I was high like the vocal tone of my nigga Bootie Brown
decided to take a ride to see what’s really goin’ down up on
the northside of town Of course I bought a quarter pound
of bomb hemp feelin’ a-ight like Johnny Kemp on a Friday
night Lookin’ right cuz’ my shit is tight blazin’ blunts to city
lights on Sunset and Crescent Heights bounce to House
of Blues then I slid in free wit tennis shoes, sweatshirt, jeans
and no ID. Soon as I step inside the plizace I recognize the
fizace of an epp wit an izass more amazin’ than grace dont
waste no time to kick my line I say “How ya doin’” she says
“Hey, I’m doin’ fine” so I commence to mackin to baby to see
what’s crackin So maybe I get her back at the cabin and
start attackin Threw back a shot of yak and started jabberin
jibbin, fibbin and adlibbin just to get her to my crib then
We was chilling on the bed bumpin some Isley thought I was
about to spread the thighs but she surprised me when she
said “oh like that? You know I don’t get down” I know my
homies gonna clown cause I let her stick around when…

That shit right there is for my money the best description of trying to pick up a woman in the club ever to be laid down in a rap song. The song Pharcyde - She Said came up on shuffle in the Ipod yesterday and I even brought it back(rewind one time selektah) just to vibe off Fatlip’s verse again.

Pharcyde - Labcabincalifornia is a classic album for me, it ranks huge in my formative rap listening years due to the fact that my older brother liked it hence it’s one I (meaning he) actually owned. I had no money as a kid, we didn’t have allowances and shit like that, so buying anything other than a cassingle was fucking unheard of. Hence every album I had was either owned by my siblings or dubbed on tape off one of my mates. Being I only had like 5 rap cd’s to choose from round the CD player this shit got plenty of burn whenever i wanted to listen to something hi-fi. At the time I recall Slim Kid Tre and Imani being my favourite members of Pharcyde, primarily because they’d do melodic sing songy type shit with their voices , especially Slim. He was the man. I thought they looked the coolest too cause they both had dreads, and at that time all the rappers who I thought looked cool had dreads except for Mobb Deep. I’m talking strictly from a fashion/appearance sense here, Pac was wearin waist coats and shit - that wasn’t cool.

Fatlip on the other hand was probably the member i favoured the least, he looked plain and non-descript with his shaved head (Booty Brown had a ‘Fro, that gave him the 1 up), sounded comparatively monotone, and didnt do none of the sing songy shit I liked at that age. Listening back to the album now with a few more years under my belt and it’s a no contest as to which rapper I think kills it the hardest. You hear a lot of talk these days about certain artists being an ‘everyman’ rapper. People who write shit that the regular Joe can identify with etc. Often it’s attached to the artists image more so than what said artist writes in their songs and how well it resonates with you. It has to be said if there is now a class of ‘everyman’ rappers than Fatlip is the motherfucking prototype. Just peep the verse on Jay Dee produced classic ‘Runnin’ , dude was talking bout how he couldn’t fight and going out like a punk when west coast gangster rap was at it’s apex. Knowing all this makes it even sadder to see where he’s at during the Spike Jonze documentary - What’s up Fatlip. But no less compelling. If you aint seen it, I aint gonna blow up his extra curricular activities cause you need to click on it and check for yourself. I’d prefer to keep my point firmly on some well deserved praise for the man’s skills. Shot ‘Lip.

Pharcyde - She Said

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 2:52 pm and is filed under Me against the world, Waiata (Music). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.