TUE., AUGUST 28, 2007
Pharcyde and Beyond: The Story of Delicious Vinyl
by Hua Hsu
“I guess a twinkle in her eye is just a twinkle in her eye…” — there are few rap songs that express the kind of child-sized yearning and despair of the Pharcyde’s 1993 hit “Passin’ Me By.” Built on a sweltering Quincy Jones loop, “Passin’ Me By” was a hip-hop anomaly, the then-teenaged Pharcyde spinning self-deprecating tales of schoolyard rejection and unrequited crushes, using words like “rooty-toot” and “nincompoop” and generally peddling themselves as the softest guys in the room. Mike Ross, the head of their label, Delicious Vinyl, perfectly captured their sensibility: “The Pharcyde were trying to dodge the bullets, not shoot them.”
Delicious Vinyl, founded by Ross and Matt Dike, was different, from that unmistakable, almost tacky logo to their incoherent, genre-defying sound. Ross and Dike first met in the late '80s as DJs at Los Angeles’ historic KDAY, the nation’s first rap-only radio station. Bonding over a mutual love of Trouble Funk and the Ohio Players, they essentially started Delicious Vinyl in a closet, assisted at the time by their engineer friend Mario Caldato, Jr. With Ross and Dike as in-house production team, success came fairly quickly, as Tone-Loc’s Loc-ed After Dark and Young MC’s Stone Cold Rhymin’ — both released in 1989 and both produced largely by Ross and Dike — each went platinum.
The more interesting subplot of Delicious Vinyl, as well as Los Angeles hip-hop circa the early '90s, snakes somewhere underneath. At the time, Dike, the quieter of the Delicious pair, was frequently collaborating with producers E.Z. Mike and King Gizmo — also known as the Dust Brothers. The Dust Brothers, along with their unofficial third Brother Dike, had produced tracks for Mellow Man Ace and Young MC as well as Tone-Loc’s “Wild Thing,” one of Delicious Vinyl’s biggest hits. Around 1988, Dike and the Dust Brothers began working with the Beastie Boys on the then-beleaguered trio’s second album, Paul’s Boutique. Shedding the frat-rock aggression of their Rick Rubin-helmed debut, Paul’s Boutique was a remarkably sophisticated masterpiece of densely layered, sample-based hip-hop. The Beastie Boys — already hip-hop oddballs, by virtue of race alone — had gotten even weirder, thanks to Delicious’ loose satellite of producers and engineers. Dike and Caldato would eventually leave Delicious Vinyl to pursue other projects; the Dust Brothers would go on to produce Beck, among others.
Behind Ross, Delicious soldiered ahead, putting out a true diversity of sounds. Its next touchstone act was the British acid jazz band the Brand New Heavies; while the Heavies’ polished funk sound continues to offend some purists, their presence helped attract Delicious’ breakthrough act: the Pharcyde, whose members were great fans of the Heavies’ rich, organic sound and welcomed the opportunity to join them on the Delicious roster. One of their first sessions, in fact, was for the Heavies’ still-excellent Heavy Rhyme Experience, a collaboration with artists like Gang Starr, Kool G Rap, Black Sheep and others.
It felt like witnessing a child star deconstruct his grown-up self.
The Pharcyde’s 1992 debut, Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde, was a revelation, balancing sunny moments like the sappy “Soul Flower,” the slapstick “Oh Shit” and “Ya Mama” and the wistful “Passin’ Me By” with the dark “4 Better or 4 Worse” and the caustic “It’s Jigaboo Time” (check out the rarely seen, natives-gone-wild video here). Bizarre Ride stoked many imaginations — Ross called it Los Angeles’ version of De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising — but the moment for a breezy, carefree rap outfit, even one hailing from South Central Los Angeles, would be brief. Later that year Dr. Dre released The Chronic, and soon Nas, Wu-Tang Clan and the Notorious B.I.G. would recapture the flag for a grimmer, tougher New York.
By the time of the Pharcyde’s second album, 1995’s underrated Labcabincalifornia, the quartet had less time for play. They had replaced J-Swift, the gifted young producer of Bizarre Ride — last seen chronicling his drug addiction in the shocking doc 1 More Hit — with Detroit’s Jay Dee (later known as J. Dilla). The standout single “Runnin’” — built on Dilla’s genius looping of a Stan Getz record — contained sentiments that wouldn’t have been out of place on Bizarre Ride: fear, loathing, bruised manhood. “My pappy never taught me how to knock a n---a out,” a grizzled Fatlip raps, as the song’s bullies goad him into a fight. Elsewhere, songs like the seemingly laid-back “Bullshit” and the frustrated “Somethin’ That Means Somethin’” suggested the tricky, trying passage of teens into young adulthood. It was an album rich with pathos and sadness. As they observed on “Devil Music,” “Every time I step to the microphone, I put my soul on two-inch reels that I don’t even own.”
The Pharcyde weren’t the only Delicious artists to feel pressure during hip-hop’s turn toward the thuggish. Masta Ace, a veteran of New York’s legendary Juice Crew, released two albums on the label: 1993’s Slaughtahouse and 1995’s Sittin’ On Chrome, notable for singles like “Style Wars,” “Saturday Nite Live,” “Jeep Ass Niguh” and its remix, titled “Born to Roll.” While Ace’s output during the Juice Crew years couldn’t have foreshadowed his reinvention as a hardened tough, both albums are excellent, satire (the tongue-in-cheek single “Slaughtahouse”) or not.
Delicious Vinyl’s hip-hop signings were always a bit odd: alongside the Pharcyde and Masta Ace, the label also put out albums by Bucwheed and the Wascals and the Bay Area’s wrong-place/wrong-time WhoRidas (“Get Lifted” and “Shot Callin’ and Big Ballin’”). In the mid and late '90s the label expanded to include the poppier side of dancehall, issuing records by the Born Jamericans and Mr. Vegas.
Still, Delicious Vinyl’s identity will forever be linked to the Pharcyde. A series of Pharcyde-related collections have surfaced in anticipation of the label’s twentieth anniversary. The fantastic two-disc Sold My Soul — an oddly appropriate title — features remixes and rarities from their first two albums, including the Fly as Pie remix of “Passin’ Me By,” J. Dilla’s sublime remix of “She Said” and a rare Matt Dike version of “Ya Mama.” Dilla’s Jay Deelicious 95-98: The Delicious Vinyl Years collects some of the producer’s best productions for the label (including instrumentals). In 2005 Fatlip released the terrific The Loneliest Punk, a deflated and at times morose glimpse of the former Pharcyde star’s adult psyche. It felt like witnessing a child star deconstruct his grown-up self — like the protagonist of “Passin’ Me By” getting passed by, over and over, for a lifetime. Consider that the album’s lead single, “What’s Up Fatlip,” was a woozy, stirring and sly anti-anthem about Fatlip’s own wimpiness. It’s not quite the Hollywood ending they had hoped for. But there’s still time — there’s always time — to get the girl.
Delicious Vinyl, founded by Ross and Matt Dike, was different, from that unmistakable, almost tacky logo to their incoherent, genre-defying sound. Ross and Dike first met in the late '80s as DJs at Los Angeles’ historic KDAY, the nation’s first rap-only radio station. Bonding over a mutual love of Trouble Funk and the Ohio Players, they essentially started Delicious Vinyl in a closet, assisted at the time by their engineer friend Mario Caldato, Jr. With Ross and Dike as in-house production team, success came fairly quickly, as Tone-Loc’s Loc-ed After Dark and Young MC’s Stone Cold Rhymin’ — both released in 1989 and both produced largely by Ross and Dike — each went platinum.
The more interesting subplot of Delicious Vinyl, as well as Los Angeles hip-hop circa the early '90s, snakes somewhere underneath. At the time, Dike, the quieter of the Delicious pair, was frequently collaborating with producers E.Z. Mike and King Gizmo — also known as the Dust Brothers. The Dust Brothers, along with their unofficial third Brother Dike, had produced tracks for Mellow Man Ace and Young MC as well as Tone-Loc’s “Wild Thing,” one of Delicious Vinyl’s biggest hits. Around 1988, Dike and the Dust Brothers began working with the Beastie Boys on the then-beleaguered trio’s second album, Paul’s Boutique. Shedding the frat-rock aggression of their Rick Rubin-helmed debut, Paul’s Boutique was a remarkably sophisticated masterpiece of densely layered, sample-based hip-hop. The Beastie Boys — already hip-hop oddballs, by virtue of race alone — had gotten even weirder, thanks to Delicious’ loose satellite of producers and engineers. Dike and Caldato would eventually leave Delicious Vinyl to pursue other projects; the Dust Brothers would go on to produce Beck, among others.
Behind Ross, Delicious soldiered ahead, putting out a true diversity of sounds. Its next touchstone act was the British acid jazz band the Brand New Heavies; while the Heavies’ polished funk sound continues to offend some purists, their presence helped attract Delicious’ breakthrough act: the Pharcyde, whose members were great fans of the Heavies’ rich, organic sound and welcomed the opportunity to join them on the Delicious roster. One of their first sessions, in fact, was for the Heavies’ still-excellent Heavy Rhyme Experience, a collaboration with artists like Gang Starr, Kool G Rap, Black Sheep and others.
The Pharcyde’s 1992 debut, Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde, was a revelation, balancing sunny moments like the sappy “Soul Flower,” the slapstick “Oh Shit” and “Ya Mama” and the wistful “Passin’ Me By” with the dark “4 Better or 4 Worse” and the caustic “It’s Jigaboo Time” (check out the rarely seen, natives-gone-wild video here). Bizarre Ride stoked many imaginations — Ross called it Los Angeles’ version of De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising — but the moment for a breezy, carefree rap outfit, even one hailing from South Central Los Angeles, would be brief. Later that year Dr. Dre released The Chronic, and soon Nas, Wu-Tang Clan and the Notorious B.I.G. would recapture the flag for a grimmer, tougher New York.
By the time of the Pharcyde’s second album, 1995’s underrated Labcabincalifornia, the quartet had less time for play. They had replaced J-Swift, the gifted young producer of Bizarre Ride — last seen chronicling his drug addiction in the shocking doc 1 More Hit — with Detroit’s Jay Dee (later known as J. Dilla). The standout single “Runnin’” — built on Dilla’s genius looping of a Stan Getz record — contained sentiments that wouldn’t have been out of place on Bizarre Ride: fear, loathing, bruised manhood. “My pappy never taught me how to knock a n---a out,” a grizzled Fatlip raps, as the song’s bullies goad him into a fight. Elsewhere, songs like the seemingly laid-back “Bullshit” and the frustrated “Somethin’ That Means Somethin’” suggested the tricky, trying passage of teens into young adulthood. It was an album rich with pathos and sadness. As they observed on “Devil Music,” “Every time I step to the microphone, I put my soul on two-inch reels that I don’t even own.”
The Pharcyde weren’t the only Delicious artists to feel pressure during hip-hop’s turn toward the thuggish. Masta Ace, a veteran of New York’s legendary Juice Crew, released two albums on the label: 1993’s Slaughtahouse and 1995’s Sittin’ On Chrome, notable for singles like “Style Wars,” “Saturday Nite Live,” “Jeep Ass Niguh” and its remix, titled “Born to Roll.” While Ace’s output during the Juice Crew years couldn’t have foreshadowed his reinvention as a hardened tough, both albums are excellent, satire (the tongue-in-cheek single “Slaughtahouse”) or not.
Delicious Vinyl’s hip-hop signings were always a bit odd: alongside the Pharcyde and Masta Ace, the label also put out albums by Bucwheed and the Wascals and the Bay Area’s wrong-place/wrong-time WhoRidas (“Get Lifted” and “Shot Callin’ and Big Ballin’”). In the mid and late '90s the label expanded to include the poppier side of dancehall, issuing records by the Born Jamericans and Mr. Vegas.
Still, Delicious Vinyl’s identity will forever be linked to the Pharcyde. A series of Pharcyde-related collections have surfaced in anticipation of the label’s twentieth anniversary. The fantastic two-disc Sold My Soul — an oddly appropriate title — features remixes and rarities from their first two albums, including the Fly as Pie remix of “Passin’ Me By,” J. Dilla’s sublime remix of “She Said” and a rare Matt Dike version of “Ya Mama.” Dilla’s Jay Deelicious 95-98: The Delicious Vinyl Years collects some of the producer’s best productions for the label (including instrumentals). In 2005 Fatlip released the terrific The Loneliest Punk, a deflated and at times morose glimpse of the former Pharcyde star’s adult psyche. It felt like witnessing a child star deconstruct his grown-up self — like the protagonist of “Passin’ Me By” getting passed by, over and over, for a lifetime. Consider that the album’s lead single, “What’s Up Fatlip,” was a woozy, stirring and sly anti-anthem about Fatlip’s own wimpiness. It’s not quite the Hollywood ending they had hoped for. But there’s still time — there’s always time — to get the girl.
© 1992 - 2009 All Media Guide, LLC