The Pharcyde - Stylus, University of Leeds - 09/02/13

The twentieth anniversary of Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde had recently passed, and The Pharcyde were going on an intercontinental tour in honour of the hip-hop classic. In attendance were Slimkid3 and Fatlip, ex-members of the group, as well as producers Jay Swift and L.A. Jay - interestingly, the current members of The Pharcyde, Imani and Bootie Brown, were not going on this tour. There may be a lot to say about this situation but I won't speculate.

There is an apprehensiveness of sorts pre-gig because of this, and as we entered Stylus an hour after doors opened, a distinct lack of numbers was noticeable. Not to say it was empty - there were a fair few in attendance - however the main floor remained deserted and everyone hung around the bars and balconies. Perhaps the scope of the project had been overestimated? time began to drag and we started to wonder if there was even a support act.

After 9pm, the support - Kosher - finally took to the stage to the great relief of the audience and even more so of the DJ who was struggling to keep the audience even vaguely interested. Kosher consisted of two vocalists and one DJ, and they played a half-hour of UK hip-hop from their mixtape and EP. I use the term 'they' loosely as the large majority of the performance came from one vocalists who had to rap a little bit too much as his hype man didn't seem to know what being a hype man was all about. Said hype man did offer a verse or two on his own for one song, surprising us with a nice flow.

EDIT: On feedback-induced reflection I have to add that Kosher is in fact just the one main man - and he did impress. By the end of his set he had the crowd on his side which was good to see - for hip-hop acts in particular, supporting shows can be especially difficult so it was refreshing to see such an energetic, raw yet technically-gifted performance.

Soon after the openers finished, The Pharcyde rushed to get set up on the stage and we hoped it would be worth the wait, as it was now past 10pm. On turning around, we discovered the venue was all of a sudden filled to the brim.

The Pharcyde proceeded to tear through their setlist - which happened to be Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde in its entirety, skits and all. This mix kept things fresh despite the relentless nature of the performance, the crowd enjoying favourites such as "Oh Shit", "Ya Mama" and of course "Passing Me By" interspersed with the skits such as "Its Jiggaboo Time", "If I Were President" and "Quinton's On The Way". The visual accompaniment was memorable - at times the projector played the video of the performance, at times shocking Stylus with images such as a girl who had involuntarily defecated in her clothes at the end of "Oh Shit".

The group truly excelled in the areas of stage presence and crowd interaction. Due to their numbers, they could easily cater to all sides of the stage and areas of the venue, and rapping along with each other was no trouble - not that they needed it, as performers such as Slimkid3 could rap vocals with true breath mastery while leaping all over the show. Members would always joke around on stage too, making it fun - things such  as laying a towel down on stage and having a lie down, or having a brief dance-battle during "Return Of The B-Boy".

Fans at the front were treated to physical interaction as The Pharcyde were happy to shake hands while on stage, or even trampling piles of coats resting on speakers - not the most generous of deeds of course, but I caught the feeling that The Pharcyde really do not like clutter on their platform. Despite this, once things were underway full-swing, they were happy to help some girls up on stage with them. Of course any males that attempted this were sent back crowdsurfing - sometimes with a performer. Thankfully, it was more fun than cringe-worthy.

Instead of having the exit-stage-crowd-applause-return-encore protocol, we were shown footage of a Katt Williams skit concerning marijuana, after which The Pharcyde performed a couple of tracks from Labcabincalifornia, recognising the late J Dilla - his birthday had also just passed. Ending with the legendary "Runnin'" and hanging around to sign and sell merchandise. It was nearly midnight by the end, and I'm thankful they performed in the Leeds Uni Union venue as other places might've prevented them from completing their set due to the late nature. All in all, The Pharcyde knew how to give back to the fans, which is surely a priority of an anniversary tour, and were well and truly worth the wait.

Photo by me