Pharoahe Monch Leaves SRC, Recruits Cee-Lo & Styles P for New Indie Release

Simon says Pharoahe Monch has a brand new album coming out. XXLMag.com recently caught up with the Queens-bred lyricist to speak about his new release and leaving SRC to go the indie route.

After releasing 2007’s Desire—his first solo LP in eight years—on SRC to little fanfare, Pharoahe decided he didn’t need the help of the label. “[SRC] offered us a scenario at the end to do another album and I just felt that the way the industry is going and the experience that I have and the professional people that I know, I felt like what they were offering, l could come close to doing that myself,” he said. “So I opted out.”

And it seems as if Monch has no plans to wait another eight years for his next project. The underground favorite has a new CD called W.A.R. (which stands for We Are Renegades) in the works and it will be released through his own company. “I started a record label called W.A.R. Media,” he explained. "We Are Renegades is the name of the label, which is also the name of the album. And we have a plethora of distribution situations and label situations but I definitely wanna stay on the ownership side and the independent side and gain a little bit more control in this point of my career."

The album, which is set to drop in early 2010, features a number of artists that Monche has collaborated with in the past. “Fortunately I’m blessed to be in a position with Mr. Porter, Talib Kweli, Black Milk, Styles P and Cee-Lo Green and all these people [who] are just contributing to the record without it being a label scenario, because of the love that we have for each other and the understanding of where the industry is right now," he said. "It’s a lot of bartering going on.”

As XXLMag.com previously reported Pharoahe hit the stage with his former Organized Konfusion partner-in-rhyme, Prince Po, last Friday (September 25). While the duo have no plans for a full-fledged reunion album, Monch says they have recorded a new song together and promised fans, “the song is insane.” –Jesse Gissen