Jeff
Pharcyde
“Otha Fish”
SlimKid3’s performance on “Otha Fish” is one of the best I’ve ever heard on a hip-hop record; virtuoso in its technique, original in its style, and overflowing with raw emotion and bitter wit. He delivers all three verses with a cadence that slips gracefully between rapping and singing, the intricate lines twisting and twirling around a fluid beat, but never winding itself too tight. The third verse is perfection, a stream of brilliant lines - “Now, if there ain’t no mountain high enough, why ain’t you climbin up?,” “I slipped and I tripped into a shoe that didn’t fit” - that tumble out with increasing urgency. There’s something particularly compelling about the way he utters the phrase “Elizabeth, this is it,” as though it marks the song’s precise breaking point. Through the whole track, he’s right on the edge of falling out of love, but with that line, the feelings are turned off like a light switch.
(Originally posted on 8/24/2011. Check out Eric Harvey’s review of the new Pharcyde box set on Pitchfork.)
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