Gig reveiw: The Pharcyde - ABC2, Glasgow

Hip-hop is no more immune from nostalgia than any other genre of music, especially when there is a wage to be made out on the road, so LA veterans The Pharcyde have chosen to give over their setlist to a comprehensive skits-and-all rendition of their influential 1992 debut album Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde, the high water mark of their career, which has subsequently been cited as an all-time favourite by man of the moment Kanye West.

The Pharcyde - ABC2, Glasgow

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Although hip-hop has changed greatly since the heyday of the so-called Daisy Age rappers, their blend of playful humour, call-and-response vocal interaction and supercool sampled repertoire 
of soul, funk and jazz still sounded fresh, even a tonic 
in comparison with the formulaic brand the genre has become.

The energy was there from the off, as a trio of rappers traded their embarrassing anecdotes on Oh Shit, their contrasting vocal tones lending dynamism to the performance.

The fluency of their interwoven rhymes, catchiness of their hooklines and incorrigible impishness were reminiscent of The Beastie Boys, especially on crowd favourite Ya Mama, a playground diss match hurling ever more comical insults at each other’s beloved moms. But there was also a chilled smoothness to the likes of If I Were President and On The DL, a nod to the mean streets on Officer, the delicious jazzy backing track of Passin’ Me By and an audience participation breakdancing display to mark them out as more than overgrown b-boys.