Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde

Pharcyde | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 5, 1995)
• Original Release Date: 1993
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B00000DQQE
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #390,908 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. 4 Better or 4 Worse (Interlude)

2. Oh Shit!

3. It's Jigaboo Time (Skit)

4. 4 Better or 4 Worse

5. I'm That Type of Nigga

6. If I Were President (Skit)

7. Soul Flower [Remix]

8. On the D.L.

9. Officer

10. Ya Mama

11. Passin' Me By

12. Otha Fish

13. Quinton's on the Way (Skit)

14. Pack the Pipe

15. Return of the B-Boy

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Like De La Soul's Three Feet High & Rising, the Pharcyde's 1992 debut came at a time when hip-hop was headed in one direction, but the group was going somewhere else entirely. A crew of spunky b-boys armed with a self-deprecating sense of humor, the Pharcyde made an album that was fresh and profoundly honest. "Ya Mama" is a clever array of mother jokes set to cartoonish beats; "On the DL" has each MC unguardedly making self-denigrating confessions (like Fat Lip admitting to masturbating--previously a hip-hop no-no); and "Passin' Me By" is an ode to hopeless crushes on unattainable women. The group's playfulness was also infused with smarts, too, most visibly on "Officer." Recorded around the time of the Rodney King verdict, the song was an indictment of racial profiling--shrouded, of course, in a comic tale that parodied Public Enemy's "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos." With animated beats from J-Swift (the West Coast version of Prince Paul) and four distinct rhyming styles, particularly Slim Kid Tre's melodiousness and Fat Lip's nerdiness, this album captures an innocence rarely seen in the music's posturing ways. It's something that this album captures forever. --Joseph Patel

Product Description

One of Pitchfork's ''Top 100 Favorite Records Of The 90's'' is now available again on deluxe red & blue double vinyl! ''Bizarre Ride II'' is the debut album from The Pharcyde. Released in late 1992 by Delicious Vinyl, the album was hailed by critics and alternative rap fans and appeared in ''best albums'' lists in several publications. Produced entirely by J-Swift with easily some of the tightest and most inventive beats of the era, ''Bizarre Ride'' features only one guest appearance, provided by little known Los Angeles rapper Buckwheat (who would become known as Bucwheed from The Wascals). Released during the dominant Gangsta Rap era of the West Coast, the music was described as ''refreshing'' due to its playful, light-hearted humor and lush, jazzy production. Along with albums like ''To Whom it May Concern'' by Freestyle Fellowship, and ''I Wish My Brother George Was Here'' by Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, ''Bizarre Ride'' helped establish a new alternative scene on the West Coast followed by artists such as Hieroglyphics, The Coup and Jurassic 5. The album featured four singles, all of which were accompanied by music videos. The group's debut single, ''Ya Mama,'' originally released in 1991, was the song that landed the group their record deal, but it failed to reach any Billboard singles chart. Their first major exposure came with the release of the album's second single, ''Passing Me By.'' The song became the group's biggest crossover hit and is now considered a classic. The album's third single, ''4 Better or 4 Worse,'' was released in mid-1993 and featured the stoner song ''Pack the Pipe and the throwback track ''Return of the B-Boy'' as its b-side. The final single, the SlimKid solo track ''Otha Fish,'' was released in late 1993. --This text refers to the Vinyl edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THANKYEW OLD MAAAAAaaannnnn!!, March 17, 2003

By 

Edward M. Erdelac (Valley Village, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bizarre Ride 2: The Pharcyde (Audio CD)

This was one of the last great hip-hop albums to come out before the coming of P-Diddy ... materialism culminated in that knuckle dragging ghetto footstomper `Back That Thang Up,'which pretty much turned me for all time from the scene. Oh man, what has HAPPENED to hip-hop? Remember `Check The Rhyme?' Remember `A Roller Skating Jam Named Saturdays?' Well, thankfully the guys in Pharcyde did, and this is their greatest product. Standouts on this one (`Passin' Me By' goes without mentioning - by all means, its a given that you MUST buy this CD simply for that track alone) include Return Of The B-Boy, which has that great Slick Rick salt shaker in the back, 4 Better Or 4 Worse, Otha Fish (a real heartbreaker), Ya Mama, and Pack The Pipe.

Lyrics are unrepetitive (though Its Jiggaboo Time is kinda), slick, and intelligent. The skits are a riot - not a waste of space like on most CD's (when somebody says `Ya mama is an extra on The Simpsons, well...hell man, that's just gold...), and those lovely, lovely, beats. These guys really made themselves the clown princes of hip-hop with this effort.

This was hip-hop's swan song. Historians will mark this album as the last great hurrah for this musical style, before guys like Puffy and Master P ushered in the age of mean-spirited, out-for-number1 money grubbing, crummy stereotypes, and lazy audio fluff.

If you like De La Soul, or A Tribe Called Quest, pick this up.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sometimes the best things in life are impossible to find!, April 24, 1999

By 

blueskye (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bizarre Ride 2 the Pharcyde (Audio CD)

This album was the soundtrack to my high school senior life in '95. It was always playing when my friends and I would be chillin' or getting up to no good. I began to have this haunting yearning to have it again (I was stupid enough to never have bought it before) and I would hear ghostly melodies and hilarious lines swirling in my mind every now and then , and it would almost make me cry -- I wanted to find it, but no one, not even who I considered to be hard-core hip hop aficionados even knew who I was talking about when I'd say: Do you have The Pharcyde? The blank look on their faces would blow my mind! It's been calling to me ever since: Passing Me By is one of the most sad, yet beautiful, songs ever. And who couldn't relate to the excitement that QUENTIN'S ON HIS WAY AND IT'S OKAY?! If you love chilled- out, sometimes hyper, but always sincerely crazy music, check this out before it disappears off the face of the Earth. I'm gonna make my grandkids listen to this, because this is an amazing specimine of feel-good music (which is so much nicer when shared with your homies.) I'm so happy I finally found it here! I was beginning to think it was out of print. Yo, five stars and then some!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You don't have this cd? Are you crazy? Buy it now punk!!, April 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bizarre Ride 2 the Pharcyde (Audio CD)

The Pharcyde's 1993 release, Bizarre Ride to the Pharcyde, is the definition of the early 90's hip hop, mixing the Native Tongue sound with a distinct west Coast attitude. this cd doesn't get old, it's as good in 1999 as it was the day it was released. Even the skits are funny. Actually, even if the rest of the cd sucked, this release would be a classic based solely on the greatest, most humble, hip hop song ever, Passin' me by. If you can't relate to what the guys are saying, you either haven't lived or you're in denial. But the whole cd is dope, from beginning to end, each song a different manifestation of the Pharcyde's individual and collective unique personalities. You've never heard a cd like this before,but I guarentee if you love hip hop or at least have an open mind to other kinds of music like hip hop, you'll agree that this cd is a classic. So buy it now, and take the bizarre ride.