more ya mama jokes than you can shake colored vinyl at!

I had a rough draft of my first post back written and the music ready to go, when I decided it was a bit too serious, at least in that point. I've left that post in a rough state and may eventually return to it, but thought I'd do something a bit easier for my first post back. And with that, I present to you...

Who else loves Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde? It's one of my favorite hip-hop albums of all time, reminding me a lot of Paul's Boutique while sounding complex and effortless at the same time. It's been reissued way too many times to count, all because of Delicious Vinyl's catalog having been bought or sold just as many times. It definitely complicates matters for a number of odd reasons, like the original US pressings being distributed by Atlantic/WEA before being shifted around repeatedly and some of the mixes being changed on reissues. The most notable of those changes is probably Passin' Me By, where a certain word was dropped from the second verse when a new mix was made for radio and video, though that mix then replaced the original version on most reissues of the album. The original mix is a little rougher sounding, which I think works better, but the later mix adds the "I've said it before" vocals during the chorus and replaces the third verse with a different take. All in all, it's pretty weird, but there are several oddball changes to the album on some of the later issues. Add to that compilations like Sold My Soul: The Remix & Rarity Collection, which appeared with questionable status on The Funky Chemist Records label, or Cydeways: The Best of The Pharcyde on Rhino, which was a wholly unnecessary compilation featuring selections from their first two albums and one track listed as unreleased that certainly wasn't.

Thankfully, it appears the Delicious Vinyl catalog is better-managed nowadays since being handled by Craft Recordings. Craft is actually a subsidiary of Bicycle Publishing who were handling some of their own reissues for a while but never seemed to have a great handle on it. Handle, right? RIGHT? Uh, yeah..., nevermind, back on topic. Anyway, Craft has reissued the album again in a variety of formats, but the quality is high and the versions are nice. The vinyl is pretty wonderful, with the mastering sounding great and the vinyl colored to recreate the look of the original US promo vinyl. As for the CD and streaming issues, they dropped yet another "deluxe" edition, featuring the original album, with all original mixes reinstated, along with a really healthy collection of b-sides, remixes, instrumentals and acapellas. As reissues go, it's a really well assembled collection and definitely worth your attention if you were on the fence as to what version of the album to listen to. But it doesn't have the following two tracks for some reason.

These are taken from a US promo vinyl release circa the original issue of the album, with Ya Mama as the focused single, so it had to be early in the promotional cycle. They've both ended up on compilations and other issues before, but have since disappeared completely from the streaming world and available physical releases.

The Pharcyde - Ya Mama (Remix)

The Pharcyde - Soul Flower (2 Tha 3 Mix)

The Ya Mama remix is courtesy of one Matt Dike, may he rest in peace. It's a pretty wonderful mix that fits his style of cramming as many catchy samples in as possible. Most of the time it's listed as the Matt Dike Remix, but on the original 12" he was only listed in the credits. The 2 Tha 3 Mix of Soul Flower is a bit more complicated though, with it being credited to J-Sw!ft on the label but, if I'm not mistaken, Fatlip has claimed a co-production credit for it. (I don't have my copy of Brian Coleman's Check The Technique readily available as of this writing, so please check there if you'd like further confirmation.) The 2 Tha 3 Mix is almost certainly impossible to properly reissue without someone writing quite a few checks, none of which would be for less than substantial amounts, as it samples so many well-known bits and breaks to best Dike's remix.

Oddly enough, the 2 Tha 3 Mix seems to be censored on almost every pressing I've ever found. It's even stranger when you examine the 12" it was initially issued on, which doesn't specify it as being a clean edit despite that being the case (check the labels, not the Discogs reference for the track), though the version of I'm That Type of N---a is totally uncensored. Stranger still, Delicious Vinyl/Atlantic issued a revised version of this promo that did specify this version as an edit. Then, just to complicate things one step further, in 2001 the Handcuts label issued a Japan-only vinyl EP with an uncensored and slightly extended version of the 2 Tha 3 Mix. I'd buy a copy of that in a heartbeat if it weren't for all the resellers on Discogs being located quite a ways away from myself, primarily in Japan.

So, please enjoy these excellent and otherwise unavailable remixes, ripped from my own vinyl for your enjoyment. If anyone wants to have mercy on me and buy me that Japanese EP, let me know, though I'm not into begging so please don't take that request very seriously. As for upcoming posts, I've got quite a few tracks lined up to share, I just have to get the writing done to accompany them. Hopefully I'll have a really cool tape to share a rip of sometime in the next few weeks. There isn't anything exclusive on that tape any longer, but it's part of a really fascinating story all the same. Thanks for stopping by and do drop in again soon!