized Konfusion record and lamented that no one had been able to figure out a proper reissue. Well, Fat Beats has corrected that with a lavish triple LP reissue of the second Organized Konfusion album Stress: The Extinction Agenda. They really went all out by including the entire album, remixes, bonus tracks and instrumentals.
The album itself is a classic, even if it's a classic that I wasn't aware of when it was originally released. The slow, jazzy beats churn throughout the album while Pharaohe Monch and Prince Po unleash lyrical mayhem on every track. These guys deal in hyper complicated, stacked rhymes that dazzle, but they never feel like they're showing off just for the sake of it. All of the rhymes serve the beats and vice versa, making it one of those albums that fires on all cylinders. I typically prefer my hip hop production a little more upbeat than what's on Stress, but everything just works.
Hats off to Fat Beats for finally figuring out how to get this album back in print. I do sort of wish they made a version where you didn't have to buy the instruntal versions along with the main album, as I don't often listen to those for any record really. It mostly just makes this more expensive for me/. But that's a minor complaint as Fat Beats made a super deluxe version that sounds great and allows me to retire the bootleg version that has held this spot in my collection. Now, who is going to step up and rerelease Organize Konfusion's debut?
Organized Konfusion - Stress: The Extinction Agenda:
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