Stress: The Extinction Agenda

If you want to talk about all the ways MCs can grab your attention, you best believe Pharoahe Monch and Prince Po have mastered all the angles. Their second LP boasts both haymaker hooks and Jeet Kune Do verses, rattling speakers with massed shout-along choruses while doing things with flow and lyricism that make the beat suddenly feel limitless. And that beat has rarely sounded this hallucinogenic, even broken down to its soul-jazz components. The rest of indie rap’s spent decades catching up.