S. Samuel
Hip-hop veteran Pharoahe Monch recently opened up about joining Twitter and what celebrities make his follower list.
In addition to rappers, Monch said he has a knack for following philosophical figures.
“I don’t follow a lot of people; the ones I do follow are because they’re pretty funny,” Monch revealed in an interview. “I also follow some self-help philosopher dudes like Deepak [Chopra], but not a lot. I mostly follow Jean Grae, Sean Price, and [Detroit hip-hop manager] Hex Murda — guys who are a**hole f*ckery! You read some of Hex Murda’s sh*t and it’s over the top, hardcore, super-ignorant, and then you know the dude and he’s a brilliant writer and his philosophy on music and life is even more brilliant. But, you know, laughing is good! People are always like, ‘Why do you look so young and you’re a thousand years old?’ ‘Cause I laugh a lot, contrary to my image.” (Village Voice)
Last year, New York rapper N.O.R.E. revealed his Top 5 favorite celebrities he follows.
“Kanye West, man,” N.O.R.E said as his favorite person to follow. “They say geniuses are usually at the middle of crazy people, and his tweets are just retarded — he’s f*cked up but it’s genius in that. So Kanye West is my number one person on Twitter. He’s number one. Bun B has been impressing me as of late. Mr. 5 Mics. Congratulations on that. Daniel Tosh. He has a show on Comedy Central that is absolutely mind-blowing to me. He’s racial, racist, but it’s funny racist. What he does on his show is takes all these clips from the Internet and makes comics out of it. I’m so ashamed to say this, Kat Stacks. [laughs] You ‘got’ to follow her! I’ve stopped following her, followed her again, stopped following her, then she did something to another rapper and start following her again — I’ve never met Kat Stacks but I have a wonderful relationship with her publicity and you have to follow her on Twitter — my last one….50-Tyson because you don’t know if he’s playing yet or not. This is f*cked up, you laughing and you hurting but at the end of the day, his hits are crazy.” (VIBE)
Outside of tweeting, Monch recently talked to SOHH about his new album, W.A.R.
“There’s some information on here. There’s some medicine on here. I just feel like the record is not really about me prospering but sharing as well. That’s why there’s the ‘We’ in We Are Renegades. It’s for the people and it’s really about the idea and the thought process of people evolving and wanting to be greater and attain greater knowledge. I use myself as an example of that as well. For example, with the asthma, that’s something that’s been plaguing me for a minute and you want to get past that. You don’t want to deal with it, you want to defeat it. I just think people are at a point where they’re thirsting for me. Not just my album or dope hip-hop and old school hip-hop, but more artists who want to try to give them more.” (5 Reasons Why You Should Buy My Record)
He also told SOHH who he feels is the most underrated rapper in hip-hop.
“But in today’s times, the most underrated rapper out right now I would have to say is Elzhi. Elzhi from Slum Village, in my opinion, is one of the most underrated rappers out. I don’t know what it is exactly about him. It’s hard to really explain it. I think people who hear him automatically are like, ‘God d*mn this motherf*cker is nice!’ But it’s the same thing with me, I just want more people to recognize how good he is. That’s something important.” (SOHH Underrated)
Check out some recent Pharoahe Monch footage below:
