‘While the jury is still out about 100 men vs. one gorilla, we know that one man can take on 100 gorillas, and that man is without a fucking doubt Brownsville’s own Sean Price.‘
-David Rodriguez
Release date: May 31, 2005 | Duck Down | Instagram
Admittedly, hip hop and its adjacent playing fields are not where I cut my teeth, but I deeply trust the heads amongst our team. So when Sean Price and his 2005 record Monkey Barz came up for inclusion in this year’s ASIR line-up, I thought to myself ‘Who?‘ and put him on the list anyway. You don’t garner a reputation like Price’s for nothing, after all. Since his death ten years ago, the esteem the New York rapper is held in remains unbroken, which should be a testament to his lasting influence.
Broc Nelson
Two things: first, it was David who introduced me to Monkey Barz last year, so any praise and opinions expressed henceforth are directly because of him and are relatively new. Second, I am chasing the inevitable effects of an edible, technically two edibles that kind of fused together in the bag and will soon be a problem. So, if things get incoherent, that is why. We are talking about hip hop, though, and that shit sounds good as hell faded.
Hearing this album for the first time, nearly 20 years after its release revealed a blind spot for me. I have many, but in 2005, most of my hip hop consumption was either indie or very mainstream. Sean Price and Boot Camp Clik occupied that kind of middle ground of popularity, not as prominent as Jay Z or Kanye, not on my stoner friends’ radar where Lil’ Wayne, Mike Jones, or Jeezy, and not connected with my own favorites, MF DOOM, El-P, or The Roots. So, I missed Heltah Skeltah, Boot Camp Clik, and the rest of their circle.
This middle ground of popularity fits the contradictions featured on Monkey Barz. On album opener, “Peep My Words.” Sean P. declares, ‘what you are about to witness, my brother/is ignorance at its finest.’ What follows, however, is the kind of blend of high-level smarts and silly-ass jokes that Futurama excelled at. Price is also keenly aware of his mid-tier popularity, after his former group Heltah Skeltah saw less success and acclaim as the duo had hoped, they split for a few years only to reunite on Monkey Barz, Price’s solo debut. ‘Listen to my old shit, they be like ‘Damn! They Hot,’ Price raps, ‘what happened to them *******?/Man, they flopped,’’ recognizing the group’s downfall.
He also balances wealth and standard boasts with his self-declaration of ‘Brokest Rapper You Know,’ a statement you would never hear in the kind of top 40 songs Sean P. used to aspire to. Lyrically, Monkey Barz continuously walks these lines, between luxury and humility, gangster shit to saying his truck smells like vomit and ham. Sometimes it feels like he is trying on different styles, rapping over a mixture of soulful beats to trunk rattling boom bap to a song straight up called “Fake Neptune”.
Sean Price and his guest MCs match whatever beat with confidence and charisma. The variety of beats is exceptional, in particular the track “Heartburn” produced by 9th Wonder, whose sample of The Independent’s “Our Love Has Got To Come Together” is the kind of hypnotic boom bap that is making a resurgence on the East Coast and is part of an incredible run and career for the producer. 9th Wonder also produced Boot Camp Clik member Buckshot’s excellent album Chemistry (also 2005) and went on to work with Rapsody, Kendrick Lamar, Erykah Badu, and many others.
So, this album is fun as hell and is still helping me find killer hip hop throughout the Boot Camp Clik and beyond. It is a terrible loss for hip hop that Sean is no longer with us; his voice and charisma would be welcome in today’s hip hop climate. I am grateful we have Monkey Barz as a testament to Price’s excellence. A big thank you to David, too, great rec! Now, my eyes feel fuzzy, peace.
David Rodriguez
Recently, there was a topic that took the internet by storm: who would win in a fight with no weapons, 100 men or one gorilla? It made for some of the funniest discussions and memes I’ve seen this decade so far, a brief respite from watching hell unfold in the news and on our timelines, just absolute bullfuck nonsense-ass debate. I’ll take that any day over whether or not Diddy, DDG, or Tory Lanez are actually innocent. Please just fucking kill me already.
The fact of the matter is we already have the answer to that debate and it came about two decades ago. While the jury is still out about 100 men vs. one gorilla, we know that one man can take on 100 gorillas, and that man is without a fucking doubt Brownsville’s own Sean Price.
Formerly known as Ruck (as in Ruckus) when he was paired with Rock (as in the Rockness Monsta) to make up Heltah Skeltah, a very underrated NYC rap duo, Monkey Barz is Sean P’s first solo album on a label (Duck Down). What P built with his solo discography is one of the most underrated sets of music out there, and I mean that in the truest sense of the word ‘underrated’. Among it all, Monkey Barz is arguably his best, ‘ignorance at its finest‘ as the man himself says in the intro to “Peep My Words”.
Monkey Barz is a genius title, a double, arguably triple entendre. P often makes reference to him (and his crew) being tough as fuck like gorillas (just listen to the title track), he stays barred up constantly with hard punchlines and truly innovative ways of saying shit rappers had been saying for years, and, like monkey bars on children’s playgrounds, he makes it all look easy like a game. He’s always had a knack for awesome titles – Master P, Mic Tyson, Donkey Sean Jr., Kimbo Price, Jesus Price Supastar – all GOATed.
The 2000s was a weird time to make rap or be a rap fan. The bling era was popping off, New York’s mainstream was shifting toward more palatable and approachable club bangers and the like despite some rappers actively seeking to keep it grimy like DMX, M.O.P., and Jadakiss (can’t forget The LOX as well), not to mention other classic acts like Dipset that were edgier than most. While I wasn’t hip to Sean Price at this time (I was a small little boy just discovering the greater world of hip-hop through the radio which was obviously quite neutered), hindsight shows just how important he was to the landscape.
Monkey Barz was different. It was produced differently (shoutout to Agallah, PF Cuttin’, Khrysis, 9th Wonder, and everyone else behind the boards on this gem), and it was rapped differently. Sean Price’s whole demeanor is multifaceted at all times. One second, you’re catching a bar about getting robbed, the next one he’s divulging personal details most rappers wouldn’t reveal under CIA blacksite torture (remember the era this came out in). You’re simply not getting “Boom Bye Yeah” and “Brokest Rapper You Know” on the same album from 99% of rappers, then or now, let alone back to back on the track list. He puts himself – all of himself – in every song. There’s not necessarily a hard song here, a funny song there, it all permeates every thread which goes to show that this is just him. Pure, uncut Sean Price.
I don’t want to understate how funny the dude was too. Humor’s subjective and many don’t seem to enjoy it much in rap (wack), but I just don’t see how you can hear or read some of these bars and not at least smirk. He’s up there with Redman with it, another GOAT of mine. The aforementioned “Boom Bye Yeah” has the biggest concentration of wild bars, but some of my favorites are ‘I step in the ring weighing an even two-hundred/Lost twenty pounds in B-ville, fucking around with E pills/So I took a trip to Jack LaLanne/Got my weight back like that when I snatched the chain’ and the Run-DMC referencing ‘I’m the king, ask Rock, there is none higher/Bitch-ass n****s better call me sire/Burn my kingdom, must use fire/Big bag of weed, a dutch, and some E-Z Wider’. The beat is menacing too, capable of generating Onyx or M.O.P. “Ante Up” levels of violent hype when it drops – it’s easy to see why this is one of P’s best songs ever among fans.
“I Love You (Bitch)” is an… unconventional love song, but one all the same, when two ain’t-shit people join forces to be ain’t shit together (‘‘Member I fucked up, you kicked me out of the house? *record scratch*/Wait a minute, that was yesterday’), but ultimately persevere and come out on the other end together (‘Listen ma, we gon’ make it/Push come to shove, grab the snub, we gon’ take it’).
The crowning jewel on Monkey Barz is without a doubt “Rising to the Top” featuring a verse (and production) from Agallah. ‘90s kids with good memory will recognize this song from Grand Theft Auto III, one of P’s hardest tracks ever thanks in part to the chilly, grim piano throughout and groovy bassline. The song practically wears a Kevlar vest. For as cold of a track as it is, P still sneaks in one of the funniest, laugh-out-loud lines on the whole album – ‘Dress sloppy, but my rap is dapper/Watch Rosewood, go outside and slap a cracker’. Agallah keeps it all business, almost channeling Sticky Fingaz with a no-nonsense, hard-bodied verse – ‘My dogs don’t care, they’ll kill these rap stars’.
Production’s also laced with some nice samples, the kind that I’m skittish to name nowadays since sample snitching’s become a problem again. All I’ll say is classic prog rock fans might find a friend in “Mad Mann”, soul enjoyers will appreciate the prominent samples in “Heartburn” and “Bye Bye”, and rap fans who are paying attention will find some familiar melodies and touches to “Fake Neptune”.
This August will mark the tenth anniversary of P’s death, something that devastated the hip-hop community as a whole. Anyone that knew of his lighthearted personality and power behind the mic knew it was a massively huge loss for the underground and lyricists all around. Everyone from Rapsody to Killer Mike showed love when the news broke. There’s an undeniable toughness in his approach to rap, sometimes almost cartoonish with how much he dialed it up for the music, but for someone involved with the Decepticons when he was in high school, it was far from studio gangsterism. He was straight up innovative when it came to committing lyrical violence and talking shit, but the frequent levity, self-deprecation, and personal realness set him apart, and we love realness around here.
After Monkey Barz, he dropped projects after projects that are similarly great listens with endless verses of P slapping the shit out of you in a myriad of ways. Guest verses went hard too – y’all know he linked up with Onyx and Snowgoons on their really, really good 2014 album Wakedafucup with FERG? Impressive, really. Dude was always on point, his staccato flows punctuating the gun blasts and brass knuckled jabs in his lyrics. Just talent piled on top of more talent, unparalleled wit and wordplay that you just don’t see in rap on this level much anymore.
While he may not gel well with a more modern hip-hop audience, especially with some very unsavory lines and words used occasionally that didn’t age well at all, he’s a paramount study for any fan of rap looking to dig deeper in deft lyricism and bend hip-hop into a more fun mode where you played as hard as you worked. He’s influenced tons of rappers including ones I know personally, but there’s no imitating what he laid down on tape or showed us in various videos. Sean Price was truly a one-of-a-kind. Eerily enough, the man said it best himself in a freestyle with Rock almost 20 years ago – ‘Sean long gone, somebody bring him back’.
riP!
