Phashara’s “Young World” receives 4 out of 5 stars in UK based IDJ magazine. The review will be in the August 2008 edition of the magazine. Ryan Proctor writes…

With a nod to Slick Rick’s old-school classic ‘Hey Young World’, Chicago’s Phashara attempts to reach the minds of rap’s more impressionable listeners on this mellow, piano-laced head-nodder. Warning of the possible consequences of gangs, drugs and violence, Phashara draws on his own experiences to show his target audience they do have alternatives in life. Edutainment at its best. Ryan Proctor
4 / 5

The Storybook Adventure’s Release party at The Darkroom (Chicago) on 07/08/2008 was listed as “highly recommended” in The Chicago Sun-Times last week. Home team Hip-Hop heroes the Beatmonstas, Phashara, DJ Rude 1, Radius, Tall Black Guy & The 80’s Babies all received honorable mention in the article. In the article Phashara was said to sound “something like Black Thought channeling Slick Rick.”

Click here to read the article or continue to read it in it’s entirety below…

“Underground hip-hop has always been a vehicle for social criticism, and the Beatmonstas’ Phashara looks to continue the trend through his newest album, “The Story Book Adventure,” on which the rapper sounds something like Black Thought channeling Slick Rick. Radius (who’s fresh off his strong solo release, “Neighborhood Suicide: The Secret Life of Sound”) will also be there, pounding out live beats with Tall Black Guy (another beat maestro who uses Chicago as his main source of inspiration). DJs Sean Doe, ’80s Babies and Rude 1 will be manning the decks, so expect a dance-friendly environment.” - Chicago Sun-Times

Beatmonstas Entertainment has just launched a new social network on Ning. Not just another run of the mill social network, Beatmonstas Social Network is meant to encourage a sense of community for like minded true-school individuals. The focus of the social network is Hip-Hop music and culture.

Visit the site now… beatmonstas.ning.com

Just as Beatmonstas has continually encouraged the spirit of community and power in numbers, The Beatmonstas Social Network on Ning will allow visitors to join and contribute to the network. Members will be able to participate in forum discussions, create new forum topics / discussions, upload and download pics, upload and download music and a host of other activities.

Best of all, BM will use the network as a place where it’s artists can directly reach out to the people who support their music. There will be free unreleased music, remixes, live performance video footage and more available for download.

So who’s it for? B-boys & B-girls, indie hip-hop music enthusiasts, emcees, graffiti artists, DJs, Chicago (and all mid-west) hip-hop artists, hip-hop entrepreneurs, Beatmonstas Entertainment fans and generally anyone with hip-hop music and culture at the forefront of their lives. The Beatmonstas Social Network is a movement for hip-hop.

The network is currently available while in it’s beta stage of development. Expect improvements and more content in the near future. Visit the site now… beatmonstas.ning.com

Phashara featured in the Chicago Tribune. Get to know the man behind “The Storybook Adventure” in this local heroes article written by Chicago Tribune freelance writer Andrew Downing.

The article is scheduled to appear in the 4th of July edition of the Chicago Tribune’s Town Section. However, it is available online on the Chicago Tribune web edition.

We’ve taken the liberty to post the article here on Beatmonstas.com but please feel free to head over and read the article on Chicago Tribune web edition.

The article reads;

Although Phashara recently relocated to Santa Clarita, Calif., and bills himself as a resident of Planet B-Boy on his MySpace site, the MC still considers Chicago his real home. For this reason, the 34-year-old is excited by his latest homecoming, a weeklong visit that culminates Tuesday with an album release show for “The Storybook Adventure,” the rapper’s first solo effort.

Phashara 2007 (photo by: Charity Banks)

“I see myself as a multilayered dude,” says the rapper. This album “is a narration of everything I saw growing up in Chicago.”

Phashara, born Corry Banks on the West Side in January 1974, was raised in a single-parent household by his mother, a local chef. The youngest of four children, he struggled with both the negative elements that he witnessed in his neighborhood and the absence of his father. “I don’t know [what happened to him]. I guess he was a rolling stone,” the rapper says with a shrug. So when the other neighborhood kids were getting in trouble with their parents and the police, where could you find Phashara?

“You could always find me writing,” says the MC. “I had a boombox that I would take with me on the bus and train so I could listen to beats as I wrote. I was never that into sports. It was really just chicks and music.”

The rapper fondly recalls late nights spent huddled over a beat-up radio, adjusting a wire-hanger antenna in an effort to pull tracks by KRS-One, Rakim and Public Enemy off the airwaves. By the time he was 14, he was writing his own rhymes, kicking things off with a verse about gangster Al Capone. “It was all about Chicago even then,” Phashara adds with a laugh.

Since then he’s branched out considerably, tackling political issues with his crew the Beatmonstas and raging against the negative influences that prey on inner-city youth.

“I can’t say I’m the most squeaky-clean dude, but I try to be conscious,” says Phashara, who, as the father of a 7-year-old girl, struggles with things like the objectification of women common in hip-hop videos.

-Andrew Downing (Chicago Tribune)

Dont forget to go out and buy the hard copy of the Chicago Tribune on 07/04/2008. Catch Phashara and Beatmonstas live on 07/08/2008 at the Darkroom with many many special guests. Support indie hip-hop by purchasing “The Storybook Adventure” now at digital.beatmonstas.com. “The Storybook Adventure” will also be available at all major digital download services as of July 22nd 2008.