Released: 1992
About the time Rodney King was being dragged out of his car there wasn’t much peace, love or understanding on the West Coast, no pacifist Daisy Age or Native Tongues talking about heritage, culture or shaking hands on it. Instead everything seemed to go from NWA to G-Funk, a coup which took place under the cover of weed rather than gun smoke.
The Pharcyde were outliers: Trevant “Slimkid3” Hardson and Emandu “Imani” Wilcox spent their time in local clubs before meeting Inglewood-based entrepreneur Reggie Andrews, then were joined by Romye “Bootie Brown” Robinson and Derrick “Fatlip” Stewart. Their debut album Bizarre II The Pharcyde was a chaotic mix of self deprecation, samples and smut, a glorious rap-psychedelia odyssey which underlined that the quartet never got the memo. As if to emphasise the assembled damn foolery, it’s cartoon cover art depicted..well.
It’s major hit was the lovesick Passin’ Me By, but the finest moment was unquestionably Soul Flower, with it’s horns, Jetsons sample and elastic, go-anywhere rhymes which covered everything from martial arts to STI’s. Funny and funky, whilst it was on you were too busy laughing to be busting caps, just moves.
The Voice Of Unreason 
3 Comments
Comments are closed.