Pharoahe Monch's 2014 album, PTSD: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, focused on the Queens rapper's struggle with depression and sobriety. In a new interview with Tim Einekel for Red Bull Music Academy, Pharoahe Monch detailed his deeply personal struggles and how it has affected his music.
"I knew that I had to touch on my personal issues," Pharoahe said. "In the past it’s very metaphoric, rhyming from a perspective of a bullet or some inanimate object, but this time I wanted to focus on Troy [Pharoahe Monch's real name] and what’s in his head and who he is personally. That’s what the album became."
The album forced Pharoahe to revisit his own struggle with depression. "I had to go back a couple of years to pull from that and commit to feeling that way again, which was difficult. During the record, I wasn’t depressed at all, but I had to pull those feelings out again and delve into and remember what that feels like... Once you’re working your way out of that darkness, you’re always worried about going back in. It’s the same thing with drug addiction. I’ve been sober for two years and now I have to do this bar tour, and you’re like, “Jesus Christ, I gotta fuckin’ do a bar tour,” and it’s going to be nothing but what I’ve been striving to walk away from. Saying that, it was still therapeutic in a sense that verbalizing and even writing about things that you’ve internalized is super-therapeutic."
The risk seems to have been worth it, as PTSD was released in 2014 to critical acclaim. The album directly addressed issues such as gun violence, drug addiction, and mental illness, and many critics hailed the album as a landmark release in the genre of socially conscious hip hop, with some critics comparing Pharoahe to Ice Cube and Chuck D.
You can read the full interview with Pharoahe Monch over at Red Bull Music Academy here.
By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation.com
