Pharcyde, Souls Of Mischief, Pep Love, Planet Asia, Rasco, Kutmasta Kurt & Motion Man

The Chico live music scene is everything, if unpredictable. Shows you think are going to blow up end up fizzling out, while some are sleepers in the pre-sales and end up selling out. This Pharcyde show was one of the latter. Word had it that some zealous people almost came to fisticuffs with security after being turned away at the door. That's just wild. Inside the venue however, things were nice and serene.
I walked into the fabulous new Student Union Auditorium just as some guy who called himself Motion Man was pacing the stage and busting some funny rhymes. I would've quoted them here, but my pen busted in my pocket and leaked ink all over my shorts. With no notes to draw from, all I remember is that the MC was spitting some wild and weird shit, not your everyday rhyme-smithing. Good cadences and slick delivery, I was feeling him for real.
A bit later Rasco, Planet Asia and the Mexican wrestling mask-wearing Kutmasta Kurt (the Cali Agents) took the platform and weaved some freestyle. Rasco preached about the necessity of the indie rap label and vainly directed everybody to support the cause by buying some merch from the booth in the back. At this point it became evident that the sound system was a bit tweaked because all the samples and scratching being laid down by Kutmasta were drowned out by the bass and forefront MCs. People slowly began to shake their respective booties and nod their heads to the beat but the overall mood of the crowd was subdued. This was a running theme for the evening.
Then came Pep Love who rocked a set filled with a lot of topics that were going right over my head. It was at this point that I started to think about how poetry and jazz became hip-hop music. The evolution is very evident. It's all about oration and meter. When you get right down to it, there's always been a form of hip-hop music throughout history. In Elizabethan times, Shakespeare was hip-hop. Sure he was a strange white dude, but his shit was raw then.
Souls of Mischief hit up the stage after their Hieroglyphic brother Pep Love and got their groove on. People really started to move then. Well, the females in the audience danced and the guys just kind of swayed and waved their hands up and down, you know, that "giving props" move. Their performance was strong and in no time Pharcyde was up and at 'em center stage.
These guys tried over and over again to get the crowd hyped up but people weren't having it. Shouts of "Give it up, Chicoooo!" were returned with meager applause. Even the fail-safe "Who here likes to smoke Weeeeeed?" got only ample cheering. What was up with this sold out crowd? I couldn't figure it out.
Pharcyde brought a band with them consisting of a guitar player, a turntablist and a keyboardist. The mix was such that the back-up players got washed out so the performers became two dudes who seemed to be yelling at you. I felt very white and confused. I'm more of a punk rocker, but the Pharcyde still gave a strong performance. They would start some of their old cuts and then back them off before certain rhymes, for a simple reason I heard about later. It seems that the former members of the band still own the copyrights to those lyrics so the rest of the guys can't sing them. They did play "Passing Me By" and that was enough for most show-goers to consider this AS Presents gig a blazing success.
- Words and photos by M. Cameron Newell

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