On The Pharcyde Of Things...

Fat Lip
"The Loneliest Punk"
(Delicious Vinyl)

So almost seven years after Fat Lip's solo release was supposed to have originally come out and all I can write is "Meh." The beats are alright, Fat Lip sounds like, well, Fat Lip, but halfway through the album's first song, "Fat Leezy," it's apparent that listening to "The Loneliest Punk" is an uphill struggle.

Though once the most charasmatic member of The Pharcyde, Fat Lip stumbles when left to his own devices, giving us almost 20 tracks about sex and drugs. In "Labcabincalifornia," Fat Lip's zany rhymes were introspective and natural; in "Punk" he clearly wants to do the "emcee" thing and rap about generic topics. This would've made for a much more interesting record had he decided to (extensively) talk about why there was no Fat Lip for the better part of a decade.

Also without a straight man like Slim Kid Tre, or even Bootie Brown, Fat Lip seems all over the place and songs with promise such as "Freaky Pumps" (with fellow west coast castaways Volume 10 and Shock G) only look good on the tracklisting.

Hopefully this is just a bunch of filler material and Fat Lip has something better in store for the future, otherwise, we should all kiss the Pharcyde legacy goodbye.