Photo Credit: RBMA
“It is your understanding that I seek — and not your emnity!!”
- Galactus, Thor Vol.1 #168, ‘Galactus Found’ 1969
It’s September 1994. I’m out on Linden Boulevard, by the
corner store on 231st Street. I remember it now for two reasons:
we always associated it with Junior, a stubby Latino cat who held
court from behind the plexiglass shelving assembled like a
child’s Lego fortress and the fact that the store is no more,
having gone through two failed lives as a pizzeria and a medical
facility. I was building with one cat, Antoine. He and I would
always regularly have heavy conversations about hip-hop,
and there were moments he’d hip me to something entirely
different. So it didn’t fully surprise me when he got at me
this night about a new album that dropped a week or so
before. “Yo Chris!! Maaaaan…tell me you heard that new
Organized Konfusion!!” ‘Toine said with a grin. “You know
what, I just copped it. I haven’t listened to it fully yet.” I
said. After building for a little bit more, I went home and
popped the tape into the deck. And for the next 45 minutes,
I was transported into another dimension. I felt a lot like
one of the heroes in my comic books I devoured around that
time, Icon. Years later, I’d come to realize how impactful
Stress: The Extinction Agenda was. And is.
Let’s break it down to brass tacks. When Organized Konfusion
dropped this second album on Hollywood BASIC on August
16, 1994, heads knew they were from Southside Jamaica,
Queens first and foremost. They had stepped on the scene
three years before with their first self-titled album. Most of
you will remember that solely for the slick and rhythmic
boom-bap of ‘Fudge Pudge’ featuring another solid MC, O.C.
who was distinct in that he was the only guest artist on that
album & went on to be a member of the Diggin’ In The Crates
Crew after. The first album got lost in the sauce for many -
but it proved that Organized were standouts for their intense
and profound lyricism that was thought-provoking and issued
with signature deliveries. I mean…check ‘Who Stole My Last
Piece Of Chicken”. Nostalgic rap building off a hook with a
Richard Pryor sample with the video shot right there in the
South Jamaica houses AND Baisley Park? It was a merging
of worlds, not unlike the Rainbow Bridge from Asgard to this
world found in Marvel’s Thor. It’s more appropriate when you
find that Paul C, the producer who helped them with their
demo that led to their contract, was murdered in 1989 which
had a distinct effect as both MC’s attest to up until today. (A
side note: Paul C was murdered in Rosedale, a nearby nabe.
The case wound up on America’s Most Wanted, which was a
staple in my house on Saturday nights. It still gets spoken of
around there faintly.) Plus, the label wasn’t entirely embracing
their artistic direction. Organized bucked the norm by producing
their album on their own and didn’t rely on other MC’s to boost
visibility. That led to conflict. Also, Pharoahe Monch’s father had
passed around the time of recording this album, and was
dealing with serious asthma. Prince Po was enduring hard times
as well then. So when Stress: The Extinction Agenda was released,
the energy was destined to be electric. Because Organized Konfusion
illustrated who we were as people out on the block in a way that
was layered and dextrous but not daunting to the listener.
The album art ALONE told you. Recently the artist, the late
Matt Reid aka Matt Doo, was covered in a poignant tribute
article. I had only heard of him in passing, but finding out
he and his brother grew up in the same neighborhood I did?
Earth-shattering. Matt Doo’s artwork is without question one
of the greatest pieces of album art ever. Not just in hip-hop,
EVER. Sounds grandiose, but when you consider that many
labels were relying more on photography for effect, it’s striking
to see such a piece be your cover. To this day I recall the
poster up on the wall in Hot Waxx and the clothing spot next
door on Jamaica Avenue, Mr. Kim’s. Pharoahe and Po stride
forth from the chaos of the scarred and stressful landscape
of the streets as cosmic figures bringing clarity, but not
without some heft and pain of their own. You also need to
take into account that this is originally a 30x30 painting.
Matt Doo made this the perfect blend of hip-hop flavor and
artistry with flecks of Jack Kirby & Jean Michel Basquiat. It
didn’t surprise me about how comic books and hip-hop had
prominent places in the late artist’s life. There’s an old saying,
‘coming out the house late’. When you have hard-working
parents and latchkey children, you get a set of ground rules.
Some parents wouldn’t let their kids go outside for nothin’.
I dealt with that a little growing up. In that space normally
filled with playing on the block or other adventures, comic
books and hip-hop were first a vessel of escape, then a vessel
of definition. These were the touchstones that brought cats
together. Even the biggest hardrock out on the streets was
up on the X-Men, Batman or other comics. Comics and
music was always the meeting points for the young cats
like me and others and the tougher, older heads.
“The fight for freedom needs no more martyrs — it needs victory — it needs no more
atrocities to stir our blood — it is stirred!”
- T’Challa aka Black Panther, Vol 2.#2 ‘For Duty, For Honor, For Country(1988)’
Stress:The Extinction Agenda is a succinct but poetically
dense album that speaks to all of the stresses and tough
times one endures as a person of color in New York City,
but that message is really universal. From ‘Intro’, you’re
already advised that the MC’s will be taking you into their
soul-scapes. The next track, ‘Stress’ is the most widely
known track chart-wise. It tripped us out seeing the duo
in the video out in California in a snowy expanse and The
Bay at first. But it made sense in a metaphorical way.
Two Black men trying to sort through the nonsensical systemic
racism in their own way, spitting compelling rhymes.
It was like Prince Po was the Silver Surfer and Pharoahe
Monch was Galactus with the way both verses perfectly
fit, even with the skit detailing the two’s frustration with
trying to get a cab back to Queens. The other standout
track, ‘Stray Bullet’? I’m quite certain that when more
full-fledged academic courses on hip-hop are created at
Harvard and other places, Pharoahe’s verse will demand
that higher level of study. Just marvel at these first lines:
“Let the trigger finger put the pressure to the mechanism
Which gives a response, for the automatic *bang*
Clip to release projectiles in single
File forcing me to ignite then travel
Through the barrel, headed for the light
At the end of a tunnel, with no specific target in sight”
The track had gotten buzz for the verbal dexterity in
a good and bad light. There were some mainstream
media critics who felt this was more glorification of
violence in music. Thankfully, they were outweighed by
those who viewed it rightfully as a different take on
gun violence that made people pause. The fact that
it hits you hard in the gut 20 years later is proof
of its power. For me, ‘Maintain’ is one of the tracks
I put on when I need to just breathe. Something
that as I grow older I need to be more mindful. It
ends the album as it should with a seemingly mournful
framing thanks to the Five Stairsteps and James
Brown samples, but it proves to be motivation to
rise above. Listening it to this week made it all the
more profound given the uprising in Ferguson, Missouri
against police brutality, the deaths of Michael Brown,
Eric Garner, Ezell Ford and John Crawford. When you
add depression to the mix, even more so. Matt Doo’s
own life and art wasn’t exempt from these themes.
And I’ve grown to accept that they’re not exempt from
my own life, either. Seriously though, the album in
its entirety is magnetic, as evidenced in a breakdown
the duo had here.
But what I ultimately find in listening to and appreciating
Stress: The Extinction Agenda twenty years later is
a perspective born out of being both matter-of-fact
about the realities of the streets, but possessing the
drive to rise and become anew from the struggle.
The album was in effect that bridge for hip-hop to
further enunciate its voice and wipe away certain
borders that were there. This album laid groundwork
for other artists like Boogiemonsters and Company
Flow to flourish on the East Coast while having a parallel
relationship with the Freestyle Fellowship and Jurassic
Five on the West Coast as examples. It was and still
is a hallmark of true lyricism in hip-hop. It summed
us up and showed that we can embody the fantastic
much like what we saw in our rap heroes and comic
book heroes to not only make sense of things but to
survive and even thrive. And that those who help us
to do so may not always see their impact but to be
thankful and mindful for the ones that do.