The Sound of Young America radio sweetheart/boy detective Jesse Thorn has a great interview up right now with Pharoahe Monch, who rose to prominence as one-half of Organized Konfusion and then as a solo artist. Organized is easily in my top ten favorite hip-hop duos of all time and I'm glad to hear they'll be doing some reunion shows this summer, starting tomorrow at the Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival in DUMBO.Organized Konfusion's second album, with artwork by Matt Doo

Pharoahe and Prince Po never really made that late '90s jump to pseudo thuggishness that brought other formerly-innovative MCs down (I'm talking about Black Sheep's second album, Special Ed's third album, Intelligent Hoodlum changing his name to Tragedy Khadafi...), and I think maintaining that certain level of weirdness positions both of them well for continuing to do interesting things.

Click here to listen to the Pharoahe Monch interview. (The previous week's interview with Brother Ali is also great, and I recommend combing through the gigantic Sound of Young America archives for interviews with Tim & Eric, Zach Galifianakis, Bob Odenkirk, Miranda July…the list goes on and on.)

Some favorite Organized cuts:

Organized Konfusion Stray Bullet mp3
from Stress:The Extinction Agenda (Hollywood)
Organized Konfusion Releasing Hypnotical Gases mp3
from Organized Konfusion (Hollywood Basic)
Organized Konfusion & O.C. You Won't Go Far mp3
from the New Jersey Drive OST (Tommy Boy)
Prince Po Love Thang mp3 (produced by Dangermouse)
from The Slickness (Lex)
Attica Blues Tender (Organized Konfusion remix) mp3 (Mo'Wax 12")
Prince Po freestyle (Stretch & Bobbito, June 1992) mp3

...and a few more from previous posts.