Pharoahe Monch
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40 free Pharoahe Monch trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Pharoahe Monch has spent more than three decades as one of hip-hop's most admired technicians, a rapper other rappers study for his tumbling flows and layered wordplay. His catalog is small but dense: a run of cult records with Organized Konfusion in the 1990s, a string of solo albums, and a late-career turn fronting a live band. This quiz walks through those albums in order. Expect questions on the hit Simon Says and the lawsuit that followed it, the guests and producers on each record, the labels he signed with, the ideas behind W.A.R. and its sequel, and the soundtrack and side-project work in between. It is written for fans who know the discography and for newcomers who only know the big single. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you finish knowing the story behind each album even if you guess your way through.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Pharoahe Monch was sued over the hit Simon Says for sampling the theme of which movie monster?
Godzilla
Godzilla's studio, Toho, sued in 2001 because the hook used Akira Ifukube's theme from Godzilla vs. Mothra without clearance. The dispute halted distribution of the album.
Q 02Which lifelong condition does Pharoahe Monch credit with pushing him toward his intricate vocal delivery?
Asthma
Asthma has afflicted him since he was thirteen months old. He says it forced him to push his breath control in ways he would never otherwise have tried.
Q 03Which fellow rapper directed the music video for Pharoahe Monch's 1999 breakthrough single Simon Says?
Busta Rhymes
Busta Rhymes directed the clip and also guests on the parent album. He returns on the song's star-packed remix, which closes the record.
Q 04Which British actor is the guest on The Warning, the opening track of Pharoahe Monch's album W.A.R.?
Idris Elba
Idris Elba opens the 2011 album before any rapper is heard. Its other guests range from Immortal Technique to singer Citizen Cope.
Q 05Pharoahe Monch raps on a remix from Reanimation, a 2002 remix album by which rock band?
Linkin Park
Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda featured him on a reworked version of High Voltage, a remix built by Evidence and DJ Babu.
Q 06In the early 2000s Pharoahe Monch joined the Spitkicker collective alongside De La Soul and which comedian?
Dave Chappelle
Dave Chappelle was a core member of the collective, founded in 2000. Its first tour put Monch on the road with Biz Markie and Common.
Q 07Pharoahe Monch rapped the theme song for the 2002 edition of which sports video game series?
Madden NFL
Madden NFL 2002 carried his theme, and the football series came back to him later: the title track of his 2007 album appears in Madden 08.
Q 08Which hip-hop label boss told Pharoahe Monch's duo he might sign them if they changed their name?
Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons of Def Jam disliked the name Simply II Positive MCs. The pair hunted for a new one and became Organized Konfusion, though they ended up signing elsewhere.
Q 09Organized Konfusion, the duo that launched Pharoahe Monch, came from which New York City borough?
Queens
Queens was home to both members, and their first deal was with a small label there, Solid Sound Records, in the late 1980s.
Q 10Which Denzel Washington film has a Pharoahe Monch song on its soundtrack album?
Training Day
Training Day's soundtrack credits him as a producer as well as a performer, on a lineup that runs from Dr. Dre to David Bowie.
Q 11What is the title of Pharoahe Monch's 1999 solo debut album, home of the hit Simon Says?
Internal Affairs
Internal Affairs just missed the top 40 of the Billboard 200. It then sat out of print for years before reaching streaming services on its 20th anniversary.
Q 12Which West Coast star performs the chorus of Oh No, the 2000 hit by Mos Def and Pharoahe Monch?
Nate Dogg
Nate Dogg was Mos Def's idea, pitched to Monch in a phone call. The single went on to top Billboard's Hot Rap Songs chart.
Q 13Which neo-soul singer guests on Hold On, a track from Pharoahe Monch's 2007 comeback album?
Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu is one of only a handful of guests on the record, which arrived eight years after his solo debut.
Q 21Which jazz saxophonist is named as an inspiration for Pharoahe Monch's winding vocal delivery?
John Coltrane
John Coltrane and jazz in general shape how he phrases a verse. Monch also likens his writing to film-making, re-taking and rewriting lines like scenes.
Q 22Which soul singer joins Pharoahe Monch on Still Standing, the final track of his album W.A.R.?
Jill Scott
Jill Scott sings on the closer, produced by M-Phazes. The song earned its own music video a year after the album came out.
Q 23Pharoahe Monch and RZA share the song Dollaz & Sense on a 2009 rap album by which blues-rock duo?
The Black Keys
The Black Keys made the project, called Blakroc, with Damon Dash. Mos Def and Ludacris were among the other rappers who dropped in.
Q 14Pharoahe Monch's 2014 concept album, written out of a period of depression, is named after which condition?
PTSD
PTSD continues the story of his album W.A.R.: its narrator comes home from combat and struggles to readjust, mirroring Monch's own fight with the music industry.
Q 15Which 2007 album was Pharoahe Monch's second solo release, arriving eight years after his debut?
Desire
Desire followed a bidding war among record labels and leaned on soul and gospel, which Monch called a fresh sound for him.
Q 16What do the letters stand for in the title of Pharoahe Monch's 2011 album W.A.R.?
We Are Renegades
We Are Renegades came out on his own W.A.R. Media imprint through Duck Down, and its theme is an artist going to battle against the music industry machine.
Q 17Which independent New York label signed Pharoahe Monch as a solo artist after Organized Konfusion split?
Rawkus Records
Rawkus Records was also home to Mos Def and Company Flow. It previewed Monch on the hit compilation Soundbombing II before releasing his album.
Q 18Which rapper was Pharoahe Monch's only partner in the 1990s duo Organized Konfusion?
Prince Po
Prince Po handled most of the duo's business as well as rhyming and making beats. Burned out after three albums, he gave Monch his blessing to go solo.
Q 19Pharoahe Monch's 2007 album reworks Welcome to the Terrordome, a 1990 single first released by which group?
Public Enemy
Public Enemy recorded the original for Fear of a Black Planet. Monch's version keeps the title and sits beside tracks built on soul and gospel.
Q 20Which superstar rapper's label, Shady Records, joined the bidding war to sign Pharoahe Monch in the mid-2000s?
Eminem
Eminem's Shady Records competed with Bad Boy and Sony for him. Monch chose Steve Rifkind's SRC instead and released his second album there.
Q 24Simon Says by Pharoahe Monch plays in Boiler Room and which other film released in 2000?
Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels used the song in 2000, a year after it peaked at number 97 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Q 25The hook of Pharoahe Monch's 2012 single Damage borrows a line from a 1991 hit by which rapper?
LL Cool J
LL Cool J's Mama Said Knock You Out supplied the line. Monch spent three years collecting lyrics for Damage before he found the right beat.
Q 26Pharoahe Monch wrote a trilogy of anti-violence songs, ending with Damage, from the point of view of what?
A bullet
A bullet narrates all three: Stray Bullet in 1994, When the Gun Draws in 2007 and Damage in 2012, each a protest against gun violence.
Q 27The short film for Pharoahe Monch's Clap (One Day), about a police raid, features an actor from which HBO drama?
The Wire
The Wire's Gbenga Akinnagbe, who played Chris Partlow, appears in the film. Terence Nance directed it as a raid that goes dramatically wrong.
Q 28Pharoahe Monch guests on It Ain't the Money, a track from a 2003 album by which singer?
Macy Gray
Macy Gray featured him on It Ain't the Money, from her third album, The Trouble with Being Myself; Beck is among the song's co-writers.
Q 29Which California rap group guests on Fight, a single by Pharoahe Monch's rap-rock trio th1rt3en?
Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill joined the trio on a single from A Magnificent Day for an Exorcism, its 2021 debut with guitarist Marcus Machado and drummer Daru Jones.
Q 30Which 1997 concept album, linked by storytelling skits, was the third and final Organized Konfusion record?
The Equinox
The Equinox gave the duo its best Billboard 200 placing, yet they split after it, worn down by years of thin label promotion.