When you go to the professional critics' reviews for this album, you don't know if they really listened to The Pharcyde, one of the best groups of the nineties to appear on the West Coast, or the new Marky Mark LP. Q-Tip, who is behind some of the best albums of 1995, plays the group a tape of the young up and coming J Dilla's production, and the Detroit guy starts working with Pharcyde. Jay Dee is often considered to be the only producer, however, he's credited only six times behind the keyboards, while the rest is made by Bootie Brown, SlimKid3, Fat Lip, Mr. Walk, and Diamond D. The guests are Big Boy, Randy Mack, Schmooche Cat and Ian Kamau.
The album differs enough from the previous one, both in the music chosen and in the rapping style of the boys, as well as in the lyrics. Everything is still excellent. The ink tears more serious and busy themes and dries up the silly naivety and fun of three years ago by investing in more mature topics. Production is crisp, bass lines are beautiful, and the drum falls hard and clean, accompanied by wonderful jazz and soul samples from the sixties and seventies, building a boom bap sound similar to popular rhythms on the East Coast, sometimes layered, mainly jazzy, relaxed, fluid, silky. Pharcyde's rapping is energetic, slow, smooth, laid-back, the guys are in tune with the production.
Among the 17 tracks present for a total of 65 minutes of listening, the two main singles stand out, both reaching fifth in the rap chart. "Runnin'" is a pearl of J Dilla, one of his greatest beats: he invents a simple rhythm, based on a hard, dry midtempo drum and on a Stan Getz sample from which he extracts a brilliant piano loop, providing the Pharcyde with a perfect soundscape for their velvety, dreamy flow. Fatlip, Slimkid3 and Imani create an immortal anti-bullying anthem. The other single boasts one of the best music videos ever in hip-hop history. If I go back to what was done in 1995, this stuff is something else. It stands out, on its own, in the midst of everything else, and I don't think I can describe how difficult it was. If this were even remotely the group that critics described at the time of the release, this cut would drop like your ordinary braggadocio piece and would remain forgotten in the middle of the tracklist. Instead, wherever you turn on this gem, you find genius that is practically nowhere else on the circuit.
"Drop" is all in reverse. Pharcyde have the brilliant idea to shoot the music video in reverse, walking backwards through the streets of Los Angeles and rapping backwards, which is why they hire a linguist. A private one. The production is an interesting boom bap with a heavy, dry and crisp drum and an almost sci-fi melodic sample. If you look for the sample the producer used, you find it's Dorothy Ashby's "Django", a series of arpeggios on a piano that aren't actually present in the rhythm. They don't seem to be there. Because the rhythm is also in reverse. Incredible choice by Jay Dee, who in reverse is eedyaj, anagram of deejay. Something extraordinary comes out. The video is a must-watch for anyone, one of a kind.
Released by Delicious Vinyl, distributed by Capitol, the record scores better in the charts, without achieving gold certification and receiving heavy criticism from insiders. Critics welcome it as a typical sophomore jinx, despite being one of the best albums of the nineties, not realizing that it's at least as much a masterpiece as the previous one, simply created in a different way.
Rating: 9/10.
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