The hip-hop act The Pharcyde, in their performance at Webster Hall last night, faced the daunting task of communicating their message of hip-hop to a crowd that did not seem very familiar with their style.
But that only made them more determined to win over the J. Crew and Abercrombie & Fitch-clad Dartmouth audience with their jazz-based hip-hop and amusing lyrics.
The New Jersey-based rap group The Fugees were originally scheduled to come to Dartmouth, but canceled their performance last week, citing "exhaustion" as their reason. The Programming Board brought in The Pharcyde to replace them.
After singing for about 35 to 45 minutes, the opening act 5 O'Clock Rock, an a cappella group, left the stage. The West Coast-based The Pharcyde, comprised of band members Imani, Bootie Brown, Fat Lip and SlimKid Tre, came out and opened their show.
They performed two tracks off their new album, "LabCabinCalifornia." Then they performed "4 Better or 4 Worse" and "Soul Flower," two songs off of their first major label release, "Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde."
After they played their hit single "Drop" from their new album, the Pharcyde continued their show by playing songs such as "Yo Mama," "Pack the Pipe" and "I'm That Type of Nigga" off both albums.
An interesting part of the show was their intro to "Pack the Pipe," when they told the crowd to hold their lighters in the air in support of marijuana. About a third of the crowd responded by doing so with enthusiasm.
In the midst of the show, one of the rappers began asking quizzically what the name of this school was. He commented on the fact that the crowd was part of an educational environment -- but most of the night focused on good music, not academics.
Other highlights from the show included a part when the band members brought several female students on stage to dance to "Pass Me By."
At the conclusion of the show, a couple members of the group did some freestyle rapping, and then let people from the crowd come up to dance and show off their own freestyling skills to the beats of the D.J.
The D.J. seemed like a madman during the entire performance, constantly scratching and mixing songs -- he made especially smooth transitions between tunes.
The four rappers worked very hard throughout the show to psych up the crowd by talking to them and making them yell epithets containing enough profane language to make one's mother blush.
Unfortunately, only some people responded and the rest of the crowd remained stolid. But songs such as "Pass Me By" and "Yo Mama" did bring some life into Webster.
The Pharcyde only played for a little over an hour. Despite the lack of vigor in the crowd, they did not show much disappointment and performed their songs well, doing a good mix of their hit songs and lesser known ones.
